Judaism in Albania dates back at least 1,300 years.
Present day Albanian Jews, predominantly Sephardi, have in modern times only constituted a very small percentage of the population; during World War II, Albania would be one of the very few countries in Europe to see an increase in its Jewish population. During the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the Socialist People's Republic of Albania would ban all religions, including Judaism, in adherence to the doctrine of state atheism. In the post-communist era, these policies have been abandoned and the freedom of religion is permitted, although the number of practicing Jews in Albania is today very small, with many Jews having made aliyah to Israel.
In World War II, no Albanian Jews were turned over to the Germans. After Italian and German occupation of Albania, the Jewish population actually increased thanks to assistance by both Muslims and Christians.[1][2]
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First reports of Jews living in Albania date from the 7th century AD. By the early 16th century, there were Jewish settlements in most of major cities of Albania such as Berat, Elbasan, Vlorë, Durrës and also they are reported as well in Kosovo region. These Jewish families were mainly of Sephardic origin and descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews expelled from Iberia in the end of 15th century AD. In 1520 in Vlorë were reported 609 Jewish households and also Vlorë was also the site of Albania's only synagogue which was destroyed in the First World War. In 1673 the charismatic Jewish prophet Sabbatai Zevi was exiled by the sultan to the Albanian port of Ulqin, now in Montenegro dying there some years later.[3]
According to the Albanian census of 1930, there were only 204 Jews registered at that time in Albania. Albert Einstein took refuge in Albania for a few days in 1935 before continuing his journey to America with an Albanian passport. The official recognition of the Jewish community was granted on April 2, 1937, while at that time this community consisted in about 300 members. With the rise of Nazi Germany a number of German and Austrian Jews took refuge in Albania. Still in 1938 the Albanian Embassy in Berlin continued to issue visas to Jews, at a time when no other European country was willing to take them.[3] One of the major Albanologist Norbert Jokl asked for the Albanian citizenship which was granted to him immediately, but this couldn't save him from concentration camps.
Albania had about 200 Jews at the beginning of the war.[4] It subsequently became a safe haven for several hundreds of Jewish refugees from other countries.[5][6] At the Wannsee Conference in 1942, Adolf Eichmann, planner of the mass murder of Jews across Europe, estimated the number of Jews in Albania that were to be killed at 200.[7] Nevertheless, Jews in Albania remained at first unmolested both under Italian occupation and in the first months after the Italian collapse of September 1943. However, in April 1944, under German pressure, some 400 German and Austrian Jews who had taken refuge in Tirana and Durrës were first interned in Pristina (Kosovo) and then deported to Bergen-Belsen.[5] Still, at the end of the war, Albania had 2,000 Jews after the end of World War II.[8][9] and it was one of the few countries in Europe to do so.
Throughout Albania’s communist rule under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the Jewish community was isolated from the Jewish world, though this does not reflect anti-Jewish measures. In order to forge sustainable national unity as well as the new socialism, Hoxha banned confessional loyalties across the religious spectrum. In this manner, the fate of the Jewish community was inextricably linked to the fates of the Albanian society as a whole.
All religion was strictly banned from the country. The Jewish population numbered around 200 citizens.[4] After the fall of communism, in 1991, nearly all the Jews of Albania emigrated to Israel and settled predominately in Tel Aviv.
Today, over 160 Jews live in Albania, most in the capital, Tirana. An old synagogue was discovered in the city of Saranda[10][11] and a new synagogue, Hechal Shlomo, just started providing services for the Jewish community in Tirana in December 2010. A synagogue remains in Vlorë, but is no longer in use. Also in December 2010, Rabbi Joel Kaplan was inaugurated as the first chief rabbi of Albania by the Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Amar. A Jewish Community Centre was also inaugurated as Moshe Rabenu in Tirana.[12]
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