Pinchas Goldschmidt, Berl Lazar and the battle for Moscow

By Sholem Aleichem

On the subject of Ramash and His Mission.

The Old Maryina Roscha Shule Before the Fire. I think we used to make kiddush in the doorway.

On the subject: הרב המורד של מוסקבה: "הקהילה היהודית ברוסיה הפכה לבת ערובה"

For many years, there have been whispering among many Jews concerning rabbis who left their communities in the period 1933-1945. To the best of my knowledge, no academic paper has been written on this subject. We are talking about rabbis and Rebbes who got out of the fire early in the game, leaving their communities or followers intact but leaderless. We all know the major actors here, but there were others. Another category were Rabbis who left their communities and went to large cities. There are more than a few, and this subject needs careful study. Years ago Dr. Albert Belton a Neolog Rabbi, himself accused of being a collaborator, showed me his work on this subject. Belton was chairman of the Budapest Jewish council in late 1944. While we are on this subject, we can objectively include rabbis from Communist countries who made a vayivrach while their communities were intact. Martyrdom is a mitzvo and Orthodox rabbis routinely talk about kiddush Hashem, but a select few have voluntarily risked their lives like Rabbi Akiva. For the sake of objectivity, let me list a few rabbis who could have left but did not. Dr Leo Baeck senior Rabbi of Berlin, Rabbi David Shapiro of the Warsaw rabbinical council. Rabbi JI Weinberg, Rector of Orthodox Seminary in Berlin. The above three survived. Now several who didn’t: Dr. Josef Carlebach of Hamburg, Rabbi Abraham Duber Kahane Shapiro of Kovno, Radomsker Rebbe R Rabinowitz from Sisnowitz in Poland. An incomplete list.

I write all of this in regard to the recent resignation of Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt who called himself Chief Rabbi of Moscow and in fact was Rabbi of the Choral Shul there, the largest in Moscow. Now he has called for the mass emigration of Russia's Jews. I have no idea how many non Chabad rabbis there are in Russia but I take it not many other than teachers in a few Yeshivoth. Has the Chief Rabbi never heard that the captain is the last to leave a sinking ship? As far as we know, no one has threatened the rabbis life or demanded support for Russia's wars. His colleague the Chabad chief rabbi has managed to stay neutral with few if any consequences. Does R Goldschmidt really believe many Russian Jews will leave? Does he believe Moscow's Jews need main line Orthodox leadership in this time? I know Chief Rabbi Shayevich is there but he is a Rabbi of a different stripe. I couldn’t help but reading the tummut the good rabbis children made after their attempted synagogue coup was frustrated on New Yorks Upper East Side. Perhaps the good Rabbi of Moscow had his eye on a prestigious US or Western Europe pulpit? And that is my prediction with in 10 weeks or less he will assume such a pulpit in London, NY or LA. All the while donning the mantle of martyrdom. Soviet Jews interested in getting kashruth and other Halachic issues as well as what is called “spiritual leadership” will be forced to turn to Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar and his boys. While our Rabbi will most probably lead a very comfortable life.

Comment:

1. Can people stop comparing everything to Holocaust? Who do you think Berl Lazar is, Janusz Korczak?

2. I have said this 40 years ago and will repeat this today. The remnants of the community should be encouraged to move, not stay. There is no future for Jews in Russia. People on the inside of this history see it better, Shaul Reznik (in Russian). I support the heroic work of Shmuel Schnnerson, the one Chabad Rebbe I feel affinity with.

3. What is the strategic goal in Russia, building yet another school for 99% mutts? You can’t compare Russian communities to Europe, where people were connected to their leaders. How many Ukrainian Rabbis stayed in the War Zone now? I know this is not a real goal, the goal is milking the oligarchy, who in turn committed the greatest heist of the century. Sustaining the Chabad families on the geganevter gelt. Never mind the 10 commandments.

4. And don’t get me started on the symbiosis with the Gulag 2.0 built by Lazar who just happened to be intimately familiar with the mechanics of the regime from his indoctrination years under the enlighten teacher, may he live forever and ever!

5. Everyone is telling me that Lazar is in Moscow, yet when I open those Yellow Pravdas, here is Lazar in Brooklyn, on one of the farkakter events in the front row with all the apparatchiks and commissars.

6. I have no idea what is going on with the shule in NY. But maybe a little revolution is not so bad for the place? Who is better to lead it than two people who were born in Russia and Ukraine? Better than that memale mockom who is on his fourth or fifth wife, lost count (I am told 6th). What is your vision, another dead shule with another Chabadsker taking hold of the real estate and installing avoida zora on the mizbeyach?

7. For decades, Chabad gave Pinchas Goldschmidt the same treatment they give to anyone who is not under their dictatorial, hierarchical, group-think, indoctrination boot. And they can’t stop now.