By Andrew L. Jaffee

…[Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon] Peres compared Estonia and Israel.

“We are small countries that must be great,” he said. “We have to be as great as our dangers. We have to be as developed as our opportunities.”…

- JTA

Peres makes a valid comparison: The tiny nation of Estonia has been bullied by much larger neighbors (e.g., Germany and Russia). Israel is surrounded by hostile neighbors bent on her destruction. If “Estonia is a Nazi state,” as the Stalinist die-hards maintain, then why have its top leaders, plus Israeli and other Jewish dignitaries, attended the opening of a new synagogue in Tallinn? From JTA:

…Estonian Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kot, beaming from the newly inaugurated bimah, declared triumphantly, “The last 70 years were a dream. This is morning. Good morning, Estonia.”

Among the dignitaries on hand were Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who hung the mezuzah.

Also in attendance were representatives from many major worldwide Jewish organizations, including the executive committee of the Washington-based Jewish National Conference on Soviet Jewry. Committee members had high-level discussions with the Russian and Ukrainian governments.

“For us, being here illustrates the progress that’s being made and helps to reinforce our mission,” NCSJ Executive Director Mark Levin told JTA. “Usually we’re representatives in advocacy, but today we’re representatives in celebration.”…

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Related: Israel, Judaism, Baltic States

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