Shimon Peres (second from left) and then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon seen during the 80th birthday celebration for Peres in the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on September 21, 2003. Photo: Avi Ohayon/GPO/Flash90.

JNS.org –The upcoming Limmud FSU conference in Belarus, to take place this summer, will honor the recently deceased former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Sharon died Saturday at the age of 85 after spending eight years in a coma. Sharon’s parents were born in Belarus, and his family immigrated to mandatory Palestine in 1922.

Chaim Chesler and Sandra Cahn, co-founders of Limmud FSU (Former Soviet Union), announced the commemoration plans Tuesday. The ceremony will take place in Sharon’s father’s hometown city of Brest and is expected to attract more than 700 Russian-speaking young adults from across the FSU. Representatives of both the Belarusian and Israeli governments are expected to attend.

This will be the second conference to be held in Belarus by Limmud FSU, which operates in eight countries.

“Limmud FSU is proud to honor Ariel Sharon’s parents, who came from Belarus, at our next event,” Cahn told JNS.org.

“People don’t always realize that many great leaders in the Jewish world and in Israel are originally from Russian-speaking countries, and our job is not only to strengthen Jewish life in those countries, but also to remind everyone of the significant role those countries and cultures have in Jewish history,” she said.