\u201cWhen I came here, I never believed we\u2019d need 24-hour security. But since October 7, we\u2019ve had Free Gaza marches in all the major cities. My office is following every antisemitic portal here in Montenegro,\u201d he said, using a local term for websites that report regional news. \u201cWe\u2019re paying a lawyer to monitor all this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several recent incidents involving Israeli visitors to this Connecticut-sized country of 625,000 have unnerved the local Jewish community, which numbers fewer than 1,000, even as the capital is on the verge of getting a major new Jewish cultural center set for completion this fall.<\/p>\n
In the Adriatic beach resort of Budva, a recent violent brawl between local Montenegrins and some 20 Israeli tourists has triggered alarm among both the Jewish community and Israeli tourists.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s still unclear who or what provoked the incident, which took place after midnight July 12 at a beach bar where the Israelis \u2014 12 men and eight women \u2014 had been drinking. Edelkopf said he believed the incident had begun with a personal altercation but escalated when the locals realized the tourists they were sparring with were Israeli.<\/p>\n
According to an Israeli government alert<\/a> about the incident, the locals \u201cshouted \u2018Free Palestine\u2019 and \u2018F*** Israel\u2019\u201d after learning about the origins of the tourists, who the alert said were not wearing indicators of their national or religious identity.<\/p>\n \u201cThen they came back with a few friends and really beat the hell out of them,\u201d said Edelkopf, a Chabad rabbi originally from Los Angeles who has lived in Montenegro for nine years.<\/p>\n \t \u201cThey put out cigarettes on their faces, and threw metal chairs and tables at them. It was horrible and very aggressive,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of the Israelis were injured; one of them had a broken jaw.\u201d<\/p>\n The Israeli government assisted in helping the Israeli tourists expedite their flights out of Montenegro, though one member of the group remained in the country while hospitalized, according to Israel\u2019s National Center for Combating Antisemitism, an initiative of the Diaspora ministry. The ministry\u2019s alert said that police failed to intervene.<\/p>\n \u201cI am waiting for the Montenegrin government to take action,\u201d Edelkopf told JTA from his Podgorica synagogue, which was previously a private house. \u201cUntil now, they have not offered any official response.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the recent hostilities, the rabbi said, Montenegro has long welcomed Israeli tourists as well as residents. And Jews have been living here for millennia before Yugoslavia existed.<\/p>\n Ruins dating from the 4th century CE indicate a flourishing Jewish community in Kotor, not far from Budva along the Adriatic. In fact, one of the country\u2019s most important religious sites is the presumed tomb of Shabbatai Zvi, located in nearby Ulcinj. The 17th-century Jewish false messiah died shortly after his exile there in 1673 by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled much of the present-day Balkans.<\/p>\n While most Montenegrins are Eastern Orthodox Christians, about 20% are Muslims of either Bosnian or Albanian origin. In 1992, after communism collapsed and Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia broke away from the former Yugoslavia, the remaining two republics \u2014 Serbia and Montenegro \u2014 created the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n \t In 2006, Montenegro declared independence following a referendum on the issue, and six years later, then-prime minister Igor Luk\u0161i\u0107 granted Judaism recognition as the country\u2019s fourth official religion, alongside the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and Islam.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Jews are very well accepted here,\u201d said Nikolla Camaj, vice-president of Montenegro\u2019s parliament and one of five ethnic Albanians in the 81-member body. \u201cOfficially, we have very good relations with Israel, and people support the idea that Israel must be protected. But there\u2019s a problem because in Montenegro we have a lot of Muslims \u2014 Albanians and Bosniaks \u2014 and they don\u2019t like what\u2019s happening in Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n In Podgorica, a huge mural painted on an apartment building two blocks from the municipal bus terminal depicts Gazan refugee children, a slice of watermelon symbolizing the Palestinian resistance, and the declaration \u201cMontenegro Stands With Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n \t In early July, Israeli tourists visiting Plav \u2014 a resort town near Montenegro\u2019s borders with Kosovo and Albania \u2014 were harassed by a local couple, who called the visitors \u201cbaby killers.\u201d<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t surprise Edelkopf at all.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal people are being fed articles translated from very strong anti-Israel news outlets,\u201d the rabbi said. \u201cThe main TV channels and online portals here are filled with lies and garbage against Israel, and the people have started to believe that Israel is committing genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n Even so, Israeli tourists keep coming. In 2025, according to official figures, 110,249 of them visited Montenegro \u2014 up from 73,513 the year before \u2014 most of them via direct flights from Tel Aviv. A Facebook group <\/a>for Israelis planning trips to Montenegro has more than 80,000 members, who swap advice and share photos and tips from their trips.