17 October 2000
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Jewish Religious Leader Visits Kazan
Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiev met on 16 October with the chief Rabbi of the Russian Federation, Berl Lazar, followed by a delegation of Jewish communities from Russia and Tatarstan , RFE\RL Kazan bureau reported the same day.
During the meeting, the Jewish delegation expressed its gratefulness to Tatarstan's government for pursuing a peaceful and consolidating policy in interethnic relations. Lazar said during the meeting that "other republics and regions have to learn from Tatarstan how to solve interethnic and interconfessional problems. Whomever we met during our visit to the republic, there is a unanimous opinion saying that there is no grounding for anti-Semitism here," he added.
Lazar told the press conference after the meeting that "even Israel could use the example of president Shaimiev, who is a president of Tatars, Russians, and Jews�I hope that the example of different peoples living together peacefully could serve for Russia and the whole world."
Tatar Delegation Returns From Kuwait
The director of Tatarstan's presidential Foreign Affairs Department, Timur Akulov, Kazan Mayor Kamil Iskhakov, and Muslim Religious Board chairman Gusman khazrat Iskhaqi returned from their business trip from Kuwait on 17 October, Tatarstan's media reported the same day.
Reportedly the republics officials devoted their trip to promoting the production of Tatarstan's KamAZ auto works and the services of the republic's oil companies in exploring Kuwaiti oil.
The Tatar Muslim leader met the Kuwaiti minister on religious affairs, Adel Falyakh, to discuss the issue of gaining Kuwaiti donations to build new mosques in Tatarstan.
Tatar Companies Donate Money To 'Kursk' Families
Several of Tatarstan's oil extracting companies raised 1 million rubles on 16 October for the families of the crew of the sunken "Kursk" submarine, the Tatar-inform agency reported. According to crewlists published after the tragedy in September, there were four ethnic Tatars aboard, all of them recruited from Bashkortostan.
By Iskender Nurmi