By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL-On Saturday, on the DW News program Conflict Zone, Russia’s Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt explained why he fled Russia for Berlin and why he thinks the Jewish community in Russia should leave immediately. Goldschmidt said: “I’m concerned about the future of the Jewish community in Russia,” adding that “businesses are being closed down.” He explained that “thousands of Jews have left the country since the beginning of the invasion.” When he was asked about whether it was right to speak out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Goldschmidt commented: “I think that everyone who has the possibility, has to state and has to state what he or what she thinks.” Goldschmidt said there isn’t support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As he commented: “Speaking to hundreds of thousands of members of my community and those outside Russia, I feel there is very little support for this war.”
Russia’s chief rabbi said he is concerned about the increase in antisemitism in his country as well as the possibility that Russia will be closed off from the rest of the world. The rabbi predicts from his observations: “Harder hitting sanctions in the long-term, a general draft for the army and a widening clampdown on rights in the country.” When asked if he thought it was right that he didn’t speak out sooner against the war in Ukraine, Goldschmidt explained that “it’s easier to criticize from Paris or Berlin,” and that initially, he feared for the safety of the Jewish community. He added: “Immigration to Israel from Russia was twice as high since the war started,” and he said, “we have tens of thousands of people outside of our community living outside Russia who are opposed to the war.”
Goldschmidt was asked about the initial lack of response from him and the Russian Jewish community at the start of Russia’s invasion on February 24. In March, one of Ukraine’s chief rabbis accused the Russian Jewish rabbis of being complicit by not taking a stance on the invasion. When Goldschmidt was pressed as to why Ukraine’s chief rabbi at that time felt a sense of abandonment from the Russian Jewish community – Goldschmidt commented that “there are three chief rabbis in Ukraine and we are in touch with them.” He said he spent a long weekend with the chief rabbi of Odessa and 1,200 Jewish refugees in Ukraine. Goldschmidt said he is on very good terms with all three chief rabbis in Ukraine.
He agreed that each country should speak out on the invasion but that they had an obligation to protect their citizens first. When reminded that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously condemned Israel’s response to the Russian invasion, Goldschmidt said: “Israel is not buying oil and gas from Russia. Israel is not financing the war.” Russia’s Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt’s caveat about speaking out and condemning Russia’s invasion is this: “Each country wants to join the sanction regime and criticize or whatever, but each country has to protect their citizens first.” As for Goldschmidt’s predictions about the effects of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine, he suggested that it “might become a political issue in upcoming November elections about whether Israel shall be involved in taking a stand on Ukraine.” And he added: “Right now, I think that Russia’s entering a period of deep isolation, a new, almost totally closed Iron Curtain with Europe not with Asia but with Europe, and I think the coming period is going to be very difficult.”
