Dushanbe Synagogue - Controversy Over Demolition of Old Synagogue

Controversy Over Demolition of Old Synagogue

The government ordered the demolition of the entire Jewish community compound, including the synagogue, in accordance with city center regeneration plans, specifically the construction of the Palace of Nations surrounded by extensive landscaped grounds. At the time demolition began, the synagogue was a functioning house of worship serving Dushanbe's small Jewish community (150 to 350 Jews). This was the last remaining synagogue in Tajikistan. While the government argued that the building was of no historical significance and could be demolished in accordance with city planning needs, the Jewish community stated that, as the last remaining Jewish house of prayer in a country that had been a home to Jews for at least two thousand years, the building was of considerable historical significance. The ownership of the building was also disputed. The Jewish community reported that it had documentation of its original (pre-Soviet) ownership of the building and the purchase of the land on which the synagogue had been constructed. The Dushanbe municipal authorities argued, on the other hand, that the state owned the land and the building since it underwent nationalisation in 1952 by the Soviet authorities.

Back in 2004, the Chief Rabbi of Central Asia, Rabbi Abraham Dovid Gurevich, raised the issue of antisemitism, hinting that the prospect of a synagogue standing next to the Palace of Nations would cause embarrassment to the authorities, but the US State Department framed the issue as "bureaucratic, rather than ideological". UNESCO wrote a letter to the government of Tajikistan in 2004 that destruction of the synagogue would be in "contradiction with international standards for the protection of cultural heritage". The BBC reported in 2006 that "those opposed to the demolition had been threatened by officials and most of the congregation are afraid to speak out".

In March 2006 it appeared for a short time that the Government of Tajikistan had reversed their decision and would allow the Jewish community to keep the synagogue on the current site. In May 2006, however, it was announced that the synagogue would be rebuilt on "a suitable new site at the center of the city". Still, the Dushanbe Jewish community, spurred by international public opinion, continued its attempts to save the old synagogue on the original site, but in June 2008, the Dushanbe municipal courts finally ruled that the demolition of the old synagogue would proceed as ordered.

Although the government refuses to compensate the Jewish community for the loss of the building, it has allocated a plot of 1,500 square meters for the construction of a new synagogue on the banks of the Dushanbinka River in the Firdavsi municipal district in the west of the city. At the end of June 2008, immediately after the destruction of the old synagogue, Lev Leviev, the President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (FJC), confirmed during a visit to Dushanbe that the construction of a synagogue on the new site would begin soon, financed by FJC, the Bukharian Jewish Congress, and private donors.