Berel Lazar
Italian-born Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi (b. 1964), "Chief Rabbi of Russia" for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia since 2000 and the main Jewish interlocutor of the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin
| Berel Lazar | |
|---|---|
| Image |  Lazar in April 2021 (photo: Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0) |
| Born | 19 May 1964 (per FEOR) Milan, Italy |
| Died | |
| Nationality | Italian; Russian (from 2000) |
| Residence | |
| Occupation | Rabbi; Chabad-Lubavitch emissary |
| Known for | "Chief Rabbi of Russia" (FEOR, from 2000; title contested); head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia |
| Parents | |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | |
| Sibling(s) | |
| Education | Tomchei Tmimim, New York (rabbinic ordination 1988, per FEOR) |
| Predecessor | |
| Website | |
Berel Lazar (born 1964) is an Italian-born Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi. He has been the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR) "Chief Rabbi of Russia" since June 2000, a title also claimed by the Soviet-era chief rabbi Adolf Shayevich and not recognised by Moscow's chief rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt.[1] Under his leadership FEOR displaced the Russian Jewish Congress as the Kremlin's main Jewish partner, with funding chiefly from Lev Leviev and, later, from Roman Abramovich.[2] The Times of Israel notes that he is sometimes called "Putin's rabbi".[3] His relationship with the Russian state is covered in detail on Berel Lazar and the Kremlin; this page gives his biography.
Early life and arrival in Russia
FEOR's official biography says Lazar was born on 19 May 1964 in Milan into the family of the rabbi of the Jewish community there. He studied at Tomchei Tmimim, the central Chabad yeshiva in New York, and was ordained in 1988. He first visited Russia in 1988, came to Moscow in 1989 with the blessing of the Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and became rabbi of the Marina Roshcha synagogue in 1990.[4] In a Chabad-published interview Lazar recalled that "it was in 1990 that the Jewish Community in Marina Roscha invited me to assume the office of a rabbi. I came to the Rebbe: he was so happy for me, insisting that I had to accept this invitation".[5] A Chabad-side history counts the Lazars among the Rebbe's "first permanent shluchim sent to the Soviet Union".[6]
FEOR and the chief rabbinate
FEOR was founded as an umbrella body in November 1999. According to Chabad's own news service, "Rabbi Berel Lazar, chief Lubavitch emissary to the region, was appointed as its head".[7] On 13 June 2000 a FEOR congress elected him, then 36, chief rabbi of Russia. FEOR spokesman Borukh Gorin declared: "For the first time in history, a chief rabbi of Russia is elected." Lazar said: "It is not an honor, it is a responsibility."[1] The election came hours before the arrest of Vladimir Gusinsky, president of the rival Russian Jewish Congress. Shayevich called the two events "obviously part of one grand campaign". Lazar and FEOR's lay head Mikhail Gluz denied any link to the Kremlin administration, and Lazar publicly called for Gusinsky's release.[8][9] The Moscow Jewish Community's director, Pavel Feldblum, said that a rabbi elected only by Lubavitch rabbis "can only be the chief rabbi of Lubavitch in Russia".[8] Lazar was given Russian citizenship in 2000.[1]
The historian David Berger, an Orthodox critic of Chabad messianism, wrote at the time that "The recently formed Federation of Jewish Communities has installed a Chabad emissary named Berel Lazar as the country's chief rabbi". He called this "part of a larger power struggle within the community", and noted that "the new group enjoys the sympathy of the government".[10]
Funding and Lev Leviev
In 2002 JTA described the Israeli diamond magnate Lev Leviev as "the president and principal financial backer" of FEOR's parent body, the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS. Lazar told JTA that Leviev had promised: "Anything you do above what is already existing, I'm going to pay for — fully".[11] In 2007 JTA reported that the rival KEROOR had "lost the battlefield" to FEOR, which was "mainly funded by Leviev and helped by federal authorities".[12] For the funders, see Russian oligarchs and Chabad.
Relationship with the Kremlin
FEOR's biography says that in 2001 Lazar joined the presidential Council for Interaction with Religious Associations.[4] A presidential decree of 31 March 2004 awarded him the Order of Friendship "for merits in the development of spiritual culture and strengthening friendship between peoples".[13] In April 2014 he received the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class.[4] At a Kremlin meeting that month he told Putin: "it is thanks to you that we feel at ease and at home in Russia today, and that we can enjoy the highest degree of freedom of worship".[14] The historian Galina Zelenina quotes him in 2014: "Naturally, we support this rule as far as we can". She calls FEOR's "effective and continuous alliance with the Kremlin" the "cornerstone" of its dominance.[15]
After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, according to the Times of Israel, Lazar "denounced fellow-Chabad Ukrainian rabbis who opposed the move and told them to remain quiet about the 'activity of politicians'".[3] After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 he wrote: "Personally, I am ready for any mediation, ready to do anything I can and beyond to silence the guns and to stop the bombs." The Times of Israel called this "a major break from Lazar's previous stances". His statements did not name Russia as the aggressor.[3] JTA described him and his deputy as "engaging in a delicate balancing act aimed at maintaining safety and access to Jewish life for the country's Jews".[16] Goldschmidt, by contrast, left Russia in 2022 after reportedly refusing to back the war.[17] Details are on Berel Lazar and the Kremlin.
