Search
Close this search box.

“GRAVE INDICATOR”: Russians Call to Kick Out Chabad and Probe Tanya for “Signs of Extremism”


Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis and exiled Chief Rabbi of Moscow, has responded to a chilling message in a Russian Telegram group called, “Disclosed”. The group has almost 23,000 subscribers.

The message called, among other things, for consideration of the proscription of Chabad as an “undesirable” organization in Russia and the banning of its activities across the Russian Federation.

It also called for an investigation into the Tanya, Chabad’s foundation text, “for signs of extremism: propaganda of the exclusivity and superiority of Jews over other peoples, the inferiority of non-Jews, racism, Nazism and misanthropy, consider recognizing it as extremist material and banning it on the territory of Russia”.

Reacting to these disturbing reports, former Moscow Chief Rabbi Goldschmidt said:

“This apparent initiative, if found to be genuine, follows the pattern of the words of the secretary of the Security Council of Russia of a few months ago. This manifestation of antisemitism is a grave indicator of the worsening situation for Jews in Russia. It should be clear that this attack against the Chabad Lubavitch community, which is prominent in Russia, is an attack against the whole Jewish community.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)



18 Responses

  1. jews had since 1991 to leave Russia and the (FSU) Former Soviet Union.

    many there could have already safety relocated to Europe, Israel, America, or elsewhere if they weren’t just sitting around in the false hope that the Russian govt could be trusted or nothing bad could happen to them. the doors could close again at any time.

    why do yidden in certain places have this thing to only wait until the last moment once it’s too late to get out of dangerous situations and to save their families? the same thing happened in the prelude to WW2 & the holocaust…

    if Russia concocts some allegation against Judaism and they start banning/censoring torah books and controlling the movement of people within the country, and the jews there wake up one morning and find themselves stuck or unable to leave the country they only have themselves to blame

  2. What compels Goldschmidt to respond to anonymous bloggers or Telegramers posting of drivel?

    And what drives him to use this to attack the Russian government, when such words from him will accomplish nothing positive and may well be very counterproductive for the Russian-Jewish community.

  3. Don’t want to read this thing
    Israel is helping Ukraine and china can not do that for Russia cause it means war so what did Zionist

  4. Sorry to say this, but the Tanya is extremely racist to gentiles. If I was a average gentile I would be up in arms about the garbage written in this book.

  5. @Baby Squirrel: Because for Jews, we wonder whether the country we flee to will be any better than the country we are fleeing from.

  6. Rabbi Berel Lazar is the chief Rabbi of Russia. That’s all that counts. I don’t know who this Goldschmidt guy is. Seems like someone is looking for attention.

  7. Yirmy,

    People say the same about the Talmud, Rambam, etc.

    Torah contains divine truth. Not the political correctness off any specific day and age.

  8. @Yirmi

    It’s because of the unintelligent and simple yidden like you, that the Tanya was created.
    Unfortunately, many in the yeshivish world seem completely ignorant of such basic concepts such as the Nefesh Elokis, which constitute our superiority over gentiles. These ideas were popularized by the Alter Rebbe in Tanya, but, in fact, are taken straight from Zohar and Kisvei Ari.

    Comments like yours, yirmi, are what underscore the necessity for yidden to learn Tanya. How else will you be introduced to such fundamental aspects of yiddishkeit? I don’t expect you to get it from kabbalah….

  9. No need to look at the Russia Telegram Group for antisemitism when we have plenty right here from Jew haters right here!

    YWN posted a comment from Yirmi ym”s who calls a respected Torah sefer “garbage” – just as any antisemite would.

    And YWN also posted the comment of emerysealofyoshka ym”s that equates kehilos of rabbonim and roshei yeshivos with Christianity.

    Do we need to look to far off Russia, when there are Jew haters right here on YWN foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog as they spew their hatred of Torah and Jews?

    May they, together with all other sonei yisroel be removed from the face of this earth.

  10. I wish the Goldschmidt family, to be able to rescue & retrieve all of their belongings, which currently are incarcerated in Russia 🇷🇺, when they escaped just with the shirts on their backs.
    I wish Chabad the same sentiments, to rescue & retrieve their library, which currently is incarcerated in Russia 🇷🇺.

  11. doom77 and ujm are correct. Some random person saying something nasty in an obscure chat room is nothing to get upset about. We have nastier things said right here on YWN, by some of the commenters, and YWN has a lot more subscribers than that forum, so should we conclude that America is suddenly a dangerous place for us?! This is a nothing story, and Goldschmidt would be an idiot to genuinely get concerned about it, so I conclude that he’d just trying to stay relevant and get in the news, now that he’s no longer on the spot.

    What the Tanya says about nochrim is straight out of the Kuzari. It is Torah, and it is illegitimate and unacceptable for a purportedly frum Jew to attack it. Yes, there were rishonim who disagreed with the Kuzari’s opinion on this, so a person is entitled to say “kim li” like those rishonim, but he is not entitled to insist that anyone else join him in that.

    NonImpedit, so what if it is racism? If it’s Divine it’s by definition right, and we have no right to differ from it.

Leave a Reply


Popular Posts