Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, former Rabbi of Moscow and president of the Conference of European Rabbis, was designated by the Russian Justice Ministry as a foreign agent after speaking out publicly, including in an extensive interview with Israel Hayom, against the war in Ukraine. The Interfax news agency reported that the Russian Justice Ministry claimed that "Goldschmidt spread false information about decisions made by the public authorities of the Russian Federation and their policies. He opposed the special operation in Ukraine."
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt fled Russia shortly after Russia's invasion of Ukraine because he said he opposed the attack. "I went to bed on February 23, the eve of the war, and the next day I woke up and realized that I was in a completely different country, with different laws and different rules. In the Soviet Union, they didn't let the Jews live according to their faith, and they didn't let them decide where they wanted to live – and suddenly I saw these laws being renewed in today's Russia," the rabbi said in an interview in the Shabbat supplement.
Russian coup attempt (archive) // Reuters
"If a person criticizes the war, he could be jailed for 15 years, and the remnants of things that were more or less independent of the state have been shut down. From day to day I saw more and more arrests in Russia of people who oppose the war, I saw pictures of people taking to the streets and arresting them - grandmothers and grandparents who are arrested without trial. These are very difficult scenes, like in dark times."
In May 2022, Israel Hayom revealed that Rabbi Goldschmidt had left Russia, and two months later he was removed from his position. Last August, he was interviewed extensively for the Shabbat supplement and spoke about his feelings. Since then, Rabbi Goldschmidt has come out strongly against the war in Ukraine from major stages, apparently drawing the ire of the Russians, who have now designated him as a foreign agent.
Police arrest anti-war protesters in Moscow, Photo: AP
Goldsmith responded to the publication by saying that he was "proud to be on the right side of history and to join a distinguished list of people who oppose this terrible war that has taken a terrible death toll of hundreds of thousands. If I am a foreign agent, then as God's agent and doer of His will, the next step is probably to declare Him a foreign agent."
Goldsmith added: "For 30 years I have nurtured and maintained the Jewish community in Moscow, no decree will prevent me from doing so even now. This is the first time since the beginning of the fighting that a religious leader has been declared a foreign agent and defined by the Russian government as hostile. This may well be the start of a new anti-Semitic campaign against the Jewish community. I have called on the Jewish community to leave the country before it's too late."
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