Chief Rabbi Moscow has left Russia: “Refuses to support war”

Moscow’s chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, left Russia two weeks after the invasion of Ukraine began, due to pressure to support the military campaign. This was announced today by the daughter-in-law, journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, wife of the rabbi’s son, Benjamin. Goldschmidt, Avital wrote, “refused” to support the war. But she was unable to say more, for fear of putting the Russian Jewish community, which numbers 500,000 people, in difficulty. The rabbi first came to Hungary, together with his wife Dara Goldschmidt, to raise funds for Ukrainian refugees, and then moved to Israel. “They are now in exile from the community they loved, built and raised their children for 33 years.” In early May, the rabbi, who was born in Switzerland, had admitted that he was in Israel, but had only spoken of his father’s hospitalization. He later explained that he could not say further to condemn the war to ensure the “survival” of the Russian Jewish community, which numbers 500,000 people. Despite his absence, in recent days he was re-elected chief rabbi of Moscow, for another seven-year term.