<\/p>\n Israel has no embassy in this country; instead, it\u2019s represented by Avivit Bar-Ilan, Israel\u2019s resident ambassador in Serbia, who could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n Montenegro\u2019s few Jews are split between Edelkopf\u2019s traditional Orthodox Jewish synagogue and the local progressive Jewish congregation led by its president, Nina Ofner Bokan.<\/p>\n \t A computer science engineer, Ofner Bokan, 41, has represented her community since 2020. Last September, she was reelected unanimously for a five-year term. She\u2019s also senior advisor to the president of the Montenegrin parliament and a vice-president of the World Jewish Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel very protected here, and we have an amazing relationship with all the other religious communities,\u201d Ofner Bokan said. \u201cOver the years, we\u2019ve made strong connections. \u2026 Jews can walk with a kippa or a Star of David without any problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Last October, the community held its 12th annual Mahar conference in Budva, which featured speeches by several dignitaries, including Deputy Prime Minister Budimir Aleksi\u0107.<\/p>\n \t \u201cMontenegro is recognized as a country that cherishes diversity, fosters dialogue, and stands as a nation where the Holocaust did not occur and where antisemitism has never had \u2014 and will never have \u2014 any foundation,\u201d Aleksi\u0107 assured his audience. \u201cWe are proud of that fact.\u201d<\/p>\n Ofner Bokan\u2019s Jewish congregation was founded in 2011, and she is its third president. In November 2024, she and other local Jews held a ceremony to mark the groundbreaking of the first purpose-built synagogue in modern Montenegrin history. Ar Ashem is slowly taking shape on a donated plot of land fronting Radosava Buri\u0107a Street, she said, and will be finished in February.<\/p>\n With around 150 active members, the congregation\u2019s spiritual leader is Luciano Mo\u0161e Prelevic, who, like Edelkopf, claims to be Montenegro\u2019s chief rabbi. The two communities have no relations \u2014 and that hasn\u2019t changed even with a recent influx of Jews from warring Russia and Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cOurs is the one that signed the contract in 2012 with the government recognizing the Jewish community,\u201d said Ofner Bokan, whose parents were from the Serbian city of Novi Sad. \u201cBut in public, Jews are not going to talk badly about each other. If we do, then what will other people think?\u201d<\/p>\n Edelkopf, who with his wife Chana has eight children, spent 17 years in Russia running the Chabad outpost in Sochi. But he was deported<\/a> in March 2017 after a Russian court determined that he was a \u201cthreat to national security\u201d and came directly to Montenegro.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe are officially the Religious Jewish Community of Montenegro,\u201d he said, while acknowledging deep divisions among the Jews of this relatively tiny country. \u201cWe do have things we need to improve, and we are not proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n One relative newcomer is Tatiana Nirman, who is originally from St. Petersburg, Russia. Soon after the war with Ukraine broke out in February 2022, she moved to Montenegro and now directs cultural programming for the 150 or so Jews she estimates live in Budva, the resort town where the brawl took place.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here in Montenegro because it\u2019s a beautiful, comfortable country, and one of the few places we could come on a Russian passport,\u201d said Nirman, 40, who lives in the coastal town with her husband and two children. She adds that about 80% of her programs on art, music, Jewish history and cooking are in the Russian language.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Edelkopf-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tRabbi Ari Edelkopf reads a story about himself in a Podgorica newspaper in April 2026. (Larry Luxner\/ JTA)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Montenegro-1-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA Star of David forms part of the design of the Jewish Cultural Center under construction in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. (Larry Luxner\/ JTA)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Montenegro-Palestine-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA pro-Palestinian mural painted on the side of a Podgorica apartment building has been the site of multiple pro-Palestinian rallies in Montenegro. (Larry Luxner\/ JTA)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bokan-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tNina Ofner Bokan, president of the Jewish community of Montenegro, is also vice president of the World Jewish Congress and senior advisor to the president of the Montenegrin Parliament. (Larry Luxner\/ JTA)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/JCC-Montenegro-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tA sign at the construction site of Montenegro\u2019s new Jewish cultural center, as seen in April 2026, shows that it is planned for completion in November 2026. (Larry Luxner\/ JTA)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Spitfire-640x400.jpg\")
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