Tag #121882 - Interview #78002 (avram sadikario)

Before this rabbi came, I was the rabbi. [Editor's note: There is actually no full-time rabbi in Macedonia. There is a cantor who leads the services and a rabbi that comes from Belgrade a few times a year.] They called me the rabbi because no one knew Jewish history as well. For each holiday I would tell something about Jewish history and something for Pesach, Purim, Rosh Hashanah. They called me rabbi and I said that I am an atheist rabbi. I think we need to have a synagogue for those who are religious, let them go. I am an atheist, but in that respect I am not particularly opposed that someone prays.

There was never a service in the community because we were all atheists. [Editor's note: The Bet Yakov synagogue, which was built before WWII, was destroyed during the Skopje earthquake and was not rebuilt.] Now they made a synagogue upstairs. [Editor's note: The Jewish community of Skopje built a small chapel on the second floor of their community building in 2001. This is the first synagogue to exist in Macedonia since the war.] When they built the synagogue in Skopje a few years ago, I thought it a little strange. What do we need a synagogue for? But now it is good that they built it. There are services every Sabbath. And we go for the holidays. I do not believe but... There are religious people amongst us, especially among the foreigners [Editor's note: Because of the political situation in former Yugoslavia, especially in Kosovo, there are many foreigners living, working or passing through Macedonia, some of whom are Jews who come to the synagogue.] When there is a service I go to the prayers. I do not believe, but I go.