PODGORICA, Montenegro — On the entrance to Nikšić, Montenegro’s second-largest metropolis, a classic fighter jet painted within the colours of the Israeli Air Power perches atop an enormous concrete pedestal, as if about to take flight.
The monument, unveiled in 2024, commemorates “Operation Velvetta” — a top-secret plan that ferried 17 Supermarine Spitfire plane from Czechoslovakia, through what was then Yugoslavia, to Israel in 1948. The brazen scheme, carried out beneath the noses of British and Soviet spies, helped make sure the fledgling Jewish state’s navy superiority throughout its Battle of Independence.
On the monument’s base, a bronze plaque in Serbian, English and Hebrew calls it “a everlasting reminder to the unbreakable friendship of Montenegro and Israel.”
But currently, that friendship is being examined in methods not seen since Montenegro — smallest of the six republics that when comprised Yugoslavia — declared its independence in 2006.
“Sure, there’s antisemitism right here. It’s a lot better than another locations, however the scenario has modified,” mentioned Rabbi Ari Edelkopf, who heads the Spiritual Jewish Neighborhood of Montenegro in Podgorica, the capital. “Once I got here right here, I by no means believed we’d want 24-hour safety. However since Oct. 7, we’ve had Free Gaza marches in all the key cities. My workplace is following each antisemitic portal right here in Montenegro,” he mentioned, referring to web sites that report native information. “We’re paying a lawyer to watch all this.”
A duplicate of a Supermarine Spitfire fighter jet honors the 1948 “Operation Velvet” in Nikšić, Montenegro — a monument unveiled in 2024 that symbolizes Montenegro’s historic friendship with Israel. (Larry Luxner)
A number of current incidents involving Israeli guests to this Connecticut-sized nation of 625,000, have unnerved the native Jewish group, which numbers fewer than 1,000, even because the capital is on the verge of getting a serious new Jewish cultural heart set for completion this fall.
Within the Adriatic seaside resort of Budva, a current violent brawl between native Montenegrins and a few 20 Israeli vacationers has triggered alarm amongst each native Jews and Israeli vacationers.
It’s nonetheless unclear who or what provoked the incident, which occurred after midnight July 12 at a seaside bar the place the Israelis — 12 males and eight girls — had been ingesting. Edelkopf mentioned he believed the incident had begun with a private altercation however escalated when the locals realized the vacationers they had been sparring with had been Israeli.
In keeping with an Israeli authorities alert concerning the incident, the locals “shouted ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘F*** Israel’” after studying concerning the origins of the vacationers, who the alert mentioned weren’t sporting indicators of their nationwide or spiritual id.
“Then they got here again with just a few associates and actually beat the hell out of them,” mentioned Edelkopf, a Chabad rabbi who’s initially from Los Angeles and who’s lived in Montenegro for 9 years.
“They put out cigarettes on their faces, and threw steel chairs and tables at them. It was horrible and really aggressive,” he mentioned. “Many of the Israelis had been injured; one in all them had a damaged jaw.”
The Israeli authorities assisted in serving to the Israeli vacationers expedite their flights out of Montenegro, although one member of the group remained within the nation whereas hospitalized, in line with Israel’s Nationwide Heart for Combating Antisemitism, an initiative of the Diaspora ministry. The ministry’s alert mentioned that police did not intervene.
Rabbi Ari Edelkopf, a Los Angeles-born Chabad emissary, reads a narrative about himself in a Podgorica newspaper in April 2026. Edelkopf heads the Spiritual Jewish Neighborhood of Montenegro. (Larry Luxner)
“I’m ready for the Montenegrin authorities to take motion,” Edelkopf informed JTA from his Podgorica synagogue, which was beforehand a non-public home. “Till now, they haven’t supplied any official response.”
Regardless of the current hostilities, the rabbi mentioned, Montenegro has lengthy welcomed Israeli vacationers in addition to residents. And Jews have been residing right here for millennia earlier than Yugoslavia existed.
