DUSHANBE, March 26, 2009, Asia-Plus — Hasan Asadullozoda, Chairman of the Board of Open Joint-Stock Company (OJSC) Orienbonk, which is Tajikistan’s largest commercial bank, has donated a building for Dushanbe synagogue in the center of Dushanbe.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the rabbi of the synagogue, Mikhail Abdarakhmanov, said that after the demolition of the only synagogue in June 2008, Dushanbe”s small Jewish community, mostly poor and elderly, had not had place of worship for almost nine months. According to him, the donated building is in a very good condition and does not require any additional repairs.
“We are currently equipping the building for the synagogue and the new synagogue is planed to be officially opened on April 8, when Passover begins,” the rabbi said.
Mr. Abdarakhmanov added that so-called mini presentation of the new synagogue was held on March 18 and Asadullozoda attended the mini presentation. Noting that the donation was an act of good will, the rabbi said the Orienbonk head had close friendly relations with managers of the Congress of Bukhara Jews of the United States and Canada.
Most of Tajikistan”s Jews emigrated in the early 1990s, and almost all of those who remain – little more than 300 in the entire country — are elderly and poor, Abdurakhmanov said. The majority of them are parishioners of the synagogue.
We will recall that the demolition of the nearly 100-year-old synagogue and all other buildings in the neighborhood took place under the Dushanbe city administration”s ambitious municipal redevelopment plan that includes the construction of modern buildings.
The Dushanbe authorities gave to the Dushanbe Jewish community a plot in exchange. But the Dushanbe Jewish community representative said the distant plot of land the government had given them in exchange was inadequate compensation. They said that they could afford to build the new synagogue, and they said the new land, on the edge of the city, was too far away.
The destruction of the nearly 100-year-old synagogue actually began in February 2006 when the ritual bath, kosher butcher shop, and religious classrooms were bulldozed. But pressure from international institutions led to the demolition process being temporarily halted.
Last April the authorities sued synagogue leaders for disregarding the city administration”s instructions to vacate the building. Both the district court and an appeals court ruled in favor of the local authorities and in June 2008, the Dushanbe synagogue was destroyed completely.
