Forced to leave Russia for having refused to support the war in Ukraine, Pinchas Goldschmidt fears the repercussions of the conflict on the Russian Jewish community.
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The Grand Rabbi of Moscow may have fled Russia four months ago, shortly after the start of the war against Ukraine, he continues to walk on eggs. “I cannot give you details on the pressures that I have been the subject of, because it would have consequences on the Jewish institutions of Moscow,” explains Pinchas Goldschmidt in the world by videoconferencing from Jerusalem.
Just after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Russian authorities demanded that this 59 -year -old religious influential, born in Zurich, publicly supports “the special military operation”. Pinchas Goldschmidt did not give in: “I could not be silent because this war is a huge disaster, for Ukraine and for the Jewish community in Ukraine, of which synagogues have been destroyed. It is also a catastrophe For Russia and Russian Jews. “
He therefore left a country where, for thirty-three years, he had contributed to the rebirth of Jewish life after the dissolution of the USSR. “Understand me well: the Russian state very close controls civil society and it can decide to close everything we have built,” he continues in French, his native language. It is a whole ecosystem that I do not want Not jeopardizing: a community service center with children’s gardens, shops, restaurants, social assistance … “
” an ecosystem that I do not want to jeopardize “
Pinchas Goldschmidt fled Moscow on tiptoe, with his wife, pretending to have his sick father in Israel. Finally, in a tweet published on June 7, his daughter-in-law, Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, lifted the veil on the real reasons for her departure.
“All I can say is that the Russian authorities have maneuvered to be replaced by another rabbi. I don’t want to say who it is, but it comes from a very small community “, specifies the Rabbi. The operation has not yet been successful, but Pinchas Goldschmidt has agreed to resign this month from his Grand Rabbi post of Moscow, “on the advice of representatives of the Jewish community”.
Other religious leaders did not have his prejudices. Kirill, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, publicly supported the war in Ukraine, in which he sees a “metaphysical sense” and whose goal, according to him, is to “overcome dark and hostile external forces”. The supreme mufti of Russia, Talgat Tadjouddine, pushed zeal until “the special operation in Ukraine is completed (…) so that no fascists are left or parasites next to us, because we would not have left not enough dichlorvos [a very toxic insecticide] “.
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