Vita

Pinchas Goldschmidt has been President of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) since 2011, which unites over 700 communal rabbis from Dublin to Khabarovsk. From 1993 to 2022, he served as Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Russia.

•  July 21, 1963 – Born in Zurich, Switzerland
• 1979-1985 – Goldschmidt completed his rabbinical studies at Ponevezh Yeshiva, Telshe Yeshiva in Chicago, and Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, USA, where he earned his MA in Talmudical Jurisprudence. Concurrently, he pursued his secular studies at Johns Hopkins University, where he obtained his Master's in Natural Sciences in 1985.
• 1987 – Ordained by Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Rabbi Yitzchak Kolitz, Rabbi Yisrael Grossman, and Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg.
• 1989 – Moved to the Soviet Union to help rebuild Jewish community life there.
• 1993 (until 2022) – Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Russia
• Since 2011 – President of the Conference of European Rabbis
• 2015 – Co-founder of the European Muslim-Jewish Leadership Council (MJLC)
• 2022 – Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and his refusal to align with the Putin regime and to support his war of aggression against Ukraine, the Chief Rabbi went into exile.
• 2023 – Since the European Rabbinical Conference relocated its headquarters from London to Munich in 2023 due to Brexit, Goldschmidt has been living in Munich.

Goldschmidt speaks seven foreign languages. He and his wife Dara have seven children and eight grandchildren.

Text of the Certificate of Honour (German)

An Christi Himmelfahrt, dem 9. Mai 2024, wurde im Krönungssaal des Aachener Rathauses, der ehemaligen Kaiserpfalz, der Internationale Karlspreis zu Aachen an Oberrabbiner Pinchas Goldschmidt und die jüdischen Gemeinschaften in Europa verliehen als Signal gegen Antisemitismus, Gewalt und Hass, für Toleranz, Dialog und Verständigung sowie als Zeichen der Selbstverständlichkeit jüdischen Lebens in Europa.