An unstable Russia raises concerns about Jewish organizations

A source in a major Jewish organization said Saturday night that “there are many reasons for concern for Russian Jewry and citizens in general.”

The source relates to the rebellion that took place within the Wagner Group, a paramilitary organization from Russia that was once closely linked to the Russian government during President Vladimir Putin’s era.

MK Yisrael Beytenu Oded Forer, chairman of the Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, said he would invite the committee to discuss immigration from Russia to Israel in light of the recent conflict.

“The government must recalculate the path related to immigration from Russia and not miss the opportunity for a large wave of immigration,” Forer said in a statement on Saturday, adding that the discussion will deal with the government’s preparedness for the crisis “and its impact on the Jewish community and immigration to Israel.”

Forer stated that, according to the State Department’s assessment, there are between 60,000 and 70,000 Israeli citizens currently in Russia and more than 500,000 Jews entitled to the Law of Return.

Most, if not all, of the Israeli citizens currently in Russia are dual citizens, and therefore, it is to be expected that the Israeli attitude towards them will be like this. The concept is that most Israelis will not go to Russia as tourists or for business, but people with Israeli citizenship who live in Russia.

“After several months in which I realized that the government-led policy of stopping aid to immigrants from Russia and curtailing expedited immigration procedures, we can understand how disconnected this is from reality,” Forer said. Reality seems to be crashing in the face of the Israeli government.

Emergency immigration from Russia

“While the Ministry of Immigration and Integration decided to cut the immigration budget from Russia and stop emergency immigration procedures, which harms the absorption of immigrants from there, we are now witnessing a significant deterioration in the situation which requires the government to take action quickly.”

It is unclear whether Israel or the Jewish Agency will be able to manage the rapid immigration process from Russia at this point. First of all, Russian Jews living in Israel said on Saturday that there are no places on EL AL flights from Moscow to Tel Aviv in the near future. In addition, it is unclear whether the borders will be opened or not, and the security situation is precarious.

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow, told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that he is “concerned about the situation in Russia,” and “prays for the safety of the Jewish community and Russian citizens.”

An additional issue that many Russian speakers have realized is that there are many anti-Semitic posts on the Internet about the fact that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Mercenary Group, is the son of a Jew. Prigozhin’s father, who died when he was an infant, was Jewish, as was his stepfather, who was also Jewish.