Moscow’s chief rabbi ‘in exile’ after resisting Kremlin pressure over war

Moscow’s chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, is “in exile” after resisting Kremlin pressure to support the war in Ukraine, his daughter-in-law has said.

Goldschmidt, who also heads the Conference of European Rabbis, left Russia just weeks after it launched its invasion of Ukraine, saying he had to take care of his ailing father in Jerusalem.

But this week his daughter-in-law revealed that Goldschmidt and his wife had also been put under official pressure to support the war and now considered themselves to be in exile because of their opposition to what Russia has called its “special military operation”.

“Can finally share that my in-laws, Moscow chief rabbi [Pinchas Goldschmidt] & Rebbetzin Dara Goldschmidt, have been put under pressure by authorities to publicly support the ‘special operation’ in Ukraine – and refused,” Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, a journalist who is married to Goldschmidt’s son, Benjamin, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday evening.

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. The Orthodox bishop, Patriarch Kirill, and other religious leaders in Russia have voiced support of the war.

The Guardian has written to Goldschmidt and Chizhik-Goldschmidt for comment.

“They are now in exile from the community they loved, built and raised their children in over 33 years,” Chizhik-Goldschmidt wrote, describing a journey that took her parents-in-law through Hungary and then eastern Europe, where she said they had helped fundraising efforts for Ukrainian refugees.

He went on to Jerusalem, where his father had been in hospital.

“The pain & fear in our family the last few months is beyond words,” she said. “The sounds of the Moscow Choral Synagogue ring in our ears … I’ll never forget our engagement there in ‘14, & taking our children there, Shavuos ‘18… Grateful our parents are safe; worried sick over many others …”

Demographers estimate there are about 150,000 Jewish people in Russia.

Goldschmidt was reelected on Tuesday to another seven-year term as the chief rabbi of Moscow and the leader of the Moscow Choral Synagogue, one of Russia’s most storied houses of worship. He had remained in his post while outside the country, delegating authority to a deputy in his absence.

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.”