A Ukrainian Christian who saved a dilapidated rural synagogue was honored at an interfaith forum in Kiev.
Boris Slobodnyuk of Satanov received the forum’s 2013 Crystal Noah Tolerance Award on Tuesday at the Kiev Interfaith Forum for guarding the 500-year-old Stanovskaya synagogue in western Ukraine and initiating renovation work there.
For the past three years, the forum has brought together dozens of spiritual leaders from five faiths and 30 countries.
Oleksandr Feldman, a Ukrainian Jewish lawmaker who founded the forum in 2010, said Slobodnyuk, who is in his 50s, prevented area residents from taking apart the structure and last year secured funding from Jewish organizations to restore the ancient synagogue. He acted out of an inner sense of responsibility and for no pay, according to the committee that gave Slobodnyuk the prize.
