PURIM CELEBRATED IN MOSCOW








MOSCOW, March 9. /From RIA Novosti correspondent Aleksander Smotrov/. Moscow's Jewish community centre, located in the district of Maryina Roshcha, is celebrating the religious Festival of Purim today.


	Berl Lazar, Russia's chief rabbi, delivered a congratulatory speech. He wished all those taking part in the gala event joy on that day. For many hundreds of years, the Jews have encountered manifestations of anti-Semitism on the part of other ethnicities both in every day life and at a governmental level, said the rabbi. Jews are sometimes even hated by their fellow tribesmen, added Lazar.


	The Jews must constantly perfect themselves which is the only way to do away with the above phenomena, according to Berl Lazar. "We must be proud of our Jewry to win respect of people around us".


	He said he had lived in Russia for 11 years but never experienced a negative attitude to himself since he had always taken pride in his ethnicity and religion.


	Read in the Moscow Jewish community centre on the occasion of the Festival was the holy Scroll of Esther. Then, according to the Festival programme, singing was the Moscow Jewish male choir, "Hasid Choir". The programme also envisages a concert and a Moscow circus performance.


	The Festival of Purim celebrates the deliverance of the Jews from a massacre planned by the Persian minister Haman in the 5th century BC.


	On the 14th day of Adar, the twelfth month of the Jewish calendar, Jews are not only allowed but recommended to drink alcohol. Even a rabbi can get drunk on that day, according to Berl Lazar.


	Today, all Jews are presenting their near with sweets and giving money to the poor.