About 100 delegates, including President of the Federation of the CIS Jewish Communities Lev Levayev, Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar and Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Isreal Shlomo Amar, will attend the Congress.
The council is designed to preserve the religious, ethnic and cultural identity of the Sephardim and promote their integration into public and socio-economic life of their resident countries and relations with Ashkenazi (European) Jews.
The council will also represent the Sephardim interests in state, public and religious organizations in Russia and other CIS countries and tackle the problems of language, education and youth.
The Sephardim (500,000 people) are representatives of oriental Jewish sub-ethnic groups and have an ancient original culture. They have lived on the former Soviet space for over 2,000 years.
