Moldova’s Jewish community, together with distinguished guests from across the Jewish world, celebrated the inauguration of Chabad Shliach Rabbi Menachem Mendel Axelrod as Chief Rabbi of the Republic of Moldova.
In a ceremony attended by the Chief Rabbi of Israel and President of the Chief Rabbinate Council, Rabbi Kalman Ber, alongside chief rabbis of several countries and guests from across the Jewish world, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Axelrod was inaugurated Wednesday as Chief Rabbi of the Republic of Moldova.
The setting carried particular significance. The ceremony was held in the Glaziers’ Synagogue, the only synagogue in the country that remained open throughout the communist era — the very building from which, decades ago, Jews in Chișinău quietly obtained matzah, at considerable risk to themselves and their families.
Memory in the Room
The ceremony was opened by Rabbi Alexander Prochansky of Rishon LeZion, who recalled his childhood in Chișinău — including the circumcision performed for him by Rabbi Zalman Abelsky at personal risk, and the matzah his father secretly brought home from the same synagogue.
“My father said he had brought my grandmother special food for her diet,” he recalled. “He didn’t tell us it was matzah, so that we wouldn’t tell our friends at school and put the family in danger.”
Rabbi Zushe Abelsky, Head Shliach to Moldova and son of the late Chief Rabbi, offered the Priestly Blessing to the assembled guests before speaking about his father’s legacy. He described how Chabad in Moldova became a central anchor for tens of thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing Ukraine, recalling the words of one refugee who told him: “Zushe, your Chabad House is our pillow.”
He concluded with special thanks to Rabbi Shneur Zalman and Chana Tiefenbrun, who coordinated the event, as well as to the four other Shluchim families who live and work in Moldova around the clock.
Writing from North America, Gary Torgow, Chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, recognized “with gratitude the devoted leadership provided by Rabbi Zushe Abelsky and the Abelsky family, whose unwavering commitment has helped sustain and nurture Jewish life in Moldova.”
The inauguration, he wrote, “reflects both the honoring of that remarkable legacy and the promise of a vibrant future.”
From across the border, Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki, Chief Rabbi of Dnipro, sent a message of congratulations. He thanked the Jewish community of Chișinău for opening its doors to Ukrainian Jews and caring for them as its own, saying that much of the pain of the war had been eased by that welcome.
Mr. Alexander Bilinkis, Chairman of the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova, welcomed the guests and recalled entering the same synagogue as a ten-year-old boy.
“It was my first encounter with a world I did not know — with Judaism,” he said. “Rabbi Zalman Abelsky revived Jewish life here on the Rebbe’s shlichus, and his grandson, the new Chief Rabbi, continues in his path.”
Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Peles, a member of the leadership of the Jewish communities in the CIS, was honored with the recitation of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s chapter of Psalms.
Israel’s new Ambassador to Moldova, Mr. Yoram Elron, conveyed the blessings of Israel and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He noted that Rabbi Axelrod continues his family’s rabbinic legacy in the country, called the appointment a fitting one, and said he had already witnessed the new Chief Rabbi’s work at close range. He also praised Chabad’s decades of activity in sustaining and revitalizing Jewish life in Moldova.
Thirty-Five Years
Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch in New York reflected on the thirty-five years since Rabbi Zalman Abelsky arrived in Moldova.
Over those decades, he said, the country’s relatively small Jewish community developed an impact far beyond its numbers — perhaps never more visibly than in the weeks following February 2022, when Moldova became a major crossing point for Jews fleeing the war in Ukraine and the Jewish community rose to meet them.
Shluchim, he said, are people who choose to be doers. He concluded by wishing the community and its leadership continued success.
“After the Darkness Comes a Great Light”
The central address was delivered by the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Kalman Ber, who opened by praising the new Chief Rabbi’s father, Rabbi Moshe Axelrod, for the privilege of bringing his son’s light into the world.
“The town of Radin became known throughout the Jewish world because the Chofetz Chaim lived there,” Rabbi Ber said. “From today, Chișinău will be remembered in the Jewish world not for the Kishinev pogroms, but for Rabbi Axelrod.”
The reference needed little explanation in the hall.
In April 1903, during the final days of Passover, forty-nine Jews were murdered in Chișinău and hundreds more were injured. The violence drew protests around the world and permanently etched the city’s name into Jewish memory. The Jewish cemetery in Chișinău still contains the graves of the victims, as well as a genizah holding Torah scrolls desecrated during those days.
Buried in the same cemetery is Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tsirelson, Chief Rabbi of Bessarabia, who led the Chișinău community from 1908, built a Jewish educational system in the region from kindergarten through yeshiva, and represented Bessarabian Jewry in the Romanian parliament. He was killed in Chișinău in 1941, during the first weeks of the German invasion.
Rabbi Ber blessed Rabbi Zushe Abelsky to continue in the path of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and his late father. He also praised Rabbi Arye Goldberg, Director of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, for his work strengthening Jewish communities across the continent.
