A billionaire with Israeli and Ukrainian citizenship was elected the new president of the European Council of Jewish Communities.
With the announcement of the election of Igor Kolomoisky at the council’s annual conference currently meeting in Berlin, the ECJC becomes the second major European Jewish organization to be headed by a Jewish man from the former Soviet Union.
Moshe Kantor, a billionaire philanthropist with Russian and Israeli citizenship, heads the European Jewish Congress, which traditionally has dealt with political issues related to Israel and European relations. Now the ECJC is claiming a part in the European Jewish identity as player on the world stage together with Israel and the United States.
The ECJC represents Jewish communities and organizations in some 40 countries, going beyond the official European Union boundaries to include the countries of the former Soviet Union and Turkey.
Kolomoisky, whose fortune reportedly is in oil and gas companies, is a major donor to the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. He was named as the second wealthiest Ukrainian in 2009 by Ocnus.net, a U.S.-based news blog. — jta