Adolf Shayevich
Encyclopedia
Adolf Solomonovich Shayevich (born 1938; ; the first name is sometimes also transcribed as Adolph, and the surname as Shayevitch or Shaevich) has been since 1983 the rabbi of Moscow Choral Synagogue
, which has been traditionally considered as Moscow's main Jewish temple.
During the waning days of the Soviet Union
, Shayevich was sometimes unofficially referred to in the West as the "Soviet Union's Chief Rabbi".
Presently he is considered the Chief Rabbi of Russia
by the Russian Jewish Congress
, one of the two major Jewish organization in Russia (of which he also is a member of the presidium). His claim to this title is not universally recognized, however, because the country's other major Jewish organization, Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia
, has its own Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar
.
While the Russian Federation is a secular state, the federal government has referred to both Lazar and Shayevich as the "Chief Rabbi of Russia".
, in a fairly secular family of Western Ukrainian
Jewish origin.
In the early 1970s he left his job as a chief mechanic with a local government agency and moved to Moscow. According to his own recollection, he was looking for a change of environment, a more meaningful life where people are not tempted to spend their free time drinking. However, he found it difficult to find a job in Moscow: as he remembers it, employers were wary about hiring a Jew, as they would not want to have any problems on their hands if the employee were to decide to migrate to Israel
. However, in 1972 he was admitted to the small religious school affiliated with the Moscow Choral Synagogue
, the main synagogue of the city.
In 1973 the visiting New York rabbi Arthur Schneier
, who had long had good relations both with the chief rabbi of the Moscow Synagogue, Yakov Fishman and with the Soviet ambassador in the US Anatoly Dobrynin
, helped two Soviet rabbinical students -
Adolf Shayevich and Yefim Levitis (who was to become the rabbi of the Leningrad Synagogue
later on) to enter
the Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest, the only rabbinical training institution that operated at the time in the Soviet Bloc.
He and Levitis became the first two Soviet rabbinical students in their generation who were allowed to go to study abroad.
where he was ordained as a rabbi in April 1980.
It was in Budapest where he met his wife.
Back in Moscow, the Council for Religious Affairs
(the Soviet government's office for dealing with the religious institutions) suggested that the new rabbi goes back to Birobidzhan - the place where there wasn't even a synagogue at the time - but Rabbi Fishman offered Shayevich a position as his deputy at Moscow Choral Synagogue
, located in downtown Moscow's Arkhipov Street. In the summer 1983, after the death of Fishman, Shayevich took over his post as the chief rabbi of the synagogue.
As this was Moscow's largest and principal synagogue,
and the only synagogue in central Moscow, this appointment also made him the Chief Rabbi of Moscow
.
In 1984, Shayevich visited the United States in a delegation of Soviet religious leaders, hosted by the US National Council of Churches
. In 1988, he spent 3 months studying at Yeshiva University
in New York.
In a letter dated January 1, 1989, Rabbi Shayevich informed the World Jewish Congress
that he was no longer a member of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public
; that made it possible his participation in the WJC.
Shayevich was appointed the chief rabbi of Russia by the Russian Jewish Congress
, and Rabbi Berel Lazar
is the officially recognized Chief Rabbi of Russia by the Russian government.
In June 2000 the dispute between Lazar and Shayevich escalated after Chabad requested that Shayevitch resign his claim to the post. When Lazar was named by the Kremlin to a high-profile governmental advisory panel that includes leaders of all religions officially recognized by the Russian government the Kremlin demonstrated that it officially recognized Lazar as the religious leader of the Russian Jewish community, replacing congress’s Adolf Shayevich, who until then had occupied the post.
The Russian Government has not invited Shayevich to any state events or giving him any posts. Lazar on the other hand as the Kremlin recognized Chief Rabbi of Russia, has received a number of important official positions and has been showered with medals by the Russian government. Shayevich's closeness to Vladimir Gusinsky
, the head of the Russian Jewish Congress
is thought to be the cause of his isolation. After Gusinsky supported Putin's rivals for President in 1999, Putin immediately brought Lazar into his circle on becoming president.
In 1987 Shayevich was awarded the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples
.
