(JTA) — A synagogue has opened for the first time in Obninsk, a city near Moscow that was built in 1945 to accommodate the staff of the world’s first nuclear power plant.

Around 400 Jews, including some from Moscow seeking to move out of the city, make up the city’s Jewish population, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia. The nuclear plant had many Jewish employees and some of their families stayed in the Obninsk area.

Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar attended the opening of the synagogue on Thursday.

“Or goal is not only to restore what was destroyed by the communist reg...