Turning to the date — the eve of Rosh Chodesh Elul — Rabbi Ber noted that Hallel is recited on Rosh Chodesh in gratitude for the renewal of the moon after it disappears from view.
“After the darkness comes a great light,” he said. “That is exactly what is happening here. After years of cruel severance — pogroms, Nazis, communists — the light of Judaism is shining again.”
Speaking as the son of Holocaust survivors, he said the Jewish people mark their victories not with military parades, but by adding light.
“Today, here in Moldova, we kindle a great light,” he said. “That is our real victory over every pogrom carried out in this city.”
From the Presidency
The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, wrote to the new Chief Rabbi on the day of the ceremony, addressing him officially in his new capacity.
“I congratulate you on your inauguration as Chief Rabbi of the Republic of Moldova,” the President wrote, calling it “a moment of profound significance, taking place for the first time in twelve years.”
Assuming the mission, she added, is a source of joy not only for Moldova’s Jewish community but for society as a whole.
“The history of the Republic of Moldova is indissolubly linked to the history of the Jewish community,” she continued. “For centuries, Jews have contributed to the cultural, economic, scientific and spiritual development of these lands. This heritage obliges us to respect, to gratitude, and to a firm commitment against every form of antisemitism, xenophobia and intolerance.”
The President assured the Chief Rabbi of her openness to cooperation in fostering interfaith dialogue and mutual respect among all faiths.
Former Moldovan President Igor Dodon also sent his wishes.
Letters of blessing arrived from chief rabbis and Jewish leaders around the world, including Rabbi Berel Lazar, Chief Rabbi of Russia, who wrote from Moscow expressing confidence that the new Chief Rabbi would merit “to restore the crown to its former glory.”
The Inauguration
Among those present were Rabbi Mendy Kotlarsky of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, New York; Chief Rabbi of Odessa and Southern Ukraine Rabbi Avraham Wolff; Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs; Chief Rabbi of Romania Rabbi Rafael Shaffer; Chief Rabbi of Chernivtsi and Head Shliach to Bukovina Rabbi Menachem Mendel Glitzenstein; Dayan Levi Raskin, Rov and Dayan of the Lubavitch community in London; Rabbi Meir Stambler, Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine; Rabbi Arye Goldberg, Director of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe; Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Peles, a member of the leadership of the Jewish communities in the CIS; Rabbi Dovid Nachshon, Chairman of the Chabad Mitzvah Tanks in the Holy Land, Tzivos Hashem and the Chabad institutions of Nof HaGalil; and his son Rabbi Menachem Mendel Nachshon, Chief Rabbi of Nof HaGalil.
The ceremony reached its climax with the inauguration itself.
Rabbi Moshe Axelrod, the new Chief Rabbi’s father, together with the Chief Rabbi of Israel and Rabbi Meir Stambler, helped Rabbi Axelrod wrap himself in a tallit as he recited the Shehecheyanu blessing.
Many in the hall were moved to tears by a scene without precedent in Moldova for decades.
A Lineage Continued
Rabbi Axelrod, 36, was born and raised in Atlit, Israel, the son of the city’s Chabad Shliach, Rabbi Moshe Axelrod.
He is the grandson of Rabbi Zalman Abelsky, of blessed memory, who was sent to Moldova by the Lubavitcher Rebbe in 1989, while the country was still under Soviet rule, and later became its first Chief Rabbi following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After his grandfather’s passing, Rabbi Axelrod came to Moldova and continued the work.
Over the years, thousands of Moldovan Jews — as well as tens of thousands of Jewish travelers passing through the country annually on their way to holy gravesites in Ukraine — came to know his devotion to their spiritual and material needs.
For several years, he served in practice as a leading rabbinic figure in Moldova. On Wednesday, that role became official.
The appointment followed a vote two months earlier, when the heads of the country’s six Jewish communities convened for a special election. Rabbi Axelrod was chosen by a wide margin, and the state authorities recognized the result.
He studied in Chabad yeshivos in Lod and Be’er Sheva and received rabbinic ordination through the Lemaan Yilmedu ordination board, whose certificates bear the signatures of Rabbi Eliyahu Yochanan Gurary, Rav of Holon; Rabbi Chaim Shlomo Diskin, Rav of Kiryat Ata; and Rabbi Chaim Yosef Ginsburg of Ramat Aviv, among others.
He was separately certified to officiate at weddings by former Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau.
Rabbi Hershel Schachter, Rosh Yeshiva of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University, also sent a blessing to the Jewish communities of Moldova on the election of their new Chief Rabbi, together with a prayer for his success.
“To Every Jewish Home”
In his own remarks, Rabbi Axelrod spoke of the weight of the responsibility now placed on his shoulders and of his readiness to undertake it.
He pledged to do everything in his power to bring the light of Judaism into every Jewish home in Moldova.
“We will bring redemption to every Jewish home,” he said, “until we merit, with God’s help, the true and complete redemption.”
