🚨 MONTENEGRO BUILDING FIRST MODERN SYNAGOGUE + JEWISH SCHOOL IN PODGORICA – GOVERNMENT GIVES PRIME LAND ON 99-YEAR LEASE TO TINY COMMUNITY ���🇪🇮🇱
Montenegro's Jewish community (estimated at just a few hundred people) is constructing the country's first purpose-built modern synagogue – named Har HaShem (“Mount of the Name”) – right in the capital, Podgorica.
Construction is actively underway in 2026 after years of planning:
- 2013: Government donated central land on a 99-year lease.
- 2017: Foundation stone laid with president and officials.
- Late 2024: Full building work started.
- Now: Site progressing, will serve as prayer house + cultural/community center.
Even more: Plans and reports confirm a Jewish school is also being developed alongside or as part of the complex – a major step for Jewish education and life in a country with almost no historical Jewish infrastructure (no dedicated synagogues for centuries due to small population, WWII, and post-Yugoslav changes).
Services were previously held in homes or rented spaces.
The state and city support the project (land, permits, high-level ceremonies), with community funding and likely international Jewish organizations helping.