Belarus. A picket in defense of a synagogue formerly located in the Dimitrov street 3 has been organized in Minsk. A famous building was destroyed last year despite numerous protests of both Jewish and Belorussian public organizations. The building had been numbered among the objects of historic cultural heritage, but the Ministry of Culture and Minsk city executive committee sanctioned its demolition.

The court of Central district of Minsk has refused to consider the complaint lodged by the president of World association of Belorussian Jews Yakov Gutman about the actions of MinCult and Minsk city executive committee. Gutman intends to appeal to the Minsk city court.

Russia. A deputy of the Kaliningrad regional Duma, renowned political figure in Kaliningrad Solomon Ginzburg has been awarded the knight order of Gediminas, one of the highest rewards of the Lithuanian Republic.

Lithuania has distinguished the deputy with this order for a big contribution into developing good neighborly relations between Kaliningrad region and Lithuanian Republic, strengthening friendship among peoples and promoting development of a civil society in Kaliningrad region. President of Lithuanian Republic Valdas Adamkus awarded the orders. This high reward went, beside Ginzburg, to another RF citizen - People's artists of Russia, art director of the Moscow symphony orchestra Pavel Kogan.

Russia. July 5-7 the "Selen" sanatorium near Yekaterinburg hosted the first joint regional seminar "Jewish self-identification. People of Israel, who are we?" Its organizers were the Yekaterinburg branch of Jewish agency in Russia and Regional council of Jewish organizations and communities of the Ural region (a regional representation of Vaad of Russia).

The seminar gathered about 70 people from Yekaterinburg, Kamensk-Uralsky, Novouralsk, Polevsky, Chelyabinsk, Tumen, Perm, Orenburg and Orsk.

Haim Salomon (JAR) and Mikhail Oshtrakh (Vaad of Russia) chaired the seminar.

Russia. After widening of the track of October railway (ORW) its rails got close to the Jewish cemeteries located on both sides of the track. According to Rabbi of the North-Western branch of Congress of Jewish religious organizations and associations of Russia Haim Burshtein, builders had not only destroyed nearly 40 graves, but also had taken most of the fragments and human remains to a dump as debris. "Our duty now is to locate this dump, collect all remains and rebury them in compliance with the tradition", - considers Burshtein.

Governor of Petersburg Vladimir Yakovlev has been informed about the incident. Procurator's office of the Petersburg Nevsky district has started investigating the case.