Maxim D. Shrayer, at The Blogs

Maxim D. Shrayer

Nov 8, 2022, 10:00 AM

The Shepherd, the Hostage, or the Deliverer?

In part 1 and part 2 of this essay I argued that, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rabbis in Russia and Ukraine found themselves on opposite sides of justice. The spirit of trenchant refusal to leave Russia, coupled with...

Nov 7, 2022, 9:43 AM

Russia’s Silent Rabbis and Russia’s Exiled Rabbis

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt speaking to Tim Sebastian on Deutsche Welle. 7 September 2022. (YouTube)

As I argued in the first installment of this essay, the vast majority of Russia’s Jewish religious leaders have opted not to speak out against Putin’s murderous war. In contrast, Jewish religious leaders in Ukraine have rallied behind the...

Nov 6, 2022, 4:45 AM

Rabbis on Opposite Sides of Justice

On March 1, 2022 Rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman, the Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi of the Brodsky Choral Synagogue in Kyiv, recorded and made public a video appeal “to the rabbis of Russia, to the Jews of Russia, and simply the Russian...

About Me

Maxim D. Shrayer is an author and a professor at Boston College. His recent books include "Voices of Jewish-Russian Literature," "A Russian Immigrant," and "Immigrant Baggage." Shrayer’s new collection of poetry, "Kinship," is forthcoming in April 2024. Follow him on Twitter @MaximDShrayer

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