Adolf Shayevich
Russian rabbi (born 1937), chief rabbi of the Moscow Choral Synagogue and of KEROOR, whose title of Chief Rabbi of Russia has been contested by Chabad's Berel Lazar since 2000
| Adolf Shayevich
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Shayevich, from the KEROOR website |
| Born | 28 October 1937 Khabarovsk, Soviet Union |
| Nationality | Russian |
| Residence | Moscow |
| Occupation | Rabbi |
| Known for | Rabbi of the Moscow Choral Synagogue from 1983; Chief Rabbi of Russia for the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia (KEROOR) since 1993 |
| Spouse(s) | Married |
| Children | Two sons |
| Education | Khabarovsk Polytechnic Institute (mechanical engineering); rabbinical seminary, Budapest (graduated 1980) |
| Website | keroor.org |
Adolf Solomonovich Shayevich (also transliterated Shaevich; born 28 October 1937) is a Russian Orthodox rabbi. He became rabbi of the Moscow Choral Synagogue in 1983 and was recognised as chief rabbi of the Soviet Union in 1989. Since 1993 he has been Chief Rabbi of Russia for the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Organizations of Russia (KEROOR).[1][2]
In June 2000 a congress convened by the Chabad-led Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR) elected Berel Lazar as a second Chief Rabbi of Russia. In March 2001 Lazar replaced Shayevich on the presidential council for religious organisations.[3][4] The two organisations signed a non-aggression pact in 2015. KEROOR still did not recognise Lazar's title.[5]
Early life and education
According to the biography on the Moscow Choral Synagogue's website, Shayevich was born on 28 October 1937 in Khabarovsk and lived in Birobidzhan for 35 years. He studied mechanical engineering at the Khabarovsk Polytechnic Institute and then worked in mechanisation in Birobidzhan.[1] In 1972 he moved to Moscow and studied at the yeshiva attached to the Choral Synagogue. A year later he went to the rabbinical seminary in Budapest, with help from the New York rabbi Arthur Schneier, and he graduated in 1980.[1]
- Editor's note: KEROOR's own biography gives his year of birth as 1939.[2] The 1937 date follows the synagogue biography. It agrees with Religion News Service, which gave his age as 62 in June 2000, and with Kommersant, which reported that he turned 88 on 28 October 2025.[1][3][6]
Soviet-era rabbinate
Shayevich became rabbi of the Moscow Choral Synagogue in 1983.[1] In 1989 the first congress of the all-Union council of Jewish religious communities elected him chief rabbi of the Soviet Union.[2] Galina Zelenina's study of Chabad in Russia also notes that he "bore the title of Chief Rabbi of the USSR".[7] In 1993 the founding congress of the KEROOR named him Chief Rabbi of Russia. KEROOR also states that he has been a member of the Russian Jewish Congress since 1996 and holds state awards.[2]
In 2000 Religion News Service reported that the rival camps had been "threatening to unmask past KGB involvement". Shayevich denied ever working as a KGB agent. He said: "In America, they wrote that I was the Red rabbi. Here, my parishioners reported to the KGB that I was propagating Zionism."[3]
- Editor's note: no documentary evidence of KGB involvement was found. The only point established by the sources consulted is that the accusation was traded in the Russian press in 2000 and that Shayevich denied it.
Relations with the Federation of Jewish Communities and Berel Lazar
The 2000 election
In 1999 the Russian Jewish Congress, headed by the media owner Vladimir Gusinsky, was competing with the newly formed, Chabad-sponsored Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia for leadership of Russia's Jewish community. Also at stake were communal properties being returned under the state's restitution programme.[8] According to Beliefnet, FEOR was the only Jewish body invited to Vladimir Putin's presidential inauguration on 7 May 2000. In late May Shayevich accused the Kremlin of seeking his removal in order to weaken Gusinsky.[9]
On 13 June 2000 a FEOR conference in Moscow elected Berel Lazar Chief Rabbi of Russia. According to Keston News Service, about 140 community representatives and 26 rabbis attended, most of them from Chabad-Lubavitch. Whether the meeting had a mandate to speak for most of Russia's practising Jews remained disputed.[4] Gusinsky was arrested hours later.[3] Lazar told Religion News Service that the election was unplanned and that he accepted because "Shayevich doesn't do anything to help the Jewish people. He is like a figure sitting in a museum."[3]
Shayevich told the same reporter that Lubavitch representatives had offered him real estate and cash worth about $245,000 to step down and endorse Lazar. Lazar acknowledged that some kind of offer had been discussed but said that Shayevich had asked for it.[3] Shayevich said: "This is much worse than Soviet times. Now, I am battling my brothers. This is a terrible task."[3]
- Editor's note: the $245,000 offer rests on two conflicting accounts given to one reporter. No document or third-party confirmation was found.
