A photo shows one of the shallow water reservoirs in Simferopol
Russia's ongoing efforts to stretch Crimea's dwindling water supplies will only slightly delay the need to permanently fix the region's insufficient water resources by either funding expensive infrastructure overhauls
or convincing Ukraine to reopen the North Crimean Canal
The availability of fresh water in Crimea has progressively degraded following Russia's annexation in 2014
But with drought conditions worsening through the summer and beyond
the peninsula's dire water scarcity issues are now increasingly threatening industrial and agricultural consumption...
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Workers found a 9-foot-tall frame of a Star-of-David stained glass window while renovating a hospital in Crimea
(JTA) — The renovation of a hospital in an area that Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014 yielded the discovery of parts of a 19th-century synagogue that was thought to have been completely destroyed
The synagogue in Bilohirsk, a city in central Crimea, was built in the middle of the 19th century by and for Krymchaks, a Jewish minority who related to to Karaites, another dwindling Jewish group, and are believed to be descended from Georgian Jews
the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress estimated there were only 300 Krymchaks in Ukraine
when Crimea was still controlled by that country
Russia invaded and annexed the territory in 2014
Communist officials shut down the synagogue and turned it into a warehouse
a hospital built at the location was heavily bombed during World War II
All traces of the building’s previous function were thought to have been destroyed
So construction workers were astonished to discover a circular metal frame with a Star of David locked inside it during renovations at the hospital last month
the frame was trapped in a slab of concrete and once was one of the synagogue’s several stained glass windows
it reflected the relative wealth of the Krymchak community during what many historians consider its heyday
The window’s arch also survived, leading to a reassessment of the construction plan so that engineers can preserve what remains of the former synagogue
But the Nazis nearly destroyed it and the Karaites
The rich history of Crimean Jewry has not been thoroughly documented
a historian who specializes in Karaite history
told Crimea24 that aired last month about the find
“Little is known about who built our synagogues
there were about 12 synagogues in Simferopol
but we have no data on the architects of any of them,” he said about the capital city of Crimea
“And there are practically no photographs,”
Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky unveiled a bill that he said was designed to preserve the heritage of the Krymchaks
But by designating those groups “indigenous peoples,” Zelensky
which zealously guards the interests of Ukraine’s ethnic Russian minority
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century
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