Moscow's Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt has fled Russia over mounting pressure by Russian authorities to support the country's war in Ukraine.
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Goldschmidt left the Russian capital shortly after the Kremlin mounted its Feb .24 invasion of neighboring Ukraine. He reportedly stayed in various capitals in Eastern Europe where he assisted Ukrainian Jews who fled the war. He later traveled to Israel and the official reason given at the time was that he had returned to Israel to be with his sick father.
According to tweets posted Tuesday by his daughter-in-law, journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, the rabbi was "put under pressure to publicly support the 'special operation' in Ukraine – and refused."
She said Goldschmidt and his wife, Rebbetzin Dara Goldschmidt, flew to Hungary two weeks after the Russian invasion.
Can finally share that my in-laws, Moscow Chief Rabbi @PinchasRabbi & Rebbetzin Dara Goldschmidt, have been put under pressure by authorities to publicly support the 'special operation' in Ukraine — and refused. pic.twitter.com/Gy7zgI3YkJ
— Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt (@avitalrachel) June 7, 2022
Chizhik-Goldschmidt also tweeted that after traveling to Eastern Europe to fundraise for refugees, he then traveled to Jerusalem, where his father had been hospitalized.
Goldschmidt, who served as a rabbi in Moscow for the last 33 years, is also president of the Conference of European Rabbis.
The rabbi has refused to comment on reports suggesting that he was forced to flee Russia due to his refusal to publicly support the war.
Officials in the Russian Jewish community were quoted in Israeli media as saying that having helped Ukrainian refugees over the course of the last few months, Goldschmidt now feared returning to Moscow.
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Other top rabbis in Russia, including the country's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar, have stayed in the country even after criticizing the war, JTA noted.
JNS.org contributed to this report.