In 2008, on the occasion of the rabbi's 70th anniversary, he was awarded the highest award of the City Government of Moscow, the "Medal of Merit for Moscow", by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Moscow Choral Synagogue
The Moscow Choral Synagogue is the main synagogue in Russia and in the former Soviet Union. It is located in central Basmanny District at 10, Bolshoy Spasogolinischevsky Lane, close to Kitai-Gorod Metro station. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt is the spiritual head of this Synagogue.-History:The...
, which has been traditionally considered as Moscow's main Jewish temple.
During the waning days of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Shayevich was sometimes unofficially referred to in the West as the "Soviet Union's Chief Rabbi".
Presently he is considered the Chief Rabbi of Russia
Chief Rabbi of Russia
The Chief Rabbi of Russia is the leader of the Jewish communities in Russia since 1990. Currently there are two Chief Rabbis of Russia: Rabbi Berel Lazar of Chabad and Adolf Shayevich from the Congress of the Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia...
by the Russian Jewish Congress
Russian Jewish Congress
The Russian Jewish Congress is a non-profit charitable fund and the largest secular organisation of Russian Jews. It was established in 1996 by the initiative group of the Jewish businessmen, active workers and religious figures for revival of the Jewish life in Russia...
, one of the two major Jewish organization in Russia (of which he also is a member of the presidium). His claim to this title is not universally recognized, however, because the country's other major Jewish organization, Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia
Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia
Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia — Russian religious organization, unifying communities of «orthodox» Judaism, mostly of Chabad Hasidic movement...
, has its own Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berel Lazar
Berel Lazar
Rabbi Shlomo Dovber Pinchas Lazar, better known as Berel Lazar, is an Orthodox, Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi. He is presently Chief Rabbi of Russia, and chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities...
.
While the Russian Federation is a secular state, the federal government has referred to both Lazar and Shayevich as the "Chief Rabbi of Russia".
Biography
Adolf Shayevich was raised in BirobidzhanBirobidzhan
Birobidzhan is a town and the administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Trans-Siberian railway, close to the border with the People's Republic of China....
, in a fairly secular family of Western Ukrainian
Western Ukraine
Western Ukraine may refer to:* Generally, the territories in the West of Ukraine* Eastern Galicia* West Ukrainian National Republic...
Jewish origin.
In the early 1970s he left his job as a chief mechanic with a local government agency and moved to Moscow. According to his own recollection, he was looking for a change of environment, a more meaningful life where people are not tempted to spend their free time drinking. However, he found it difficult to find a job in Moscow: as he remembers it, employers were wary about hiring a Jew, as they would not want to have any problems on their hands if the employee were to decide to migrate to Israel
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
. However, in 1972 he was admitted to the small religious school affiliated with the Moscow Choral Synagogue
Moscow Choral Synagogue
The Moscow Choral Synagogue is the main synagogue in Russia and in the former Soviet Union. It is located in central Basmanny District at 10, Bolshoy Spasogolinischevsky Lane, close to Kitai-Gorod Metro station. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt is the spiritual head of this Synagogue.-History:The...
, the main synagogue of the city.
In 1973 the visiting New York rabbi Arthur Schneier
Arthur Schneier
Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Founder and President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation since 1965, and Senior Rabbi, Park East Synagogue, New York since 1962, is internationally known for his ecumenical work on behalf of religious freedom, human rights, peace and inter-religious dialogue...
, who had long had good relations both with the chief rabbi of the Moscow Synagogue, Yakov Fishman and with the Soviet ambassador in the US Anatoly Dobrynin
Anatoly Dobrynin
Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin was a Russian statesman and a former Soviet diplomat and politician. He was Soviet Ambassador to the United States, serving from 1962 to 1986 and most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was appointed by Nikita Khrushchev....
, helped two Soviet rabbinical students -
Adolf Shayevich and Yefim Levitis (who was to become the rabbi of the Leningrad Synagogue
Grand Choral Synagogue
The Grand Choral Synagogue of St. Petersburg , sometimes called the St. Petersburg Synagogue, is the second largest synagogue in Europe. It was built between 1880 and 1888, and consecrated in 1893. Poet Osip Mandelstam called the Petersburg Synagogue a "lavish, outstandish seductress".-Permit from...
later on) to enter
the Rabbinical Seminary in Budapest, the only rabbinical training institution that operated at the time in the Soviet Bloc.
He and Levitis became the first two Soviet rabbinical students in their generation who were allowed to go to study abroad.
where he was ordained as a rabbi in April 1980.
It was in Budapest where he met his wife.
