A major European rabbinical group postponed indefinitely a high-profile conference in Azerbaijan due to security concerns, prompting Israel to offer to host it instead.
“We will assist in hosting the conference here in Israel,” Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Chikli wrote in a statement Thursday following his conversation with Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Munich-based Conference of European Rabbis (CER).
The group announced the postponement of the conference a week before its scheduled date in Baku, initially without specifying a reason. Chikli’s statement confirmed speculations that the move was security related. CER did not immediately reply to a JNS query on the cause.
Organizers remain determined to hold the conference as early as November, close to the original date, according to Chikli’s statement. The event is expected to host hundreds of rabbis from dozens of communities worldwide, with Jerusalem likely to be the chosen location, the statement said.
The “cancellation of the conference in Baku due to security concerns is yet another warning sign regarding the state of European Jewry,” Chikli said. “We will do everything possible to help ensure the conference is held successfully here.”
Antisemitic incidents are extremely rare in Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority country which, under President Ilham Aliyev, has pursued a close military, economic and cultural alliance with Israel. Azerbaijan shares a border with Iran and has close ties with Turkey.
Azerbaijan also has a border and close relations with Moscow. Goldschmidt is considered a “foreign agent” in Russia following his departure from Moscow in 2023, where he had served as a chief rabbi for many years. He has called on Russian Jews to flee the country, warning that they may become scapegoats for hardships brought on by the war that erupted the previous year between Ukraine and Russia.
