Pinchas Goldschmidt

Pinchas Goldschmidt (born 21 July 1963) is a Swiss-born rabbi also known as a religious scholar and Jewish community leader. He was the Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Russia from 1993 until 2022, serving at the Moscow Choral Synagogue.^[1] He also founded and has headed the Moscow Rabbinical Court of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) since 1989. From 2011, Goldschmidt has served as president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), which unites over seven hundred communal rabbis from Dublin, Ireland to Khabarovsk, in the Russian Far East.

In the aftermath of increased socio-political repression within Russia in 2022 within the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Goldschmidt gained international media attention for his recommendation that all Jews living in Russia leave the country for their own safety and security.^[2] He would later become the first rabbi to be listed as a foreign agent by Russia as a result of his opposition to war.^[3]

Given his role in speaking for the benefit of the Jewish community, Goldschmidt has stated that he has been a magnet for personal threats of violence by antisemitic extremists.^[2]