Pinchas Goldschmidt was the chief rabbi of Moscow until he left office in the summer.Image: dpa / Sven Hoppe
Russia
Even if the year 2022 is slowly coming to an end, the war in Ukraine continues. Soldiers on both sides die there every day, as do civilians. millions of people are on the run. Get out of Ukraine somewhere safe.
Since the Russian partial mobilization, however, a number of Russians of military age have also fled. And not just them. Even people who are fighting the war Ukraine refuse, have left the country. One of them is the former Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt. He had refused to support the Russian invasion – but wanted to avoid causing problems for his community.
From the rabbi’s point of view, the mood against Jews in Russia is getting worse and worse.Image: Pool Sputnik Kremlin/AP / Mikhail Klimentyev
Now, however, Goldschmidt fears for the safety of his community – in one respect interview he calls on Jews Russia to leave. The ex-chief rabbi assumes that the mood will worsen. And people of the Jewish faith are then in danger.
In conversation with the “Guardians” Goldschmidt explains that the Russian Jews should leave the country as long as they can. The fact that the mood towards the Jewish community can be expected to change can be seen from the Russian one Story.
Goldschmidt elaborates: “Whenever the political system was in danger, the government tried to channel the anger and discontent of the masses onto the Jewish community.”
This is what happened in the tsarist empire as well as at the end of the Stalin era. Josef Stalin, the former head of state of the Soviet Union, drove a nationwide one in the 1950s anti-Semitic hate campaign. Many people of the Jewish faith feared for her at the time Life.
Goldschmidt assumes that 25 to 30 percent of Jewish Russians have left the country since the beginning of the war. Or at least had plans to leave. The path leads to most of them Israel. A large part of the Jewish community in Ukraine has already fled, he says.
Anti-Semitism is also spreading in the United States
But the rabbi is also concerned about the growing number anti-Semitism in the United States – the land of freedom where Jews have found refuge for decades. He says:
“For many years, Jews in the US believed that it was an exception, that whatever happened in Europe and other countries could never happen there. But in the last three years, there have been more attacks on Jews there than in Europe. “
For him it is clear where this renewed hostile mood against Jews comes from: “What is changing is that the political system is much more polarized, but the discourse has also been turned upside down by social media. The polarization that we see, has made anti-Semitism much more acceptable.”
The regime in Iran has already executed two demonstrators. After Mohsen Shekari, Majidresa Rahnaward was publicly hanged on Monday. The two men’s crime: They took part in the protests that have shaken the country since the death of the young Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini.
