MOSCOW – “We will continue to serve our communities”: is the commitment made in a statement released at the end of an emergency conference of the rabbis of the Russian Jewish communities convened yesterday in Moscow to discuss the challenges facing the 165,000 Jews living in the Federation.
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A commitment also reiterated by Aleksandr Boroda, president of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Russia, in his message read to the 75 rabbis present in the amphitheater of the Jewish Center in Moscow representing the 400 scattered throughout Russia: “It might seem that we face enormous challenges geopolitical and economic, but we must not give up our duties, ”he said recalling the attacks on religious leaders since the fall of the Iron Curtain.
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The document cautiously never mentions either Ukraine or the so-called Russian “special military operation”. The Russian rabbis, representing 400 colleagues from all over Russia, merely affirm that they “pray for the well-being of all the inhabitants of the world, regardless of race or nationality” and make a final appeal. “We ask world leaders to do everything in their power to bring peace between nations. We pray that no more blood will be shed and we invite people of good conscience everywhere to help the needy, including refugees, and to put an end to suffering ”.
“Our role is not to be involved in internal or geopolitical issues. We are shocked that some individuals not only believe that rabbis have a duty to jeopardize their communities by engaging in political activities or even to abandon their community altogether as a form of political protest, ”the statement said. “In addition, these people issue statements condemning the rabbis and community leaders who have chosen to stay and serve their community.”
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No names are mentioned here either, but the reference to the former chief rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt who, at the beginning of June, revealed that he had fled from Russia in order not to give in to pressure from the Russian authorities and not to give his blessing to the Russian authorities seems clear. offensive in Ukraine.
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Pressures that Aleksandr Borodatalking with Republic, denies: “Nobody has been pressured. It seems strange that Goldschmidt was the only one ”. One of the aims of the conference is just that, he says: to counter the idea that Jews in Russia have no choice but to leave and that so many are doing so. “The vast majority have chosen to stay”.
A choice supported by the main rabbis and leaders of Israel, including President Isaac Herzog who in a message read by the Israeli ambassador Alexander Ben Zvi he invited them to continue their work “even now, in the midst of the terrible tragedy that has fallen on the community in Ukraine and the fear and uncertainty it consumes in Russia”.
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“You are the ones who guide your community to its destination,” Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau said in a letter addressed to the Russian rabbis. “The Jewish community of Russia relies on you spiritually and materially,” echoed Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.
While former president of the Jewish Agency and human rights activist Natan Sharansky acknowledged that the rabbis “are going through a difficult time”, recalling the threatened closure of the Jewish Agency in Russia which assists in emigration to Israel. September 19 will be decided in court. “The conflict initiated by the Russian leadership in Ukraine brings incalculable suffering to the Ukrainian people and the Jewish communities. Unsurprisingly, aliyah from Ukraine has increased dramatically. But aliyah from Russia has grown even more ”, he wrote in a message. “It is important that the leaders of the Jewish communities assist all those who decide to join us in Israel”, but also their “work to strengthen the Jewish community, to save the bond of every Jewish family with our tradition, our people and our country in the most difficult conditions ”.
Boroda points out that the threatened closure of the Jewish Agency is a legal problem: “This is a Russian organization and as such must comply with Russian rules.” But he still says he’s worried. Not so much from him practical implications of him: “The Ministry of Immigration continues to help Jews who want to carry out the aliyah, the return,” he told Repubblica. How much from the symbolic ones. However, Boroda insists, “do not compromise relations between Russia and Israel”.
Not even the declaration of the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov who, speaking on an Italian TV, had said that “the greatest anti-Semites are precisely the Jews and Hitler, like Zelenskij, was also a Jew” has invalidated the reports.
“We talked about it”, explains Boroda a Republic. “It was just a gaffe. The minister had not realized the significance of his words. What is certain is that it was not a good idea to take WWII concepts and apply them to this context. It’s not fair for any reason. The Holocaust is the tragedy that affected the Jews in World War II. It has nothing to do with what is happening today ”.