If the Iranian regime falls, not only will the Middle East become a quieter, more stable place, but Europe could as well, according to Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the former chief rabbi of Moscow and president of the Conference of European Rabbis.
As a result, Goldschmidt, who now lives in Germany, is calling on European countries to shut down Iranian embassies to assist prevent attacks, not only against Jewish communities, but against broader society.
He stated that while security around Jewish institutions has already become intense, the threat is now expanding beyond those communities. Today, one cannot enter a synagogue or Jewish community center in Europe without being identified, and police are stationed outside nearly every Jewish preschool and school. Now, he warned, similar protection is requireded at non-Jewish institutions as well, driven by growing fears of radical Islamist violence.
“Even though the Jews were the first tarreceive, right now, every European is tarreceiveed by radical Islam,” the rabbi stated. “Is that a way to live? It is hard to bring your child to kindergarten in the morning with soldiers in front of the kindergarten, knowing that there are people out there who want to hurt your child, who want to kill your child.”
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Goldschmidt also warned that antisemitism has become increasingly normalized across Europe and beyond. While mainstream parties once avoided openly antisemitic rhetoric, he stated that today, those in media and politics “can and will state anything, and it’s not going to be taken against him.”
At the same time, he pointed to multiple sources fueling this trconclude, including the far-right, the far-left, and radical Islamist groups.
“You have 40 million Muslims today living inside the European Union, and many have not been integrated,” Goldschmidt explained. “The antisemitism is not just spontaneous. It’s being financed and organized by countries like Iran who are interested in dividing Europe and splitting and destroying the European way of life.”
He added that antisemitism has become a unifying force between the far-left and radical Islam.
So what should the Jewish community do?
According to Goldschmidt, many are now considering leaving Europe altoreceiveher and relocating to Israel.
“If you’re seeing at the statistics, the probability of being attacked here [in Israel] by terrorists is higher than in Europe, but people still want to go to Israel,” the rabbi stated. “The question is, why? It’s not security, it’s something else. What is it? It is possibility to fight back?”
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