Chabad Lubavitch of Russia

Dominant Chabad-Lubavitch organisation in the Russian Federation

Chabad Lubavitch of Russia
Type	Religious organisation / Federation
Logo
Founded
Founder(s)	Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (via emissaries)
Dissolved
Registration ID
Status
Headquarters	Moscow, Russia
Location
Area served
Services
Registration
Key people
Website	https://www.fjc.ru/ (Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia)
Remarks

Chabad Lubavitch of Russia (Russian: Хабад-Любавич в России), also widely known through its main institutional body the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (Федерация еврейских общин России, FJCR), is the largest and most influential Chabad-Lubavitch organisation operating in the Russian Federation. Since the early 2000s it has become the de facto representative body of organised Jewish religious life in Russia, controlling the majority of registered synagogues, schools, kindergartens, community centres and kosher infrastructure.

History

Origins in Lyubavitchi

The Chabad movement was founded in 1775 by Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi in Liozna/Liadi (then part of the Russian Empire). In 1813 the leadership moved to the town of Lyubavichi (Lubavitch), which served as the headquarters of the movement for over 100 years until 1915.

Escape of the Rebbe to New York

The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn (the Rayatz), was arrested by the Soviet secret police in 1927. After international pressure he was released and left the USSR in 1928, first to Riga and then Warsaw. In late 1939–early 1940, following the Nazi invasion of Poland, he escaped with a small group via Latvia and neutral Portugal, arriving in New York on 19 March 1940 (28 Sivan 5700).

Underground in the Soviet Union

From the 1920s until the late 1980s Chabad operated almost entirely underground in the USSR. Secret chadarim, yeshivot, mikvahs and minyanim were maintained in Moscow, Leningrad, Samarkand, Tashkent, Dushanbe, and many smaller cities. Chabad families smuggled religious items, produced handwritten seforim, and kept Jewish identity alive at great personal risk. Chabad emissaries maintained clandestine contact with Jews across the country and encouraged aliyah. While the public Soviet Jewry campaign was largely coordinated by Israel's Nativ liaison bureau and Western organisations, Chabad's internal network provided the spiritual and logistical backbone inside the USSR.

Post-Soviet emergence and nationwide expansion

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Chabad experienced explosive growth. Emissaries were sent from New York and Israel to every major city and many smaller towns. Within a decade hundreds of institutions were established. The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR), under Chabad leadership, became the dominant Jewish organisational body in Russia.

Financial supporters

The rapid expansion of Chabad Lubavitch of Russia / Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR) after 1991 was financed primarily by Russian-Jewish oligarchs and businessmen, many of whom were closely aligned with the Chabad movement:

Lev Leviev – Israeli-Uzbek diamond magnate; widely regarded as the single largest individual donor to Chabad worldwide. He has funded hundreds of millions of dollars into Chabad institutions globally and was the primary backer of the Or Avner educational network (operating dozens of schools across the FSU) as well as major FJCR projects including community centres and synagogues. Roman Abramovich – donated tens of millions of dollars to Chabad institutions in Russia, including major support for the Marina Roscha Jewish community complex in Moscow (one of the largest Chabad centres in Europe) and various schools and welfare programmes. Mikhail Fridman – co-founder of Alfa Group; has provided significant funding to Jewish communal projects in Russia, including Chabad-affiliated schools and community centres (though his support is more broadly directed toward Jewish organisations in general). German Khan – business partner of Fridman in Alfa Group; has donated to Chabad institutions in Russia and Ukraine, including support for educational and welfare programmes. Moshe Kantor – fertiliser magnate and former president of the European Jewish Congress; has been a major donor to Chabad projects in Russia and the FSU, including funding for community centres and Holocaust education initiatives. [[Arkady Rotenberg** and Boris Rotenberg – brothers and close associates of Vladimir Putin; have provided funding to various Jewish communal projects in Russia, including some Chabad-linked institutions. God Nisanov – Azerbaijani-Jewish businessman and developer (co-owner of Moscow's largest shopping malls); has donated substantial sums to Chabad centres and educational projects in Russia.

These donors, many of whom rose to prominence in the 1990s–2000s, provided the financial backbone for Chabad's rapid institutional growth across Russia after the Soviet collapse.

Relationship with Putin and Berel Lazar

In 2000 Rabbi Berel Lazar (born USA, emissary to Russia since 1990) was elected Chief Rabbi of Russia by the FJCR. With strong backing from President Vladimir Putin, Lazar and Chabad became the Kremlin's preferred Jewish representative body, effectively displacing the more liberal, Zionist-oriented Russian Jewish Congress (led by figures such as Vladimir Gusinsky). Rabbi Lazar meets regularly with Putin and is widely described as “Putin’s rabbi”. This alignment has been interpreted by some analysts as allowing Chabad to assume communal hegemony over more traditionally Zionist structures.

Tensions and controversies

Chabad's dominance has generated tensions. In Omsk, Siberia, the local Chabad emissary Rabbi Osher Krichevsky and his family were expelled by Russian authorities in 2019–2022, reportedly due to “security concerns” (widely viewed as pressure from local or rival factions). Similar disputes have occurred in other cities over control of communal property and representation.

Major Chabad centres in Russia (selected list)

Chabad maintains approximately 200–250 centres. Prominent examples include:

• Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FJCR) – Moscow (Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar, since 2000)
• Chabad Lubavitch of St. Petersburg – Rabbi Menachem Mendel Glukhovsky
• Chabad Lubavitch of Novosibirsk – Rabbi Shalom Dovber Gorelik (one of the first post-Soviet centres)
• Chabad Lubavitch of Ekaterinburg – Rabbi Yitzchak Kogan
• Chabad Lubavitch of Samara – Rabbi Yossi Shmulevich
• Chabad Lubavitch of Irkutsk – Rabbi Aharon Wagner
• Chabad Lubavitch of Krasnoyarsk – Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Itkin
• Chabad Lubavitch of Rostov-on-Don – Rabbi Chaim Danishevsky
• Chabad Lubavitch of Birobidzhan (Jewish Autonomous Oblast) – small symbolic centre

External links

• Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia
• Chabad.org directory – Russia