Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1448619
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 6 FEBRUARY 2022 10 NEWS CALL FOR TENDER PSSDF.02.2022- TENDER FOR THE RESTORATION AND REHABILITATION OF PAINTINGS FOR THE PORTO SALVO FOUNDATION ERDF.05.144- Conserving, protecting and promoting the Porto Salvo and St. Dominic Basilica in Valletta Tender documents may be obtained by sending an email on: portosalvofoundation@gmail.com Interested bidders are to submit their SEALED TENDERS by 14th March 2022 JAMES DEBONO THE former post office build- ing in Manoel Dimech Street in Sliema, opposite the police station, has been earmarked for the development of a synagogue, a restaurant and classrooms for religious instruction. The Chabad Malta Founda- tion said the project was the "first Jewish centre on the is- land of Malta after more than 2,000 years of Jewish presence in the history of Malta". The plan is to build a Jewish centre which will cater for the needs of the community as well as visiting tourists, and will in- clude a kosher restaurant on the ground floor. The proposal involves the partial demolition of the exist- ing building whose façade will be retained and restored, the construction of rooms at the back part of property and the construction of two additional floors. As proposed the new building will have the same height of the adjacent residential blocks on its left. The planning application was presented by Rabbi Chaim on behalf of the Chabad Malta Foundation Segal. Currently, two inconspicuous synagogues are active in Malta, located in ordinary residential buildings in St Julian's and an- other in Ta' Xbiex. Malta's Jewish Communi- ty numbers just 250 members although numbers could be greater especially among mi- grant communities and tour- ists and businessmen who visit the increasingly cosmopolitan island. The Jews in Malta Malta boasts an interesting Jewish history dating back to antiquity. One of the most im- portant Jewish scholars and mystics, Rabbi Abraham Shmu- el Abulafia, spent the last years of his life in Comino about 750 years ago. On this island he wrote two books (out of 50 books) – "Im- rey Shefer" and "Gan Na'ul". When he lived in Sicily he de- veloped and refined a trend of Kabbalah, giving it the name "prophetic stream". In 2003 the presumed remains of Abulafia and of other Jew- ish Maltese of the 1st Century were symbolically reburied in the Jewish Cemetery, Marsa. The chronicles of Gilibertus Abbate in 1245 report that 25 Jewish families lived in Mal- ta and eight in Gozo. In Mdi- na, during medieval times, the street along the north side of the cathedral (today's Triq il-Fosos) was designated as the Jewish quarter. But in 1492, the Edict of Expulsion forced all Jews to leave the lands under the Spanish crown – including Malta. Under the Knights of St John, the Jewish population was mainly composed of slaves cap- tured in piracy raids, at a time when Jews were given sanctu- ary in Ottoman lands, follow- ing their persecution and ex- pulsion from Spanish lands. In 1749, the baptised Jewish slave Giuseppe Antonio Co- hen, revealed to the authorities a plot of a Muslim slave revolt. For his deed, he was granted a pension of 500 scudi and the ownership of a building in Stra- da Mercanti, Valletta. The majority of the contem- porary Maltese Jewish com- munity originates in Jewish immigration from the United Kingdom, the Maghreb and Turkey under British rule. In the 1930s the Jewish com- munity in Malta welcomed ref- ugees from Italy and Central Europe escaping Nazi rule. Maltese Jews found them- selves without a synagogue when the building in Spur Street, opposite Lower St Elmo Gate, was demolished in 1979 as part of a slum clearance and road widening scheme. The community remained without a Synagogue until 1984 when a new Synagogue was inaugurated in Strada San Ursola. This served the Jewish Community until 1995, when a bulldozer working on an adja- cent building site undermined the foundations, causing the building containing the Syna- gogue to collapse. In 2000, thanks to donations from the United States and the United Kingdom, a flat in Ta' Xbiex was converted into a Jewish Centre and Synagogue. In 2013 Rabbi Chaim Shalom and Rabbi Haya Moshka Segal founded the Chabad Jewish Centre in Borg Olivier Street in St Julian's, which includes the L'Chaim kosher restaurant. Synagogue and kosher restaurant for prominent Sliema location The Chabad Malta Foundation said the project was the "first Jewish centre on the island of Malta after more than 2,000 years of Jewish presence in the history of Malta"