{"id":4625,"date":"2013-01-03T09:46:27","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T15:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=4625"},"modified":"2013-01-03T09:49:17","modified_gmt":"2013-01-03T15:49:17","slug":"montenegro-bequeaths-land-for-first-synagogue-in-centuries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/montenegro-bequeaths-land-for-first-synagogue-in-centuries\/","title":{"rendered":"Montenegro bequeaths land for first synagogue in centuries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(JTA) &#8212; The government of Montenegro reportedly has given land to its tiny Jewish community to build the country\u2019s first synagogue in centuries. The last of the paperwork came through on Dec. 31, according to Jasa Alfandari, president of the Jewish Community of Montenegro.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4628\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Montenegro.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4628\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4628 lazyload\" title=\"Montenegro\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Montenegro-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Montenegro-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Montenegro.jpg 800w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/199;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4628\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4628 \" title=\"Montenegro\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Montenegro-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Montenegro-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Montenegro.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-4628\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yasha Alfandri, right, the president of the Montenegro Jewish Community, meeting with Montenegro Prime Minister Igor Luksic in Podgorica, May 30, 2012. (Government of Montenegro)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe have been given a beautiful location in the center of the Podgorica,\u201d the capital of the small Balkan country, Alfandari told JTA.<\/p>\n<p>The site will belong to the Jewish community for 99 years, he said, and was given \u201cas a gift by the government and the city of Podgorica.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The building will be erected with funding secured by Vadim Rabinovich, a Ukraine-born philanthropist and co-chair of the European Jewish Parliament, Alfandari added.<\/p>\n<p>In September, Rabinovich and Joel Rubinfeld, the organization\u2019s second co-chairman, visited the country and lobbied with senior officials for help in making the synagogue a reality.<\/p>\n<p>An area of the former Yugoslavia that became independent in 2006, Montenegro has about 660,000 residents and a Jewish population of a few dozen, according to the EJP. A 2007 Montenegrin statistical study of the country&#8217;s population found that there were 12 Jews.<\/p>\n<p>Rabbi Luciano Moshe Prelevic will supply religious services to the Montenegro Jews. Prelevic, whose father was born in Montenegro, also serves the Jewish community of Croatia as its chief rabbi in Zagreb.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in 2012, Montenegro Prime Minister Igot Luksic signed a statement recognizing Judaism as the country&#8217;s fourth official religion.<\/p>\n<p>A Jewish presence in Montenegro was first documented in the Middle Ages, according to the European Jewish Congress. It is not known whether the Jewish community had built any synagogues or where.<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Montenegro%20bequeaths%20land%20for%20first%20synagogue%20in%20centuries\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[8790,1671,8795,1673,1670,8788,1674,1672],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4625"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4627,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4625\/revisions\/4627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}