(JTA) — Ukraine’s three most generous philanthropists are Jewish, according to a local business magazine.
In ranking the country’s top 10 charitable donors for 2012, the Lviv-based Galytski Kontrakty weekly put 46-year-old businessman Rinat Akhmetov in the top slot for giving the equivalent of $19 million to build an oncology research center. Akhmetov, the son of a coal miner, was estimated by Forbes magazine last year to be worth $16 billion, placing him 39th on its list of richest people and No. 1 in Ukraine.
Second on the list was steel magnate Victor Pinchuk, who gave $11 million to the development of charitable programs in health and education. His $4.2 billion placed him 255th on the Forbes list of richest people.
In third was Alexander Feldman, a Ukrainian lawmaker and president of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, with a donatios of $9.25 million. The magazine said Feldman donated to the protection of children as well as health and educational programs through the Alexander Feldman Fund, which he established. The fund recently helped create a children’s medical center called Feldman-Ecopark and an educational NGO, the Institute of Human Rights and Protection against Extremism and Xenophobia.
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