Chabad Lubavitch of Montenegro
Chabad-Lubavitch in Montenegro: Rabbi Ari Edelkopf's mission in Podgorica since 2017, after his expulsion from Sochi, Russia, as an alleged security threat; his 2019 appointment as Chief Rabbi of Montenegro; and the split with the Jewish Community of Montenegro, which says it removed him in 2020, over the registration of a second Jewish religious community in 2022
| Chabad Lubavitch of Montenegro
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| Logo | 
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| Type | Jewish religious organisation (Chabad-Lubavitch) |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Founder(s) | Ari and Chana (Chani) Edelkopf |
| Headquarters | Podgorica |
| Location | Podgorica and Budva |
| Area served | Montenegro |
| Key people | Ari Edelkopf (emissary; styles himself Chief Rabbi of Montenegro) |
| Website | https://chabad-montenegro.com |
| Remarks | Also known as Chabad House Podgorica and Lubavitch of Montenegro; Edelkopf leads the Religious Community of Jews in Montenegro (Vjerska zajednica Jevreja u Crnoj Gori), registered in 2022 |
Chabad Lubavitch of Montenegro is the Chabad-Lubavitch mission in Montenegro, run from Podgorica by Rabbi Ari Edelkopf and his wife, Chana (also called Chani).[1][2] Edelkopf came to Montenegro in 2017, after Russia revoked his residence permit and he had to leave Sochi, where he had led the Jewish community for 15 years.[2][3]
In 2019 Edelkopf was installed as Chief Rabbi of Montenegro at a ceremony attended by President Milo Đukanović.[4][5] The Jewish Community of Montenegro, the body that signed the state's 2012 agreement with the Jewish community, later said that it had removed him in 2020 and that it does not recognise his title. Edelkopf's followers registered a separate Religious Community of Jews in 2022.[6][7][8]
History
Arrival (2017)
JTA reported in November 2017 that Edelkopf, a Los Angeles-born Chabad rabbi, had settled in Podgorica "several weeks ago" with his wife and seven children, and was holding services at his home while waiting for the country's first synagogue to be built. It described him as the Jewish community's first resident rabbi in over a century. Jaša Alfandari, then president of the Jewish Community of Montenegro, thanked Edelkopf for his work, and said that Luciano Moše Prelević, the chief rabbi of Croatia, would remain the community's main rabbi and work alongside him.[2] The daily Vijesti had reported in August 2017 that Edelkopf would be the first rabbi to live permanently in Montenegro, and that the capital had given the community a plot of land in Zabjelo for a synagogue.[9]
Chabad's own website for Podgorica says that Chabad House Podgorica was founded in 2017.[10] The jevreji.me website, which presents Edelkopf as its rabbi, says that he was born in Jerusalem in 1978, grew up in Los Angeles, was chief rabbi in Sochi from 2001 to 2017, and has eight children.[11] JTA gives 2002 for the Edelkopfs' arrival in Sochi and, in 2017, seven children.[12][2]
Chief Rabbi of Montenegro (2019)
At the opening of the Mahar conference, run by the Jewish community, on Thursday 31 October 2019, Edelkopf was installed as Montenegro's first permanent chief rabbi. Lubavitch.com and the Rabbinical Centre of Europe give this date; jevreji.me gives 1 October 2019 and BIRN November 2019.[4][5][11][7] The president of the Jewish community at the ceremony is named as "Djordje Raicevic" by Lubavitch.com and "Giorgio Raicovich" by the Rabbinical Centre of Europe.[4][5] The ceremony was attended by President Đukanović, Israel's Minister of Religious Services Yitzhak Vaknin, Rabbi Eliezer Simcha Weiss for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and ministers and members of parliament. Lubavitch.com, the movement's headquarters website, quotes Đukanović as calling the appointment "a bright spot that we are all happy about". It says Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association and the Rabbinical Centre of Europe, initiated the appointment together with the community.[4][5]
Split with the Jewish Community of Montenegro
Background
On 31 January 2012 the government of Montenegro and the Jewish Community of Montenegro (Jevrejska zajednica Crne Gore) signed an agreement on their mutual relations. Alfandari, the community's president, said it marked the official recognition of the Jewish religion in Montenegro.[13]
Removal and Edelkopf's response (2020)
The Jewish Community of Montenegro says that it removed Edelkopf as rabbi, appointed Prelević Chief Rabbi of Montenegro, and told the government of both decisions in 2020, as the 2012 agreement requires.[6][14]
