Pinchas Goldschmidt left Russia just weeks after invasion of Ukraine, daughter-in-law says
Goldschmidt has been Moscow’s chief rabbi since 1993 and is one of the most influential Jewish leaders in Russia. If the account is confirmed, Goldschmidt would be a rare high-profile religious leader to leave Russia due to opposition to the war.
His reelection was supported by a number of senior Israeli rabbis, who had asked that “no change be made in the composition of the rabbinate and the tribunal without coordination with us”. Another conservative religious leader in Israel warned that “we have been witnessing a difficult reality when governments try to interfere in the tenure of rabbis”.
There were also reports of government pressure to replace Goldschmidt in the elections. “The coup attempt failed,” a source in the Russian Jewish community told the Jerusalem Post. Goldschmidt had previously told Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that he did “not define myself as an exiled rabbi, I am a rabbi who is not living in his community”.But at an opening ceremony for the Conference of European Rabbis in Munich last week, Goldschmidt was accompanied by several German bodyguards while he delivered a speech attacking the war.
“We have to pray for peace and for the end of this terrible war,” he said. “We have to pray that this war will end soon and not escalate into a nuclear conflict that can destroy humanity.”