MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti, Olga Lipich) - The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR) and the World Congress of Russian Jewry (WCRJ) have issued a textbook called the History of Jews in Russia, unprecedented since the 1917 revolution, the FEOR said Wednesday.

"This textbook is a very important step toward mutual understanding between people of different ethnic groups having the same homeland - Russia," FEOR Chairman Alexander Boroda said.

He said the book could help fill an information vacuum and dispel the anti-Semitic myths that dominated the minds of some Russians. FEOR plans to continue publishing similar books since ignorance of a people group's history and culture frequently caused xenophobia.

"After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was a common opinion that Jews would abandon Russia and that Russian Jews were 'an endangered species'. But history proved it wrong. Hence, the significance of the joint project of FEOR and WCRJ meant to recount the role of Jewry in the country's history and the Jewish contribution to its development in the past and present," FEOR Executive Director Valery Engel said.

Created by Judaic experts from Russia and Israel, the textbook contains more than 700 pages with illustrations and tables. The first edition numbers 1,000 copies, which will be distributed among higher education institutions that specialize in the study of Jewish civilization. FEOR also intends to convince the Russian Ministry of Education that the textbook should be used at lessons of tolerance in secondary schools.