Portal Analitika reported that after his removal Edelkopf said the Jewish Community of Montenegro did not represent "the great majority" of Jews in the country, and announced that he was distancing himself from it. He said he would carry on serving people in Montenegro as a rabbi, and that a "transparent" Jewish community would be registered.[14] In May 2021 he criticised the community's president, Nina Ofner Bokan, for defending the justice minister, Vladimir Leposavić, whom she said had not denied the Srebrenica genocide.[14]
Registration of the Religious Community of Jews (2022)
On 17 May 2022 the Ministry of Justice registered a second Jewish body, the Religious Community of Jews (Vjerska zajednica Jevreja). Ofner Bokan said that it had been registered by Edelkopf without the Jewish Community's consent, in breach of article 14 of the 2012 agreement. Pobjeda, as cited by Portal Analitika, named the person who registered it as "Leib Adelkop".[14] She also said that "the Chabad organisation" breached article 5, which gives the Jewish Community the power to appoint and remove religious officials, because Edelkopf kept presenting himself as Chief Rabbi of Montenegro.[6][15][7]
The ministry said it had acted lawfully. It said the 2012 agreement was not an international treaty and so ranked below the Law on Freedom of Religion, under which a religious community can be registered with three adult members, and that refusing the registration would have been discriminatory. It said any religious community that believed its rights had been harmed could challenge the decision before the competent authorities. Prime Minister Dritan Abazović welcomed the registration.[15][7][14]
Statements in 2024
In January 2024 the Jewish Community of Montenegro said that Prelević was the only official chief rabbi of Montenegro, and that Edelkopf "belongs to and represents the organisation Chabad" but is not part of the community and has no authority as chief rabbi.[8] The Religious Community of Jews replied that it was registered under the constitution and laws of Montenegro and recognised by the state, that it brings together 98 per cent of Jews in Montenegro, and that Edelkopf is the only authorised representative of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in the country. It said his proclamation as chief rabbi had been signed by the chief rabbis of Israel and Jerusalem, the chairman of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe and all the region's rabbis, including Prelević, who it noted lives in Zagreb.[16]
Expulsion from Russia (2016–2017)
Before coming to Montenegro, Edelkopf was a Chabad emissary in Sochi, Russia; see also Chabad Lubavitch of Russia. He and his wife came to the city in 2002, and he had headed the Sochi City Jewish Community since 2015.[12][3]
Administrative decision and court rulings
On 16 December 2016 the Interior Ministry's department for Krasnodar Krai annulled the temporary residence permit of Edelkopf and four of his children. According to his lawyer, Mikhail Shkolnik, the decision relied on a letter of 7 December 2016 from the regional office of the Federal Security Service (FSB), which said that Edelkopf's actions threatened Russia's security. The FSB letter was issued in reply to a police enquiry after Edelkopf applied for Russian citizenship.[17][18] His wife's permit was also annulled; the ministry's representative told the court that this was a matter of "family reunification".[17]
The Central District Court of Sochi rejected Edelkopf's complaint on 27 January 2017, and on 28 March 2017 the appeals panel of the Krasnodar Regional Court upheld that ruling.[17][18] According to Shkolnik, the courts refused his requests for the underlying documents from the Interior Ministry and the FSB. Edelkopf, his wife and seven children left Russia in early April 2017; Shkolnik said they would otherwise have been deported.[3]
The security allegation
Neither the ministry nor the courts made public what Edelkopf was supposed to have done. Shkolnik said that there was no evidence in the decisions beyond a reference to the FSB letter, which the defence never saw. Edelkopf denied the allegation, and told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that he had never engaged in politics or had links with foreign intelligence services.[17][19][12] JTA later described the claims as "unsubstantiated", and reported that the court review of them that he asked for never took place.[2] Shkolnik suggested a possible link to a dispute over building a synagogue in Sochi; the city's mayor denied any link.[17]
Reaction
