c. 2006 Religion News Service

JERUSALEM _ A group of American Jews wants to know why governments have offered to help rebuild an Iraqi mosque destroyed Feb. 22 but have been mostly silent after the last synagogue in Tajikistan was partially destroyed the same day.

The century-old synagogue in the capital city of Dushanbe _ one of the last vestiges of Jewish life in the central Asian republic _ was partially destroyed by government wrecking crews the same day militants blew up the Al Askariya “Golden Mosque” in the Iraqi city of Samarra.

The synagogue’s main sanctuary is slated for destruction later this year to make way for a new government complex, and the community’s Jewish remnant says the government wants to move them to the edge of the city.

The New York-based International Sephardic Leadership Council, which includes Jews from Dushanbe, has accused the international community of employing a double standard.

“Where is the outrage?” Shelomo Alfassa, the council’s director, asked in a Feb. 26 statement disseminated to Jews around the world via the Internet.

While “President Bush stated that the American people pledge to work with the people of Iraq to rebuild the Golden Mosque of Samarra to its former glory,” Alfassa said, “in regard to the synagogue, not one statement was made by any government of any country around the world.”

The Tajik government reportedly destroyed the synagogue’s ritual bath, classrooms and a kosher butcher shop in order to build a new presidential complex on the site as part of an urban renewal project. The land is considered prime real estate.

Organizations working closely with the community members say the synagogue has been a meeting place and humanitarian-aid center for the 250-300 mostly elderly, poor Jews who still live in the city. Thousands of Jews emigrated from the region following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Until the demolition orders, the synagogue served the once-vital community of Persian-speaking Bukharan Jews that have lived in the region for two millennia.

Reached by phone in Dushanbe, Richard Hoagland, U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan, said his office is monitoring the synagogue situation closely.

“I’ve been working diplomatically behind the scenes for a long time,” Hoagland explained of the American effort to help the sides reach a compromise.

Hoagland said the synagogue was not the only house of worship destroyed to build the government complex. “In the same neighborhood, a small mosque and an Islamic prayer room have already been razed,” the ambassador said.

Still, Alfassa’s group is upset that there has not been more outrage, especially in Israel and from other Jewish organizations.

The council blasted Israeli media, which it said reported on the gathering of 1,000 local basketball fans who demonstrated against the destruction of their team’s arena, but paid scant attention to “the destruction of the center of Jewish life in Tajikistan.”

Eli Yerushalmi, director of the Department of Jewish Communities at Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Israel’s ambassador to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is “in contact” with the Tajikistani government, urging “an equitable solution” to the matter.

“This is not an act of anti-Semitism,” Yerushalmi insisted, referring to the synagogue demolition. “It’s part of a plan to refurbish a city, and the synagogue is right in the middle of all this.”

Yerushalmi indicated the Israeli government is seeking adequate compensation for the community, but is not attempting to block the destruction of the rest of the synagogue.

“The synagogue itself is not a historic building. The fact is, sometimes synagogues are destroyed,” Yerushalmi said.

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The BBC reported that some leaders of Dushanbe’s small Jewish community are unhappy with the parcel of land the government has provided as compensation. They say its location at the edge of the city is too far away for elderly Jews to reach, and complain that the government has not pledged any funding to rebuild the synagogue.

Hoagland, the U.S. ambassador, said the Tajik government had offered the community “a temporary facility” more than a year ago, but said “the rabbi felt it was an inappropriate place and didn’t accept it.”

Hoagland added that government aid was not offered “due to questions over the separation between religion and state.”

Mark Levin, executive director of NCSJ, an advocacy group for Jews from the former Soviet Union, said Jewish organizations have not been indifferent to the community’s situation.

“This is an issue we have been engaged in for the past three years,” Levin said of his organization and others. “We’ve worked closely with the American ambassador in Dushanbe, and others, to help facilitate where the synagogue should be relocated and to ensure the community is equitably compensated.”

KRE/PH END CHABIN