According to former Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Jewish life in Russia is under enormous threat. The country is changing “quickly for the worse,” Goldschmidt told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung,” according to Kathpress.
“In Soviet times, the Jewish community endured 70 years of isolation – and it was extremely harmful to them,” said the president of the Conference of European Rabbis. There are fears that a new “Iron Curtain” will restore this isolation.
Jews in Russia do not support war
In 1946, British politician Winston Churchill used the term “Iron Curtain” to describe the separation of the communist part of Europe from the rest of the continent, which began after World War II. Until the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in 1989, this image shaped the perception of an entire era.
A native of Zurich, Goldschmidt resigned last summer after nearly 30 years as head of the Moscow rabbinate. Shortly after the start of the Russian war against Ukraine, he left Russia and eventually went to Israel.
As the rabbi of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” went on to say, 90 percent of the Jewish population in Russia did not support the war. “Most of those who stay are silent. Anything else would be too dangerous,” Goldschmidt added.
Rising anti-Semitism in Russia
In addition to the suppression of civil society and the curtailment of freedom of expression, anti-Semitism is on the rise in Russia. “And by that I don’t mean the anti-Semitism in the streets, the spontaneous actions that unfortunately take place all over the world. What worries us most right now is the anti-Semitism emanating from the state,” said the rabbi.
According to Goldschmidt, it is not surprising that the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Cyril I was not among the critics of the war. “The question is whether religion can be the instrument of a state. My point of view is that when religion does that, it ceases to be a moral force. Then she is the state. And therefore superfluous.”
Source: Krone
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