Maxim D. Shrayer on the Moral Obligations and Dilemmas of Russia’s Jewish Leaders

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On February 24, when Russian president Vladimir Putin began his country’s invasion of Ukraine, Jewish leaders found themselves caught on opposing sides of an active war. Ukrainian rabbis have suggested that the war is a holy fight between good and evil. Jewish religious leaders in Russia, meanwhile, have come under heavy pressure to denounce the war publicly, which most of them have thus far avoided doing, no doubt in part since the Russian government is now cracking down on dissent. Instead, they’ve generally taken a publicly pacifist position, arguing that all war is bad and that holiness can be found in peace.

On this week’s podcast, Maxim D. Shrayer, Maxim D. Shrayer, a professor of Russian, English, and Jewish studies at Boston College, joins Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver to discuss how those Russian Jewish leaders have tried to balance their competing priorities. As Shrayer points out, though many of them likely oppose the war, they’re also called to care for their communities, maintain functional relations with the political authorities, and preserve what their congregants have built up over the decades since the end of the Soviet Union. So what are the moral obligations of Russia’s Jewish leaders right now?

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The history of the Jewish people in Russia, Ukraine, and the lands of Eastern Europe is, of course, very long and dramatic.
0:16.0	Hundreds of thousands of Jewish women and men live in Ukraine and Russia.
0:20.0	And, when, on February 24th of this year,
0:23.3	Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated a military invasion of Ukraine,
0:28.4	Jewish communities suddenly found themselves on opposing sides of an active line of battle.
0:33.9	In recent months, religious leaders in Russia have been under pressure to denounce the war
0:38.1	at the very time that the government has reduced its tolerance for dissent. How would Russian
0:43.7	Jewish leaders balance the competing priorities to care for their communities, maintain
0:49.4	functional relations with political authorities, and not foolishly destroy all that their congregants had
0:56.3	materially built up for themselves over the last decades.
0:59.8	I'm interested in looking at this as an example of communal leadership and prudence.
1:04.3	What is the moral obligation in this case, and how does one weigh the practical considerations
1:09.1	of communal leadership in wartime?
1:12.0	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. Today we look at the rabbis in Russia
1:17.3	and Ukraine in light of the ongoing war there and try to see the trade-offs and dilemmas
1:22.8	that Russian clergy now face. My guest is the Boston College Professor Maxim Schreier, who, in early
1:29.8	November, published in the Times of Israel, a three-part series on rabbis in the war. If you
1:35.4	enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe to the Tikva podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google
1:41.0	Play, and Spotify. I hope you leave us a five-star review to help us grow this community of
1:45.9	ideas. I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other podcast episodes at podcast at ticfa fund.org.
1:53.1	And of course, if you want to learn more about our work at Tikva, you can visit our website,
1:57.9	tikfafund.org, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Here now is my conversation
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tikvah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tikvah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.