DUSHANBE, April 14, Asia-Plus — Authorities of Dushanbe’s Ismoili Somoni district have sued the Dushanbe synagogue over vacating the building in the center of Dushanbe. The synagogue sits on a prime site in the middle of Dushanbe, where a new presidential complex, the Palace of Nations, is being built.
The source at the Ismoili Somoni district government said that the synagogue should be destroyed to make way for the construction of a memorial architectural complex dedicated to Ismoili Somoni. According to him, members of the Jewish community have been repeatedly asked to vacate the synagogue building, which is to be pulled down. “However all our requests have been left without reply,” the source said, noting that hearing of the case started in the Ismoili Somonis district court on April 4.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, the rabbi of the synagogue, Mikhail Aburakhmanov, confirmed that they received a notice on April 2. “The Ismoili Somoni authorities demand that synagogue should be relocated,” said Abdurakhamnov, “They want us to vacate the building without further solution of our destiny.”
In the meantime, Shavkat Saidov, a spokesman for the Dushanbe mayor, said that the Dushanbe authorities had given them a plot of land in the city’s Firdavsi districts and the synagogue representatives were supposed to submit a design for a new building of the synagogue to the mayor’s office by the end of 2007
We will recall that in May 2004, Dushanbe authorities ordered the city”s small Jewish community to vacate the country”s only synagogue by July so its site can be used for a new presidential palace. The rabbi of the synagogue, Mikhail Abdurakhmanov, attempted to persuade the authorities to allow the synagogue to remain, saying that the Jewish community is too small and too poor to build another synagogue. City officials said that allowing the structure to stand would spoil the layout of the new complex, and offered a plot of land for construction of a new synagogue. Tajik officials insist the 100-year-old building has no historic value.
