Moscow’s chief rabbi received a visa to return to Russia after being barred from the country for nine weeks. The one-month visa, which he hopes to extend, was finally issued Tuesday, Pinchas Goldschmidt told JTA by phone from Israel. Goldschmidt, a Swiss citizen who has been a Russian resident for 15 years, was denied entry to Russia when he arrived Sept. 26 on a flight from Israel. Border guards at the airport cancelled his one-year visa without giving any reason, and Goldschmidt was forced to return to Israel. Russian officials said last month that Goldschmidt had been denied entry for security reasons, but would not go into details. Officials in Israel, the United States and Switzerland, as well as Jewish groups in Europe and North America, worked to resolve the issue. Goldschmidt told JTA he may return to Moscow this week, joining his wife and five children.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.