Euroasian Jewish News

EAJC Moscow Office Executive Director Natalia Schmidt

EAJC Moscow Office Director: “Please provide an explanation of certain unclear moments in registration documents”

Several days ago, the Executive Director of the Moscow office of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Natalia Schmidt has sent a letter to the legal advisor of the Israel non-profit organization (amuta) “Euro-Asian Jewish Congress” requesting an explanation for why the elected governing bodies of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress do not coincide with those that have been registered at the Israeli Ministry of Justice. She has since proposed to make her letter public, and we have agreed to do so.

To the Legal Advisor of the NPO “Euro-Asian Jewish Congress”

On the subject of a difference in the composition of elected EAJC governing bodies and of the bodies that have been registered at the Ministry of Justice of Israel

Dear Legal Advisor of the NPO “Euro-Asian Jewish Congress”,

As you are, according to your own words, the legal advisor of the non-profit “Euro-Asian Jewish Congress” in Israel, and as your office has, again, according to your own words, has been confirmed by the President and Director of this organization, I would like to make a request that you elucidate certain difficult moments in this organization’s registration documents.

According to the protocols of the General Assembly (as I understand, this means the congress) and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Board meeting that took place in Ramat Gan (Israel) on July 24, 2017, that have been submitted to the Israel Ministry of Justice (both documents have been appended to this letter, both in their original Hebrew and in a Russian translation), we see the following:

The EAJC Governing Board includes the following persons:

Mikhail Mirilashvili

Aaron Frenkel

Timur Ben-Yehuda

Rami Levi

Josef Zissels (representative of the organization which represents the Jewish communities of Ukraine)

Evgenia Lvova

Inessa Chugainova (representative of the organization which represents the Jewish communities of Kazakhstan)

Maksim Pasik

Mr. Mirilashvili has been elected to the position of Chairman of the Governing Board

Mr. Ben Yehuda was elected to the position of First Deputy Chairman of the Governing Board

Mr. Levi was elected to the position of Deputy Chairman of the Governing Board

However, according to Appendix 2 to the Protocol (also appended to this letter) of the actual EAJC General Assembly that took place at the aforementioned time and place, and in which you also personally took part, the following individiuals were elected to the Governing Board:

