Ukraine to build synagogue on site of Babi Yar massacre
The synagogue is expected to open next year to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the killings
Ukraine will build a synagogue at the memorial site commemorating the victims of Babi Yar, one of the biggest single massacres of Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, the head of the memorial site Max Yakover said on Friday.
"This should be a significant thing with a very deep meaning," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The synagogue is expected to open next year to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the killings, and would be Kyiv's first new synagogue built since Ukraine's independence in 1991.
The Babi Yar massacre marked the start of Ukraine's Holocaust in which a pre-war Jewish population of about 1.5 million was virtually wiped out to fulfill Adolf Hitler's goal of a Europe with no Jews.
Mass shootings, mainly by automatic gunfire, on the edge of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv killed nearly 34,000 Jewish men, women and children on Sept. 29-30, 1941.
A memorial project for the victims is being financed in part by Russian tycoon Mikhail Fridman, Ukrainian tycoon Victor Pinchuk and former world heavyweight boxing champion Vladimir Klitschko.