Russian Rabbinate Dedicates Base

By COLlive reporter
Photos by Eli Segal

Russian Jews now have an official address for rabbinical questions: 2nd Vysheslavtsev Pereulok, #5A in Moscow.

A new building for the Chief Rabbinate of Russia was inaugurated this week by a visiting delegation of Israeli Chief Rabbis and presidium members of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe.

The new location will serve the Beis Din headed by Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, Dayanim Rabbi Schneur Zalman Kahn and Rabbi Yisroel Birenbaum, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Marzel of the Kashrus department and Rabbi Yitzchak Kogan, head of the shochatim.

“The departments of the Rabbinate were until now spread out in a few locations because the lack of space,” a representative told COLlive.com. “The move will allow for us to give better services to the many that turn to us on a daily basis and better serve the tens of rabbis across the country.”

Honored with cutting the ribbon were Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Antwerp Dovid Moshe Lieberman and Rabbi Lazar.

Rabbi Yosef praised the cooperation between the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and its counterpart in Russia, noting recent collaborations in the areas of marriages and divorces. “It is helping the great revival of Russian Jewry,” he said.

A festive meal was held in honor of the occasion at the Marina Roscha Synagogue and Jewish Community Center in Moscow, also marking the anniversary of the Frierdiker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn’s release from Soviet prison on the 12 and 13th of Tammuz in 1927.

The Frierdiker Rebbe, one of the most remarkable Jewish personalities of the 20th century, was arrested for his activities to preserve Judaism throughout the Soviet empire. International pressure forced the Soviets to commute the death sentence to exile and, subsequently, to release him completely.