The only synagogue in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, will soon be demolished to make room for a “Palace of Nations” according to an August 18, 2003 report by the RUJEN news agency. Local rabbi Mikhail Abdurakhmanov told RUJEN that the Jewish community has not been granted legal rights to the synagogue, confiscated by the Soviet regime, which later allowed local Jews to use it. The building itself, which can only house a couple of dozen worshipers at a time, is in a lamentable condition, thanks to poor economic conditions in Tajikistan following a long civil war there in the 1990s. Local officials have either remained silent in the face of protests from the Jewish community or have promised that the demolition will take place as scheduled.

According to the RUJEN reporter, “the Jewish community of the Republic [of Tajikistan] is facing one of the darkest pages of its history since the mass exodus of Jews from there after the long years of civil war in independent Tajikistan and the rise of Islamic extremism.” Rabbi Abdurakhmanov is appealing to various Bukharan Jewish foundations and philanthropists, including Israeli diamond magnate Lev Levaev, for help.

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