Russia Moves to Close Key Jewish Group as Ties With Israel Sour
By Lieber, Boxerman and Gershkovich, Aug. 18, 2022, WSJ

Russia is moving to close an important nonprofit org that helps Russian Jews emigrate to Israel, in a sign of deteriorating relations between the Kremlin and the Israeli government amid tensions over Israel’s stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

On Friday, a Russian court will hear the case against the Jewish Agency for Israel, which the Russian Justice Ministry accuses of violating the country’s privacy laws. The agency, which works closely with the Israeli govt, is responsible for helping
Jews around the world immigrate to Israel and moves against it are seen in Israel as an attack on the country. It has been a significant player in the country’s history and had a central role in the run-up to its founding in 1948.

The agency has operated in Russia since 1989 and has overseen the emigration of more than a million residents of countries in the former Soviet Union to Israel, a country with just over nine million residents. It is also a pillar of Jewish life in Russia,
organizing Jewish communal activities.

Israeli PM Yair Lapid, who has been a vocal critic of the Russian war in Ukraine, has said the closure of the agency in Moscow “would be a serious event that would affect relations” between Israel and Russia.

Israel considers its relationship with Russia as vitally important. In Syria, where Israel has been carrying out a yearslong air campaign to prevent the buildup of Iranian forces on its border, the Israeli and Russian air forces maintain close
communication to avoid unintentional clashes, though they are on different sides of the country’s civil war. Israel also says its ties with Moscow are a boon to Russia’s Jewish community, one the largest outside of Israel and North America.

Lapid, who became PM in July, has been a more vocal critic of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine than his predecessor, Naftali Bennett, who tried to mediate between Kyiv and Moscow early in the conflict.

Despite Mr. Lapid’s criticism of the war, Israel continues to refrain from providing weapons to the Ukrainians. It has, however, sent humanitarian aid and defensive equipment.

The criticisms by Israel’s leadership have irked Moscow. Last month, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Israeli leadership’s “unobjective” and “unconstructive” statements on the war in Ukraine have had a negative
impact on the countries’ relations.

The Kremlin didn’t respond to a request for comment on the tensions.

The current standoff over the Jewish Agency began when the Russian Justice Ministry accused the organization’s representatives in Moscow in July of violating the country’s privacy laws by keeping the data on applications to immigrate to Israel in a
database in Israel rather than in Russia, according to an Israeli official.

The Israeli official also said Russia has complained that the Jewish Agency’s efforts were leading to a brain drain in Russia. Israeli law allows any Jew with a single Jewish grandparent to immigrate under the country’s law of return.

Talks to resolve the problem have so far proved fruitless, said the Israeli official, who expressed pessimism as to whether the Jewish Agency would be able to continue to function in Russia.

The official, as well as Jewish officials from Russia and analysts, said it wasn’t clear how much the Jewish agency was being targeted specifically over Israel’s stance on the war in Ukraine, or whether it has been caught up in Russia’s widespread
crackdown against foreign organizations within its borders.

Andrey Kortunov, director-general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a Kremlin advisory board on foreign and defense policy, said the Jewish Agency is likely being targeted because of Moscow’s heightened distrust of foreign groups and the
authorities’ alarm over brain drain. He said the Kremlin could also be sending Israel a message over its stance on the war.

Kortunov added that Russia’s ties with Israel have become shakier, not only because of the country’s position on the war, but because of Moscow’s growing ties with Tehran and the departure of Benjamin Netanyahu from his role as PM last year. For
Putin, he said, personal ties with world leaders—particularly those he views as strong—play a significant role in Moscow’s foreign policy.

In recent years, Israel has sought to build ties with Moscow to keep Russia away from Iran, said Ksenia Svetlova, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, a U.S. think tank.

Netanyahu avoided criticizing Russia in 2014 when Moscow seized Crimea from Ukraine, one of the few U.S.-allied leaders of state not to do so, and a rapprochement between the two countries followed, Ms. Svetlova said.

Russian criticism of Israeli airstrikes in Syria has grown over the past year, including inside the United Nations.

“Until now, it has been comfortable for Russia to have this balancing act of Iran, Hezbollah, Israel, Turkey and Syria. But that can change,” Ms. Svetlova said, noting that Israel continues to frequently carry out airstrikes despite the Russian
criticism.

Arkady Milman, the Israeli ambassador to Russia from 2003 to 2006, said Moscow’s moves against the Jewish Agency were more likely to be connected to a decadelong crackdown against foreign organizations inside Russia than to Israel’s stance on the war.

“In practice, Putin’s regime does not like having strangers and foreigners in his house who will promote the values of liberal democracy, openness and of course, human rights. And this intolerance has grown to such an extent that any contact with the
West is a threat to the organization,” said Mr. Milman, now head of the Russia program at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies.

Moscow has shuttered numerous organizations with foreign funding since the start of the war.

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, who left Russia at the start of the Ukraine war after serving for three decades as Moscow’s chief rabbi, said the Jewish Agency had survived so long in Russia—despite the country’s hostility to foreign organizations—
thanks to the close relationship between Russia and Israel, as well as the special status of the Russian Jewish community.

Putin, who has long cast himself as a backer of the community, regularly speaks out against anti-Semitism. In 2012, oligarchs close to Mr. Putin funded the building of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow.

However, since the start of the war, Israeli officials estimate that around 20,000 Russian Jews have immigrated to Israel, up nearly fivefold over the same period last year, Jewish Agency officials said.

Rabbi Goldschmidt said at least another 30,000 Russian Jews with Israeli citizenship have also, at least temporarily, moved to Israel. Many others have left for other countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.

They have been motivated to emigrate, he said, due to economic concerns, fears of being trapped inside Russia or drafted in the military, general fear over the future of Russia, as well as rising anti-Semitism in the country. This includes the arrest of
prominent Jewish academics, and the recent statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Adolf Hitler was himself Jewish.

“These are complicated times and there are many dark clouds on the horizon, also for the Jewish community,” Rabbi Goldschmidt said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-moves-to-close-key-jewish-group-as-ties-with-israel-sour-11660816594

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