Jerusalem religious leaders press Russian patriarch to appeal to Putin for peace

By Lazar Berman

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21 March 2022, 7:17 pm

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Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter

A group of local religious leaders have attached a letter to the outer wall of Jerusalem’s Russian Orthodox Holy Trinity Cathedral on Monday afternoon, calling on Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill to ask Russian President Vladimir Putin to “take immediate steps to de-escalate the conflict [in Ukraine], and seek a peaceful resolution to it.”

“We are saddened to see the fighting, which primarily pits Orthodox Christians against each other,” the letter reads. “The current conflict has already resulted in a significant loss of life, of both combatants and civilians.”

The letter also warns of potential war between nuclear powers.

Kirill, 75, is a close ally of Putin, sharing a vision of a muscular Russia defending traditional Christian values from an immoral West. His public statements on the Ukraine-Russia war have been in line with Moscow’s rhetoric.

Rabbi Yonatan Neril posts an interfaith letter against the war in Ukraine to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill on the walls of Jerusalem’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, March 21, 2022 (Lazar Berman/Times of Israel)

“I believed it was important that there be a public event of religious leaders in the Holy Land affirming the importance of peace, and publicly calling on Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church to speak with President Putin to seek peace,” Rabbi Yonatan Neril, founder and director of the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development tells The Times of Israel.

“Religious leaders in the Holy Land have moral authority,” he continues. “It’s important that they not be silent. It’s important that they speak out, and today they spoke out.”

Neril, who organized the event, reached out to the two Russian Orthodox archmandrites in Jerusalem, one of whom wrote back, saying that he had forwarded it to the other clergyman who was in direct contact with Patriarch Kirill.

The event is attended by Latin Patriarch Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Rev. Karin Ekblom of the Swedish Theological Institute, Muslim Sheikh Hassan Abu Galion of Rahat, Rabbi Rasson Arousi of the Chief Rabbinate’s Commission for Dialogue with the Holy See, American Jewish Committee International Director of Interreligious Affairs Rabbi David Rosen, and other Druze, Muslim, Christian, and Jewish leaders.