Chabad Lubavitch of Kosovo
Chabad-Lubavitch and Kosovo: no resident emissary or centre; Rabbi Yoel Kaplan, Chief Rabbi of Albania, has served Kosovo by visiting since 2011
| Chabad-Lubavitch in Kosovo
| |
|---|---|
| Type | No resident Chabad emissary or centre (visits only) |
| Headquarters | None in the country |
| Location | Kosovo (no base) |
| Area served | Pristina and Prizren |
| Key people | None resident. Visiting: Yoel Kaplan (Chabad emissary to Kosovo since 2011; Chief Rabbi of Albania) |
| Remarks | Holiday events and official visits |
Chabad-Lubavitch in Kosovo has no resident emissary or Chabad house. Kosovo does not appear in the movement's own directory of European centres.[1] Rabbi Yoel Kaplan, a Chabad rabbi who is Chief Rabbi of Albania and the movement's representative in Thessaloniki and the "Lower Balkans", has served Kosovo as emissary since 2011, working with the small local Jewish community.[2][3] His work in Albania is covered on the Chabad Albania page.
Kosovo's Jewish community is small, living mostly in Pristina and Prizren. Estimates differ: JTA gave 56 people in 2014, Lubavitch.com "approximately a hundred" in 2020, and JNS 35–50 in 2023.[4][3][2] The community body in Pristina is Bet Israel Kosova.[5]
Visits
There is no resident emissary or centre.
- 2011 onwards. JNS reported in 2023 that Kaplan "has been emissary to Kosovo since 2011", and that he also serves Albania and Greece. It said that "with Kaplan at the helm", the community holds gatherings on Jewish holidays, and that the late Rabbi Yisroel Finman, who had moved to Albania, helped him.[2]
- 2014. JTA reported that Kosovo had no synagogue, school or community centre, and that some Kosovar Jews travelled to Skopje or Belgrade for the High Holidays.[4]
- 2015. At a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony organised by Bet Israel in the National Theatre in Pristina on 27 January 2015, the speakers included Kaplan, whom the Czech embassy described as a rabbi "from Jerusalem" whose area covered Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia and Greece.[6]
- 2016. CrownHeights.info reported that the photographer Meir Alfasi and his family travelled to Pristina to hold what it called the first Passover Seder in the capital, in a hotel, with help from Kaplan, whom it described as "Chief Rabbi of Albania and Shliach in Thessaloniki".[7]
- 2019. On 22 December 2019 Kaplan led a public menorah lighting in Tirana. The lighting in Pristina, in front of the National Theatre, was organised by Bet Israel Kosova.[8]
- 2020. Kaplan travelled to Kosovo with a delegation of four Hasidic businessmen from the United States, led by Moshe Klein. The delegation met the Prime Minister, Avdullah Hoti, and about 30 local Jews joined their Shabbat meals.[3]
Relations with the state
In late October 2020, shortly after Israel's recognition of Kosovo, President Hashim Thaçi gave Kaplan the title of Honorary Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo, "for his contribution to the rapprochement of Kosovo and Israel and our peoples". Lubavitch.com, the movement's news site, said Kaplan was the first clergyman to receive the title.[3] Kosovo opened an embassy in Jerusalem in 2021.[2]
The US State Department's 2023 report on Kosovo describes a planned synagogue in Pristina, for which Bet Israel Kosova reached an agreement on a site with the mayor in October 2023, and the government-supported renovation of a Jewish cultural centre and synagogue in Prizren. It does not mention Chabad.[5]
Funding and controversies
None found.
See also
- Chabad Albania
- Chabad Lubavitch of Serbia
- Chabad Lubavitch of Montenegro
- Chabad Lubavitch of Bosnia and Herzegovina
References
- ↑ "Europe", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com) centres directory, accessed 23 October 2026. The country list does not include Kosovo.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Avi Kumar, "Kosovo's tiny Jewish community aims to punch above its size", JNS, republished by European Jewish Press, 7 February 2023, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Ashira Weiss, "Highest Civilian Honor For Chabad Rep in Kosovo", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), 4 November 2020, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ron Kampeas, "In Muslim Kosovo, Jewish remnant stakes claim to nation's past and future", JTA, 20 August 2014, page 4, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 US Department of State, "2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Kosovo", accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ Embassy of the Czech Republic in Pristina, "International Holocaust Remembrance day in Kosovo", 29 January 2015, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ "A First Pesach Seder in the Capitol of Kosovo", CrownHeights.info, 1 May 2016, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ "Festa hebraike 'Hanukkah' festohet me madhështi në Tiranë dhe Prishtinë", Voal (Albanian), 22 December 2019, accessed 23 October 2026.