Ruins relationship from the 4th century C.E. point out a flourishing Jewish group in Kotor, not removed from Budva alongside the Adriatic. In truth, one of many nation’s most necessary spiritual websites is the presumed tomb of Shabbatai Zvi, situated in close by Ulcinj. The Seventeenth-century Jewish false messiah died shortly after his exile there in 1673 by the Ottoman Empire, which dominated a lot of the present-day Balkans.
Whereas most Montenegrins are Japanese Orthodox Christians, about 20% are Muslims of both Bosnian or Albanian origin. In 1992, after communism collapsed and Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Macedonia broke away from the previous Yugoslavia, the remaining two republics — Serbia and Montenegro — created the brand new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
In 2006, Montenegro declared independence following a referendum on the problem, and 6 years later, then-Prime Minister Igor Lukšić granted Judaism recognition because the nation’s fourth official faith, alongside the Japanese Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and Islam.
“The Jews are very nicely accepted right here,” mentioned Nikolla Camaj, vice-president of Montenegro’s parliament and one in all 5 ethnic Albanians within the 81-member physique. “Formally we’ve got excellent relations with Israel, and folks help the concept Israel have to be protected. However there’s an issue as a result of in Montenegro we’ve got quite a lot of Muslims — Albanians and Bosniaks — and so they don’t like what’s taking place in Palestine.”
A professional-Palestinian mural painted on the aspect of a Podgorica house constructing has been the positioning of a number of pro-Palestinian rallies in Montenegro. (Larry Luxner)
In Podgorica, an enormous mural painted on an house constructing two blocks from the municipal bus terminal depicts Gazan refugee kids, a slice of watermelon symbolizing the Palestinian resistance, and the declaration “Montenegro Stands With Palestine.”
In early July, Israeli vacationers visiting Plav — a resort city close to Montenegro’s borders with Kosovo and Albania — had been harassed by a neighborhood couple, who known as the guests “child killers.”
That doesn’t shock Edelkopf in any respect.
“Native individuals are being fed articles translated from very sturdy anti-Israel information shops,” the rabbi mentioned. “The principle TV channels and on-line portals listed here are crammed with lies and rubbish towards Israel, and the individuals have began to imagine that Israel is committing genocide.”
Even so, Israeli vacationers preserve coming. In 2025, in line with official figures, 110,249 of them visited Montenegro — up from 73,513 the 12 months earlier than — most of them through direct flights from Tel Aviv. A Fb group for Israelis planning journeys to Montenegro has greater than 80,000 members, who swap recommendation and share photographs and suggestions from their journeys.
A citizen of Montenegro beats a pot subsequent to a placard studying “Zionism Is Not Lifeless But, And We Don’t Know When It Will Be” that incorporates a swastika inside a Jewish star throughout a pro-Palestinian rally in Podgorica, Sept. 14, 2025. (Savo Prelevic / AFP through Getty Photographs)
Israel has no embassy on this nation; as a substitute, it’s represented by Avivit Bar-Ilan, Israel’s resident ambassador in Serbia, who couldn’t be reached for remark.
Montenegro’s few Jews are break up between Edelkopf’s conventional Orthodox Jewish synagogue and the native progressive Jewish congregation led by its president, Nina Ofner Bokan.
A pc science engineer, Ofner Bokan, 41, has represented her group since 2020. Final September, she was reelected unanimously for a five-year time period. She’s additionally senior advisor to the president of the Montenegrin parliament, and a vice-president of the World Jewish Congress.
“We really feel very protected right here, and we’ve got an incredible relationship with all the opposite spiritual communities,” Ofner Bokan mentioned. “Through the years, we’ve made sturdy connections. … Jews can stroll with a kippah or a Star of David with none drawback.”
Final October the group held its twelfth annual Mahar convention in Budva, which featured speeches by a number of dignitaries together with Deputy Prime Minister Budimir Aleksić.
