Exiled Chief Rabbi of Moscow warns of ‘worsening situation for Jews in Russia’

Exiled Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, lashed out at a Russian Telegram group which called for an investigation into Chabad in Russia, labelling it an “attack” on the ultra-orthodox movement. 

The Telegram group “Disclosed”, with nearly 23,000 subscribers, called on banning Chabad’s activities across Russia, calling it an ‘undesirable’ organisation.

It also called for an investigation into Chabad foundational text, the Tanya, “for signs of extremism: propaganda of the exclusivity and superiority of Jews over other peoples, the inferiority of non-Jews, racism, Nazism and misanthropy, consider recognizing it as extremist material and banning it on the territory of Russia”.

Rabbi Goldschmidt, who is also the President of the Conference of European Rabbis, said that if this “apparent initiative” is genuine, it follows the pattern of the “words of the secretary of the Security Council of Russia of a few months ago.”

“This manifestation of antisemitism is a grave indicator of the worsening situation for Jews in Russia. It should be clear that this attack against the Chabad Lubavitch community, which is prominent in Russia, is an attack against the whole Jewish community,” Goldschmidt said.

Goldschmidt, who was born in Switzerland but has been serving Russian Jewry since 1989, left the country in June last year, nearly four months after Russia began its invasion. He said that he was being pressured to support the invasion and feared the impact his refusal might have on Moscow’s Jewish community.

Earlier this year, Goldschmidt told The Guardian that the Jewish community in Russia should do the same. 

“We’re seeing rising antisemitism while Russia is going back to a new kind of Soviet Union, and step by step the Iron Curtain is coming down again. This is why I believe the best option for Russian Jews is to leave,” he said.

“When we look back over Russian history, whenever the political system was in danger you saw the government trying to redirect the anger and discontent of the masses towards the Jewish community. We saw this in Tsarist times and at the end of the Stalinist regime,” Goldschmidt added.