State recognition
On 19 June 2000 the Ministry of Culture signed a co-operation agreement with FEOR. Shayevich said it "won't bring anything good to the Jewish community of Russia". The Culture Minister, Mikhail Shvydkoi, said: "We have good relations with both Mr. Shayevich and Mr Lazar. This issue will be resolved inside the Jewish community."[9] According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Lazar left the Russian Jewish Congress in 2000 after Gusinsky and Shayevich criticised the war in Chechnya. Lazar said: "Challenging the government is not the Jewish way, and [Gusinsky] put the Jewish community in harm's way."[5]
President Putin opened FEOR's Moscow Jewish Community Centre in September 2000.[8] In December 2000 Avraham Berkowitz, executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, was attacked in the mikveh of the Choral Synagogue, Shayevich's synagogue, after a private meeting there about easing tensions between the two groups. Sue Fishkoff reports that the police investigation "turned up no leads".[8]
- Editor's note: no one is reported to have been charged over the attack on Berkowitz. Nothing in the sources links Shayevich to it.
In March 2001 Lazar replaced Shayevich on the presidential Council for Co-operation with Religious Organisations. KEROOR communities protested against "such clear discrimination against traditional Judaism in favour of Chabad, represented by Lazar".[4] Keston News Service recorded the two sides' explanations. Berkowitz said that Shayevich had been "appointed during Soviet times to follow the government line" and that "the government is respecting the decision of the Jewish communities". KEROOR's director, Zinovy Kogan, said that Putin had come to regard Shayevich as "Gusinsky's man".[4]
Later relations
In March 2015 KEROOR and the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS signed a non-aggression pact. Both committed not to speak ill of each other in public. KEROOR still did not recognise Lazar's title. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that the Federation operated in 160 cities, against KEROOR's 34.[5] Galina Zelenina writes that Russian Chabad had for twenty years taken a position opposed to that of KEROOR and Shayevich, a body which "allowed itself to take sides in Russian politics". Chabad's own stated position was that a Jewish leader should deal only with Jewish matters.[10]
Recent activity
Shayevich has continued to comment publicly as chief rabbi of the KEROOR. In October 2025 Gazeta.ru carried his comment on the Gaza ceasefire.[11] The synagogue biography, archived in 2024, gave his titles as Chief Rabbi of Russia and chairman of the community council of the Moscow Jewish Religious Community (MERO).[1]
See also
- Berel Lazar
- Berel Lazar and the Kremlin
- Competition for Jewish communal leadership in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union
- Russian oligarchs and Chabad
- Chabad Lubavitch of Russia
External links
- KEROOR: Chief Rabbi of Russia (in Russian)
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Moscow Choral Synagogue, "Rabbi Adolf Solomonovich Shaevich" (in Russian), archived 22 May 2024, accessed 22 October 2026. Official (synagogue).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 KEROOR, "Главный раввин России" (Chief Rabbi of Russia) (in Russian), accessed 22 October 2026. Official (KEROOR).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Religion News Service, "Hasty Election of Chief Rabbi Reveals Rifts in Russian Judaism", June 2000, accessed 22 October 2026. Press.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Geraldine Fagan, "Russia: Total Eclipse of Soviet-Era Chief Rabbi", Keston News Service, 24 July 2001, accessed 22 October 2026. Press.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Cnaan Liphshiz, "A Russian chief rabbi stands by his strongman, a.k.a. Putin", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 4 June 2015, accessed 22 October 2026. Press.
- ↑ Kommersant, 28 October 2025 (in Russian), accessed 22 October 2026. Press.
- ↑ Galina Zelenina, "'Our Community is the Coolest in the World': Chabad and Jewish Nation-Building in Contemporary Russia", Contemporary Jewry, 2018, note 8.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch, New York: Schocken Books, 2003, pp. 119–120.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Russian government recognizes upstart Jewish group", Beliefnet, 19 June 2000, accessed 22 October 2026. Press.
- ↑ Galina Zelenina, "Serving the Jews, Serving the Empire: Discursive Hierarchy and Messianic Temporality in Russian Chabad", in Jody Myers and Nechumi Malovicki-Yaffe (eds), New Trends in Haredi Culture and Society, Casden Institute annual review 22, 2024, pp. 29–58.
- ↑ Gazeta.ru, 9 October 2025 (in Russian), accessed 22 October 2026. Press.