The General Assembly of the International Congress of Russian-Speaking Jews (ICRJ) was held in the largest hall in Jerusalem, the House of Congress. This event was attended by more than 3000 delegates from 31 countries inhabited by Russian-speaking Jews. The recent countries to send representatives from their Jewish organisations are United Kingdom, Italy, Bulgaria and France. The ICRJ represents the three-million large Russian-speaking Jewish community, almost a quarter of the worldwide Jewish population.

The president of the ICRJ, Boris Shpigel from the Council of the Russian Federation, was elected in November last year. Since then the organisation has reached new levels of activity and development. The new president has united divergent Russian-speaking Jewish organisation of different countries. Today, the Russian-speaking Jews are gaining an ever-increasing authority in the Jewish world, which can be largely attributed to the growth of influence of Russia on the international scene.

The last General Assembly has made a determination to create a conceptually new international Jewish organisation, the aim of which is to unite the international Jewish society. The General Assembly was opened by the President of ICRJ, Boris Shpigel. The Leader of the Opposition Knesseta Benjamin Netaniagu, Avigdor Liberman, the Minister for Absorption Yakov Erdi, the Member of Jewish agency "Sokhnut" Zeev Belski, and other members of Knesset welcomed the delegates and the guests of the General Assembly. The Member of the Council of Russian Federation Sergey Mironov made a video address to the delegates. He noted, "I am sure that this Congress will have a big future. I do not doubt that your Congress will allow formulation of new ways to unite all people worldwide. And most importantly, we will always unite together against terrorism, xenophobia, Nazism and anti-Semitism."

The naturalisation of Russian-speaking Jews did not go unnoticed by the Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg. He said, "On this very important occasion I would like to wish you luck and thank you for everything you do for New York, Israel and for more than three million Russian-speaking Jews worldwide." The Member of German bundestag Norbert Lamert, the Senator for the State of New York, the USA Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, US Members of Parliament Jerald Nadler and Jan Chakovsky, and other Senators and Members of Parliament from USA all passed on their greetings to the Congress. The President of International Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder and leaders of other international and national Jewish organisations also saluted the Congress.

The Congress was attended by Alexander Baron, the President of the Association of National Jewish Organisations in Kazakhstan, who was elected to the Council of the Continental divisions.

The President of ICRJ Boris Shpigel in his address stated, that the Russian-speaking Jewish communities "will continue to maintain and develop special relationship with Russia - the centre of our language, and the cradle of the particular mindset of our culture." Shpigel also formulated the main strategic goals of the Congress: to unite the USSR expatriates in their support of Israel, to defend the legal rights, the social, political and cultural interests of Russian-speaking Jews worldwide, to streamline integration of Jewish expatriates of USSR into Jewish communities at the places of their residence, and to ensure cooperation in preserving and development of the specific cultural identity of the Russian-speaking Jewish population. Other plans of the Congress include the creation of Russian Community Library in Jerusalem and foundation of community centres in every country populated by the Russian-speaking Jews. The programme presented by the President was warmly received by the delegates, and Boris Shpigel was almost unequivocally elected as the head of the Congress.

On the second day of the Congress many of the resolutions made were on topical questions. One of them dealt with combating international terrorism and appealed to all countries to sever all links with Hamaz until this organisation seizes its terrorist activities and recognises the sovereignty of Israel. Another resolution dealt with the status of the Russian language worldwide and voiced a protest against the "increasing tendency to cancel Russian language cultural programmes within a number of ex-USSR republics." It was obvious that this resolution was particularly aimed at Ukraine and the Baltic republics.

Based on mass media materials.