JTA - 10.19.2004

Biography of V. Slutsker (unofficial translation)


Shake-up at Russian Jewish group?

(JTA) -- The Russian Jewish Congress is likely to have a new president in an apparent attempt to restructure one of Russian Jewry’s leading organizations. 

During a closed-door meeting Tuesday, the group’s leading donors approved Vladimir Slutsker to replace the current president, Yevgeny Satanovsky, JTA has learned. A banker and member of Russian Parliament’s upper house, Slutsker is little known to the public. A newcomer to Jewish public life, he joined the RJC leadership only this month by making a financial contribution of $250,000. Slutsker is believed to be close to Vladimir Ressin, the Jewish deputy mayor of Moscow, who has sought to overcome the existing split between the RJC and its major rival, the Federation of Jewish Communities, the Chabad-run organization that is the largest Jewish group in Russia. 

RJC leaders still will have to vote on the choice of Slutsker as president. In an interview with JTA, Satanovsky downplayed the importance of the development and denied that any change in leadership has taken place.