Russian chief rabbi Berel Lazar and Gorbachev connected by 'mutual affection', gushes Moscow rabbi
He received the "Nobel Peace Prize", but if it were in my power, I would also give him the Righteous Among the Nations award. So on Sunday this week I was at the "prestigious" Novodevichy Cemetery in the center of Moscow. But it's not a Jewish cemetery, is it? That's right, that's the point.
I walked between the graves of famous writers and poets, scientists and statesmen, past the huge grave of Boris Yeltsin and the carved tombstone of Nikita Khrushchev, and along with the crowd advanced to the fresh grave of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Gorbachev proclaimed the policy of "glasnost" and "perestroika". He personified breakthrough, youth and energy. His willingness to go out to the people and talk to the citizens of the country face to face was unheard of, such was not the case for seventy years.
Gorbachev wanted to breathe life into his country, to renew it. He was one of the most important figures of our time. Among his other merits, we Jews will always remember him as the man who lifted the "Iron Curtain" that closed the borders of the Soviet Union, He won and fulfilled the prophecy of the Rebbe, said several years earlier: "this country" will open its gates and every Jew can leave her.
A few years ago, I was present during one of the visits of Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar to Mikhail Gorbachev. It was clear that they were connected not only by mutual respect, but also by mutual affection. The conversation was fascinating, including the prophetic words of the Rebbe, how Gorbachev approved the opening of a yeshiva and a Jewish school. Before leaving, Gorbachev shook my hand. And I kept in my memory the handshake of the personified Glasnost and Perestroika.