(lubavitch.com) Jewish life in Albania and Montenegro, which has been flat lining since the Holocaust, got a jolt this week. Montenegro took steps to accord Judaism official status, and Albania saw its first Torah dedication in at least 60 years. 

Montenegrin President Filip Vujanović, Prime Minister Igor Lukšić, and Parliamentary President Ranko Krivokapić agreed in principle to grant Judaism status as an officially recognized religion after meeting with a high profile rabbinical delegation organized by Chabad representatives to the Balkan region and joined by Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger.

Story Highlights

• Montenegrin government officials agree in principle to accord Judaism official status after meeting with rabbinical delegation

• First Torah in at least 60 years dedicated in Tirana, Albania

• Brother of Sbarro Pizzeria bombing victims dedicated Torah

• High holiday services to be held in both Balkan countries

Currently, Judaism is relegated to non-governmental organization status, which does not afford it the benefits assigned to state-recognized religions. 

"I told the prime minister that we are too ancient a nation to be thought of as  an organization," Chief Rabbi Metzger told Lubavitch.com. There are 150 known Jews in Montenegro with a total population thought to be about 1,000.

Montenegrin Jewish community president Jasa Alfandari was exultant. "We now feel like are part of the greater Jewish community. I feel on top of the world. I haven't had a drop to drink, but I am drunk with happiness." 

The task of building a community to suit the new status falls to Rabbi Yoel Kaplan, Chabad's representative in nearby Thessaloniki, Greece, and chief rabbi of neighboring Albania. Rabbi Kaplan intends to hold Rosh Hashanah services in Montenegro this year. "Jewish life is moving forward in Montenegro," he said. 

As RCE director of European Jewish Public Affairs Rabbi Levi Matusof and Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, made arrangements for the visit, the Montenegrin Jewish community took steps to upgrade one of the few remaining monuments of its long Jewish history. They built a new wall around a centuries old Jewish cemetery.  

The Balkans are seeing an influx of investments from overseas. Overtures to  the Jewish community extend welcome to foreign Jewish business and to Jewish tourists in the region.

The day before the Montenegro meeting, the delegation joined in the celebration of a Torah dedication in Tirana, Albania. 

Meir Schijveschuurder, whose parents and three siblings were murdered in the Sbarro pizzeria suicide bombing in Jerusalem ten years ago, dedicated the Torah. Now a father and an attorney, Schijveschuurder donated a Torah in memory of his family to Chabad in Sweden, the country of his birth. 

Albania, thought to have a population of 2000 Jews, will have High Holiday services led by visiting Chabad rabbis and a truck-top sukkah hut crisscrossing the country over the holiday of Sukkot. 

The rabbinical delegation met with President Bamir Topi, Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the Mayor of Tirana, Lulzim Basha. 

During the dedication ceremony, the Torah was paraded along capital city Tirana's streets on its way to the small Jewish center-synagogue. Onlookers, few of whom had seen a Torah, let alone a bunch of dancing rabbis, gaped. The synagogue stands in front of Albania's deceased communist dictator Enver Hoxha's former home.   

"Once Jews would have been afraid under communist rule to admit they are Jewish,” said Rabbi Metzger, “but now we are triumphant." 

Photos by Meir Alfasi