The resigned Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt has called on Jews in Russia to leave the country. They should seize this opportunity before they are made scapegoats for the hardship the war has provoked in Ukraine, Goldschmidt, who is currently in exile, told Britain’s The Guardian newspaper.
If you look at Russian history, it can be seen that when a political system was in danger, the respective government tried to divert the anger and discontent of the masses to the Jewish community, emphasized Goldschmidt, who is president of the orthodox European Rabbinical Conference . This could be observed in tsarist times and at the end of the Stalinist regime.
We see anti-Semitism rising as Russia reverts to a new kind of Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain gradually comes down.
Pinchas Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi of Moscow
“We see rising anti-Semitism as Russia returns to a new kind of Soviet Union and as the Iron Curtain gradually comes down,” Goldschmidt said. That’s why he thinks it’s the best way for Jews to leave the country.
Goldschmidt resigned this summer after almost 30 years as head of the Moscow rabbinate. Born in Switzerland, he has held the post since 1993. In March, shortly after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine, he left Russia and eventually went to Israel.
Community leaders had been pressured to support the war and had refused to do so, Goldschmidt said. He resigned because it would have been a problem for the community if he had continued to work as Moscow’s chief rabbi – with a view to repressive measures against those who think differently.
Goldschmidt said he thinks that since the war began, 25 to 30 percent of those who stayed have left the country or plan to do so. (KNA)
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