Back in Moscow, the Council for Religious Affairs
Council for Religious Affairs
The Council for Religious Affairs was a government council in the Soviet Union that dealt with religious activity in the country. It was founded in 1965 though the union of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults...
(the Soviet government's office for dealing with the religious institutions) suggested that the new rabbi goes back to Birobidzhan - the place where there wasn't even a synagogue at the time - but Rabbi Fishman offered Shayevich a position as his deputy at Moscow Choral Synagogue
Moscow Choral Synagogue
The Moscow Choral Synagogue is the main synagogue in Russia and in the former Soviet Union. It is located in central Basmanny District at 10, Bolshoy Spasogolinischevsky Lane, close to Kitai-Gorod Metro station. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt is the spiritual head of this Synagogue.-History:The...
, located in downtown Moscow's Arkhipov Street. In the summer 1983, after the death of Fishman, Shayevich took over his post as the chief rabbi of the synagogue.
As this was Moscow's largest and principal synagogue,
and the only synagogue in central Moscow, this appointment also made him the Chief Rabbi of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
.
In 1984, Shayevich visited the United States in a delegation of Soviet religious leaders, hosted by the US National Council of Churches
National Council of Churches
The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA is an ecumenical partnership of 37 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member denominations, churches, conventions, and archdioceses include Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African American, Evangelical, and historic peace...
. In 1988, he spent 3 months studying at Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University
Yeshiva University is a private university in New York City, with six campuses in New York and one in Israel. Founded in 1886, it is a research university ranked as 45th in the US among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in 2012...
in New York.
In a letter dated January 1, 1989, Rabbi Shayevich informed the World Jewish Congress
World Jewish Congress
The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations...
that he was no longer a member of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public
Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public
On March 29, 1983, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has approved the resolution 101/62ГС to "Support the proposition of the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee and the KGB USSR about the creation of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the...
; that made it possible his participation in the WJC.
Shayevich was appointed the chief rabbi of Russia by the Russian Jewish Congress
Russian Jewish Congress
The Russian Jewish Congress is a non-profit charitable fund and the largest secular organisation of Russian Jews. It was established in 1996 by the initiative group of the Jewish businessmen, active workers and religious figures for revival of the Jewish life in Russia...
, and Rabbi Berel Lazar
Berel Lazar
Rabbi Shlomo Dovber Pinchas Lazar, better known as Berel Lazar, is an Orthodox, Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic rabbi. He is presently Chief Rabbi of Russia, and chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities...
is the officially recognized Chief Rabbi of Russia by the Russian government.
In June 2000 the dispute between Lazar and Shayevich escalated after Chabad requested that Shayevitch resign his claim to the post. When Lazar was named by the Kremlin to a high-profile governmental advisory panel that includes leaders of all religions officially recognized by the Russian government the Kremlin demonstrated that it officially recognized Lazar as the religious leader of the Russian Jewish community, replacing congress’s Adolf Shayevich, who until then had occupied the post.
The Russian Government has not invited Shayevich to any state events or giving him any posts. Lazar on the other hand as the Kremlin recognized Chief Rabbi of Russia, has received a number of important official positions and has been showered with medals by the Russian government. Shayevich's closeness to Vladimir Gusinsky
Vladimir Gusinsky
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Gusinsky is a Russian media baron, is known as the founder of Media-Most holding that included Most Bank, the NTV channel, the newspaper Segodnya and magazines.-Life and career:Gusinsky was born in Moscow....
, the head of the Russian Jewish Congress
Russian Jewish Congress
The Russian Jewish Congress is a non-profit charitable fund and the largest secular organisation of Russian Jews. It was established in 1996 by the initiative group of the Jewish businessmen, active workers and religious figures for revival of the Jewish life in Russia...
is thought to be the cause of his isolation. After Gusinsky supported Putin's rivals for President in 1999, Putin immediately brought Lazar into his circle on becoming president.
In 1987 Shayevich was awarded the Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples
Order of Friendship of Peoples
The Order of Friendship of Peoples was an order of the Soviet Union, and was awarded to persons , organizations, enterprises, military units, as well as administrative subdivisions of the USSR for accomplishments in strengthening of inter-ethnic and international friendship and cooperation, for...
.
In 2008, on the occasion of the rabbi's 70th anniversary, he was awarded the highest award of the City Government of Moscow, the "Medal of Merit for Moscow", by Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.