Messianism
Lazar's position on Chabad messianism is disputed. Berger writes that Lazar's name "has appeared on the ruling on at least five occasions from 1998 to 2000 in English, Hebrew, and Russian". The ruling in question is a rabbinic declaration, first issued in late 1997, that Jewish law requires belief in the late Rebbe's messiahship.[18] Berger reports that an unnamed official of the World Jewish Congress told him he had seen Lazar open a major Jewish event in Moscow in 1998 by "reciting the Yehi", the messianist acclamation.[19] For the further claim that the ruling was reprinted in Russian with all eighteen signatories from the former Soviet Union, Berger relies on Goldschmidt, whom he describes as "engaged in a struggle with Chabad". Goldschmidt was therefore a rival of Lazar's, not a neutral witness.[19]
In the introduction to the 2008 paperback edition, Berger writes that Lazar told a friend of Berger's that he had abandoned belief in the Rebbe's messiahship after 1994, but that Berger holds "a photocopy of a 1998 letter in Rabbi Lazar's own hand in which he refers to the Rebbe as melekh hamashiah". He also reports that Lazar's secretary wrote to Commentary in December 2001 asserting that "it was known that the signature was a forgery". Berger replies that he "cannot know whether or not the signature is genuine", but that "there is no record of Rabbi Lazar's objecting to its use".[20] These are Berger's claims, and Lazar's office disputes them. This page does not state that Lazar is a messianist. See Chabad messianism.
- Editor's note: Lazar's own current statements on messianism, and the Commentary letter of December 2001, have not yet been checked against the originals. No biographical source beyond FEOR's own account has been found for his early life.
See also
- Berel Lazar and the Kremlin
- Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia
- Russian oligarchs and Chabad
- Chabad Lubavitch of Russia
- Schneerson library case
- Chabad messianism
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Jewish Split Widens With 2 Chief Rabbis", Moscow Times, June 2000.
- ↑ "Oligarch Abramovich visits Moscow Chabad", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 29 November 2007.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "'Putin's rabbi' calls for end to war in Ukraine, offers to mediate", Times of Israel, 2022.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Главный раввин России" (Chief Rabbi of Russia), Office of the Chief Rabbi of Russia, accessed 16 October 2026. Chabad-side primary source (in Russian).
- ↑ "Anti Semitism To Remain Marginal In Russia", Lubavitch.com (Interfax-Religion interview). Chabad-side primary source.
- ↑ "25 Years After Fall of Soviet Union, the Untold Story of its Jewish Pioneers", eJewishPhilanthropy, December 2016.
- ↑ "Russian Jews Unite and More Notes From the Editor's Desk", Chabad.org News. Chabad-side.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Rabbi's election, mogul's arrest raise tensions in Russia", J. The Jewish News of Northern California (JTA), 16 June 2000.
- ↑ "Bloodless Coup", Jewish Journal (JTA), June 2000.
- ↑ David Berger, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference (London and Portland, Oregon: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008 paperback edn), p. 118. Critical source.
- ↑ Michael S. Arnold, "Philanthropist has ear of world leaders", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 3 March 2002.
- ↑ "Taking a back seat to Chabad in Russia", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 14 February 2007.
- ↑ Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 456, 31 March 2004, Kremlin.ru. Primary source.
- ↑ "Meeting with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar and President of the Federation of Jewish Communities Alexander Boroda", Kremlin.ru, 14 April 2014. Primary source.
- ↑ Galina Zelenina, "'Our Community is the Coolest in the World': Chabad and Jewish Nation-Building in Contemporary Russia", Contemporary Jewry (2018), doi:10.1007/s12397-018-9250-0. Scholarly source.
- ↑ "In rare and delicate statement, Russia's Chabad rabbis call to 'end the suffering'", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 8 September 2022.
- ↑ "Moscow's chief rabbi leaves Russia amid pressure to back war in Ukraine", Reuters, 8 June 2022.
- ↑ Berger, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, pp. 90, 121. Critical source.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Berger, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, p. 122 and n. 12. Critical source.
- ↑ Berger, The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference, Introduction to the Paperback Edition, pp. xxxiv–xxxv. Critical source; the Commentary letter itself has not been checked.