1. Frenkel Aaron - Governing Board Chairman

2. Ben-Yehuda Timur - First Deputy

3. Emmanuil Grinshpun

4. Zakharyaev German

5. Shabad Mark

7. Elashvili Merab

8. Jacobashvili David

9. Belinkis Aleksandr

10. Shenkman Aleksandr

11. Levin Aleksandr

12. Levi Rami

13. Michaeli Itzik

14. Pasik Maksim

16. Mirilashvili Mikhail - EAJC President

17. Bushuyev Menachem - EAJC Treasurer (in a consultative capacity)

18. Haim Ben Yaakov - Acting EAJC Director General (in a consultative capacity)

19. Michael Chlenov - Chairman of the Strategic Council (in a consultative capacity)

20. Josef Zisels - EAJC Program Commission Chairman

21. Evgenia Lvova - Russia

22. Natalia Schmidt - Russia (in a consultative capacity)

23. Victor Shapiro - Russia

24. Valeriy Gurevich - Russia

25. Mark Goldin - Russia

26. Irina Chernyak - Russia

27. Mikhail Oshtrah - Russia

28. Semen Belman - Ukraine

29. Michael Gold - Ukraine

30. Alexander Dukhovny - Ukraine

31. Leonid Finberg - Ukraine

32. Evgeniy Ziskind - Ukraine

33. Alexander Baron - Kazkahstan (in a consultative capacity)

34. Inessa Chugainova - Kazakhstan

36. Vladimir Chernitsky - Belarus

36-1 Vadim Akopyan - Belarus

36-2 Victoria Brumina - Belarus

37. Marina Shuster - Moldova

37-1 Evgeniy Kleinerman - Moldova

38. Elena Berkovich - Georgia

38-1 Guram Tetrashvili - Georgia

39. Rimma Vardjapetyan - Armenia

40. Aleksand Sharovsky - Azerbaijan

40-1 Matvei Elizarov - Azerbaijan

41. Vladimir Kritzman - Kyrgyzstan

42. ………………………………………. Uzbekistan

43. ………………………………………. Tajikistan

45. Sandra Papo Fisher - Serbia

47. Jelena Đurović - Montenegro

48. Albania

49. Boris Cherin - Slovenia

50. Juda Samuel - India

51. Sumati Levsandendev - Mongolia

52. Sami Samuel - Myanmar

53. Philipp Rosenfeld - Japan

54. ……………………………………….. Philippines

55. Stephen Goodman - New Zealand

56. David Mordukhaev - World Congress of Mountain Jews

57. David Baazov - World Congress of Georgian Jews.

58. Irina Scherban - Union of Jewish Community Homes

59. Vadim Polyansky - Maccabi CIS

60. Victoria Mochalova - Sefer

61. Svetlana Yakimenko - Kesher

62. Aleksandr Kargin - Shahar

63. Oleg Mortkovich - MSEBUF

Even if we assume that there has been a mistake in the General Assembly Protocol and the Governing Board has been mixed up with the Executive Committee, the names still do not match. According to the Extraordinary General Assembly Protocol, the following persons were elected to the Executive Committee:

Mikhail Mirilashvili - EAJC President

Aaron Frenkel - EAJC Governing Board Chairman

………………………….. – EAJC Trustee Board Chairman

Timur Ben-Yehuda - First EAJC Vice President

German Zakharyaev - First EAJC Vice President

David Jacobashvili - First EAJC Vice President

Rami Levi - First EAJC Vice President

………………………………. - Deputy EAJC Governing Board Chairman

Josef Zisels - EAJC Program Commission Chairman

Evgenia Lvova - EAJC Governing Board member (Russian Federation)

Inessa Chugainova - EAJC Governing Board member (Republic of Kazakhstan)

Maksim Pasik

Aleksandr Bilinkis

In a consultative capacity:

Menachem Bushuyev - EAJC Treasurer

Haim Ben Yaakov - Acting EAJC Director General

Michael Chlenov - Chairman of the Strategic Council

Alexander Baron - Member of the Strategic Council

Thus, as we can see from the list above, certain well-respected community members seem to have “disappeared” from the list of elected officials, including our long-term Vice Presidents, such as German Zakharyayev, David Jacobashvili, and Aleksandr Bilinkis; and, of course, representatives of founding organizations, Michael Chlenov and Alexander Baron.

Next, there are also inconsistencies in the roster and leadership of the Revision Commission.

The Protocol registered at Israel’s Ministry of Justice lists the following roster:

Ms. Anna Smolina

Ms. Victoria Godik

Ms. Victoria Litvinova has been elected to the post of Chairman of the Revision Commission

In the Extraordinary General Assembly Protocol:

Evgenia Mikhaleva

Anna Smolina

Victoria Godik

Aleksandr Lyskovoy

Ekaterina Ivanova

The list of EAJC member organizations also lacks the Jewish communities of such countries as Serbia and Albania, as well as the community of Mountain Jews of Azerbaijan.

In light of all of the above, I strongly urge you to provide an explanation of these discrepancies, as well as to elucidate the relationship between the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, an international organization registered in 2002, and the organization under the same name that was registered in Israel in 2015 by yourself and Mr. Ben Yaakov, and which was re-registered in 2017 after the Assembly.

Respectfully and with gratitude,

Natalia Schmidt

Executive Director

EAJC Moscow Office

The legal advisor of the “EAJC” Israeli Amuta replied to Natalia Schmidt, saying that he is unable to provide an official answer, as, according to his contract, he is only allowed to disclose the relevant information and provide legal consultations when given a direct request by his employer, the EAJC Director. He encouraged he Executive Director of the EAJC Moscow Office to send an official request to the governing bodies of the EAJC.