Nina Ofner Bokan, president of the Jewish group of Montenegro, can also be vice chairman of the World Jewish Congress and senior advisor to the president of the Montenegrin Parliament. (Larry Luxner)
“Montenegro is acknowledged as a rustic that cherishes variety, fosters dialogue, and stands as a nation the place the Holocaust didn’t happen and the place antisemitism has by no means had — and can by no means have — any basis,” Aleksić assured his viewers. “We’re happy with that truth.”
Ofner Bokan’s Jewish congregation was based in 2011, and he or she is its third president. In November 2024, she and different native Jews held a ceremony to mark the groundbreaking of the primary purpose-built synagogue in Montenegrin historical past. Ar Ashem is slowly taking form on a donated plot of land fronting Radosava Burića Road, she mentioned, and shall be completed in February.
With round 150 lively members, the congregation’s religious chief is Luciano Moše Prelevic, who, like Edelkopf, claims to be Montenegro’s chief rabbi. The 2 communities don’t have anything to do with one another — and that hasn’t modified even with a current inflow of Jews from warring Russia and Ukraine.
“Ours is the one which signed the contract in 2012 with the federal government recognizing the Jewish group,” mentioned Ofner Bokan, whose dad and mom had been from the Serbian metropolis of Novi Unhappy. “However in public, Jews will not be going to speak badly about one another. If we do, then what is going to different individuals assume?”
An indication on the development website of Montenegro’s new Jewish cultural heart, as seen in April 2026, exhibits that it’s deliberate for completion in November 2026. (Larry Luxner)
Edelkopf, who together with his spouse Chana has eight kids, spent 17 years in Russia operating the Chabad outpost in Sochi. However he was deported in March 2017 after a Russian court docket decided that he was a “menace to nationwide safety” and got here on to Montenegro.
“We’re formally the Spiritual Jewish Neighborhood of Montenegro,” he mentioned, whereas acknowledging deep divisions among the many Jews of this comparatively tiny nation. “We do have issues we have to enhance, and we’re not happy with that.”
One relative newcomer is Tatiana Nirman, who’s initially from St. Petersburg, Russia. Quickly after the battle with Ukraine broke out in February 2022, she moved to Montenegro and now directs cultural programming for the 150 or so Jews she estimates now reside in Budva, the resort city the place the brawl occurred.
“We’re right here in Montenegro as a result of it’s a good looking, snug nation, and one of many few locations we may come on a Russian passport,” mentioned Nirman, 40, who lives within the coastal city along with her husband and two kids. She provides that about 80% of her applications on artwork, music, Jewish historical past and cooking are within the Russian language.
Additionally residing in Budva is Anna Davidi, 51, an Armenian-born Jew whose ancestors had been from Iran. In the course of the Nagorno-Karabakh Battle of the Nineteen Nineties, Davidi’s household moved to Ukraine, the place she studied music in Khmelnytskyi.
She married a Jewish man from Breslov with whom she had a son and daughter, however later divorced and relocated to Montenegro after realizing there was little to maintain her in Ukraine.
“What attracted me was Montenegro’s exceptionally clear and delightful nature, and the excessive stage of tolerance amongst its individuals,” mentioned Davidi, who moved right here in 2012. “My brother, his spouse and I got here to Montenegro merely to discover it as a attainable place to reside. And virtually from the second we arrived, we fell in love.”
A former clothier and restaurant proprietor with a level in psychology, Davidi landed a job in real-estate upon transferring to Montenegro, and now represents an Israeli firm concerned in land gross sales. She mentioned she sees each Montenegro and Israel, the place she travels usually to see her kids and grandchildren, as necessary stops on her Jewish journey.
“Once I look again, I see that my lengthy highway towards Israel has handed via a number of international locations and generations: my ancestors got here from Iran; I used to be born in Armenia; from there I moved to Ukraine; from there I moved to Montenegro,” Davidi recalled. “I hope that my subsequent vacation spot — maybe the ultimate station on this lengthy journey — shall be Jerusalem.”
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