Siberia - Jewish Organizations Pledge Support For The A310 Plane Crash Survivors

Siberia - Jewish Communities of Irkutsk are ready to provide its moral and financial support to the people injured in the A310 airliner crash in Siberia early on Sunday morning.

Irkutsk's Jewish community is working closely with the task force investigating the air crash to learn more about the fate of foreign citizens who were aboard the plane, the city's Chief Rabbi Aaron Wagner said.

"Numerous phone calls are coming from people abroad who ask about their relatives because a very large number of people were traveling to [Lake] Baikal as tourists at that time," he said. "The Jewish community of Irkutsk is currently trying to establish whether there were citizens of Israel and the U.S. of Jewish origin among the airliner's passengers, and what might have happened to them," he added.
Stewardess Viktoria Zilberstein was injured in the A310 crash. She is believed to have played a large role in rescuing passengers when a fire erupted on board the plane, he said.

Members of Irkutsk's Jewish Center will gather at a local synagogue to pray for those killed and injured in the air crash.