Chabad Opens $20M JCC Building

Russia’s richest and most powerful people now have a synagogue of their own.

A $20 million Jewish community center and synagogue was recently inaugurated in Zhukovka, one of Moscow’s western outskirts, with much fanfare and 400 guests.

The Zhukovka JCC is a doughnut-shaped structure with a granite facade, 54,000 square feet of floor space, a small cinema and 24 luxury guest rooms that are intended to be used free of charge by Shabbos overnighters, JTA reported.

At the heart of the building is a synagogue with a capacity of 400 worshippers and modular tables made of Swedish wood, the news agency said. The basement has still-unfinished, warm-water mikvah ritual baths.

Designed by the international design firm Gensler, the building features a gourmet kosher restaurant overseen by two Italian chefs, including the renowned restaurateur Uilliam Lamberti.

Leading it will be Rabbi Alexander Boroda, President of Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. Joining him at the celebration was Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau and Israeli Ambassador to Russia Zvi Heifetz.

“My friends asked for a synagogue near their home, and I wanted to open a Chabad house somewhere, so that’s why it happened there,” said Boroda, a former Red Army soldier who began exploring his Jewish identity after his discharge from the military in the 1980s.

It is more than symbolic that one of Russia’s most luxurious Jewish centers is built in the resort destination of Russian Communist government leaders who persecuted Russian Jewry.