NEW YORK — Given the long tradition of Russian anti-Semitism and concern for the apparently authoritarian instincts of the new Russian president, it was perhaps not surprising that Jewish leaders around the world reacted swiftly to the Russian chief rabbi’s claim last week that the Kremlin was pressuring him to resign his post.
But after hearing Rabbi Adolf Shayevich recant his charge Monday in New York and describe it as “a misunderstanding,” American Jewish leaders concede they may have jumped the gun.
The controversy seems to be rooted in the communal in-fighting that now characterizes Russian Jewry, but it also reaches to the highest levels of Russian politics, thanks to the bitter rivalry between President Vladimir Putin and prominent businessman Vladimir Goussinsky.
Goussinsky, a media mogul who supported Putin’s political rivals and is now under attack by the Putin government, also is president of the Russian Jewish Congress, which backs Shayevich.
With Goussinsky and Shayevich now embroiled in an incident that has taken on huge national dimensions — even international ones, as President Clinton was reportedly asked to intervene during his visit this week with Putin — it remains to be seen if it will have repercussions for Russian Jews, estimated at 600,000.
Furthermore, the situation raises the question of when — and how vociferously — American Jews should get involved in such situations.
After meeting with Shayevich in New York on Monday, one American Jewish leader said he felt he had been “misled,” while another said the situation was not as black and white as it had seemed last week.
“I think it’s been a miscommunication, and we’re trying to sort through it now,” said Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia.
Shayevich explained his actions behind closed doors to members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella group.
Speaking later to reporters, he said he had concluded that he was being pressured to resign after several recent incidents, but clarified that the pressure did not explicitly come from Putin or his circle.
Shayevich, who was first installed by the Communist regime as the chief rabbi of the Soviet Union in 1989 and was later elected by the Jewish community as the chief rabbi of Russia, hinted the incident was connected to the government’s conflict with Goussinsky.
“Maybe these are some political games,” the rabbi said at a news conference.
Shayevich said he sensed something was amiss when he was snubbed and not invited to two major state events — Putin’s inauguration and the official commemoration of the end of World War II — when in the past he had always been invited to such occasions, along with other religious leaders.
Then came alleged warnings from the camp of a rival rabbi, Berel Lazar, the head of the Lubavitch movement in Russia, that Shayevich’s days as chief rabbi were numbered and he should plan his retirement.
Lazar strongly denied any involvement of his organization in pressuring Shayevich.
Rivalry for leadership of Russian Jewry has intensified since November when the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, a Lubavitch-dominated group with Lazar as its chief rabbi, reconstituted itself.
The group has had close relations with Putin, who as prime minister under the Yeltsin regime met with the group’s leaders last year and promised to support its activities.
Some observers have also suggested that Putin is interested in dealing with one Jewish leadership, rather than the fractious community that now exists.
Several conflicts between the federation and other Jewish groups have emerged recently, most notably last December when the federation and a Shayevich-led group clashed over the government’s return of Torah scrolls that had been looted by the Nazis or confiscated by the state during the Soviet era.
In light of the more recent events, Shayevich penned a letter to Putin on May 30, demanding that he not “interfere” with the internal affairs of the Jewish community.