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, which JTA describes as Chabad-affiliated, reacted unusually strongly. Its spokesman, Boruch Gorin, said that the order "raises serious concerns for the future of the Jewish communities in the country" and called it "an attempt to establish control" over religious communities; he said it was not aimed at Jews as such. The federation's president, Alexander Boroda, said he was "dismayed". JTA reported that at least seven rabbis had been expelled from Russia over the previous decade over visa and residence issues, and described the security allegation against Edelkopf as a precedent in post-communist Russia.[12] Members of the Sochi Jewish community appealed to President Vladimir Putin to reverse the decision.[17][19]
Centres
Chabad lists its centre in Podgorica, postcode district 81000.[1] jevreji.me lists synagogues in Podgorica and Budva and a Jewish cultural centre.[20]
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch
- Chabad Lubavitch of Russia
- Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia
- Chabad Lubavitch of Croatia
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Podgorica", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters (lubavitch.com), accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Cnaan Liphshiz, "Montenegro gets a rabbi while waiting for a synagogue", JTA, 3 November 2017.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Сочинский раввин, лишенный разрешения на проживание, со всей семьей покинул Россию" ("Sochi rabbi stripped of residence permit leaves Russia with his whole family"), Interfax-Religion, 3 April 2017.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Mussi Sharfstein, "Montenegro Appoints Country's First Chief Rabbi", lubavitch.com, 4 November 2019.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "First permanent Chief Rabbi appointed in Montenegro", Rabbinical Centre of Europe, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "'Vjerska zajednica Jevreja registrovana bez naše saglasnosti'" ("'Religious Community of Jews registered without our consent'"), RTCG, 24 May 2022.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Samir Kajosevic, "Montenegro Angers Jewish Community by Registering Second Body", Balkan Insight (BIRN), 25 May 2022.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Jevrejska zajednica: Prelević jedini priznati vrhovni rabin, Edelkopf ne posjeduje ovlašćenja" ("Jewish Community: Prelević the only recognised chief rabbi, Edelkopf has no authority"), Vijesti, 29 January 2024.
- ↑ Matija Otašević, "Came from Russia: This is the new rabbi of the Jewish community in Montenegro", Vijesti, 30 August 2017.
- ↑ "About and Contact", Chabad of Podgorica Montenegro, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 "Rabbi and Rabanit", jevreji.me, accessed 23 October 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Cnaan Liphshiz, "Rabbi's expulsion rattles Russian Jews fearful of Kremlin crackdown", JTA, 13 February 2017.
- ↑ "Government and Jewish community sign agreement regulating mutual relations", Government of Montenegro, 31 January 2012.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 "Ministarstvo pravde: Vjerska prava su prioritet" ("Ministry of Justice: Religious rights are a priority"), Portal Analitika, 25 May 2022.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Jevrejska zajednica Crne Gore navodi kršenje ugovora sa Vladom zbog registracije nove vjerske organizacije" ("Jewish Community of Montenegro alleges breach of agreement with government over registration of new religious organisation"), Radio Free Europe, 24 May 2022.
- ↑ "Vjerska zajednica Jevreja: Radimo u skladu sa Ustavom i zakonima, okupljamo 98 odsto Jevreja u Crnoj Gori" ("Religious Community of Jews: We work in line with the constitution and laws, and bring together 98 per cent of Jews in Montenegro"), Vijesti, 30 January 2024.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 "МВД объяснило решение выдворить жену сочинского раввина 'воссоединением с семьей'" ("Interior Ministry explains decision to expel Sochi rabbi's wife as 'family reunification'"), Kavkazsky Uzel, 12 February 2017.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Суд выдворил из России раввина Сочинской городской еврейской общины" ("Court expels rabbi of Sochi City Jewish Community from Russia"), Interfax, 28 March 2017.
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 "Раввин Сочи надеется избежать депортации" ("Sochi rabbi hopes to avoid deportation"), Nezavisimaya Gazeta, 6 February 2017.
- ↑ "Jewish community", jevreji.me, accessed 23 October 2026.