Russia’s Jews should take the opportunity now to leave the country because of the rise of antisemitism and the possibility that they’ll be trapped inside the country if the Iron Curtain should close again, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow, says in a new interview.
“I’m concerned about the future of the Jewish community in Russia, and I’m not the only one concerned,” Goldschmidt told the German outlet DW News. “Tens of thousands of Jews have left the country since the beginning of the [Ukraine] invasion.”
Goldschmidt, who had been the chief rabbi for more than 30 years, left Russia in March, just two weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, reports the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. His daughter-in-law, journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt has said that Moscow was pressuring him to support the war publicly, but he refused.
In his interview with DW News, Goldschmidt, who now lives in exile in Israel, said he agrees with former Minister Natan Sharansky, a dissident who was jailed in the former Soviet Union, who says that Jews should leave Russia if they have the chance.
“I support this view and for many reasons,” Goldschmidt said. “There are many reasons why Jews today are concerned about the future in Russia: the rise in antisemitism [and with] the possibility of closing of the Iron Curtain, it is going to be impossible to leave.”
Further, harder-hitting sanctions that will cause long-term damages to Russia’s economy, the growing possibility of a general draft for the Army, and the “widening repression of civil society,” are also concerns for the country’s Jews, said Goldschmidt.
He added that he left Russia because he thought it was important to be able to speak out against the war, and that he feared the Jewish community would suffer, considering the threats he was under.
“Judaism is a religion of deeds,” Goldschmidt said. “It’s not only a religion of thoughts or beliefs, it is the actual deed which is important for us. We call this deed a mitzvah. Speaking out has been secondary first and most important has been the feeling and the realization that we have to do something to help those thousands of refugees of our communities who had to leave for Eastern Europe just with maybe one suitcase, who didn’t have a roof over their heads.”
However, he would not specify what threats he got and who made them, out of fear of endangering Jews remaining in Russia.
“I think that if you are a clergyman living in a certain country you can identify and you understand when you’re getting messages from certain quarters,” said Goldschmidt. “It doesn’t always have to be personal. It can be communal as well.”
He also defended his decision to leave, saying if he’d stayed he would not have been able to establish the programs to help refugees.
“It’s not a question of feeling vindicated,” Goldschmidt said. “It is a question of today we have tens of thousands of members of my community who are living outside Russia … my community is all over the world.”
The Conference of the European Rabbis has established an international fund to help Ukraine refugees, he added, noting that he has visited capitals in Budapest, Warsaw, and Romania, where thousands of Jewish and other refugees have headed.
“We have established programs for the integration and the help of those refugees,” Goldschmidt said.
He noted that the immigration numbers to Israel from Russia were “twice as high as from Ukraine” since the war started.
“I’m responsible for the wider community, and I always also believe that I’ll be able to help our community which stayed on in Russia better from the outside than from the inside,” Goldschmidt said.
© 2022 Newsmax
Okay. I’m on my way to the airport right now.
The article says that the rabbi is‘living in exile in Israel’
Come on man, Israel is home! U iz not in exile.