{"id":24889,"date":"2026-09-11T11:23:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amfora.al\/?p=24889"},"modified":"2026-09-11T11:23:47","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T10:23:47","slug":"protest-against-the-jewish-museum-in-vlore-was-disguised-as-a-defence-of-klubi-laberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amfora.al\/en\/protest-against-the-jewish-museum-in-vlore-was-disguised-as-a-defence-of-klubi-laberia\/","title":{"rendered":"Protest against the Jewish Museum in Vlor\u00eb was disguised as a defence of \u2018Klubi Lab\u00ebria\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2018Jewish museum in Lab\u00ebria\u2019s historic building?\u2019 read the opening of a\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0posted by \u2018Jeta Osh Qef\u2019 on 31 August. A lengthy accompanying text added: \u2018According to the historical information cited, the building is associated with the activities of the patriotic \u201cLab\u00ebria\u201d Club, founded in Vlor\u00eb in 1908.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video thus linked the building that will house Vlor\u00eb\u2019s museum dedicated to Jewish history with the activities of the \u2018Lab\u00ebria\u2019 Patriotic Club and asked whether its history would be preserved after its transformation into a museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Jewish Museum is not being built in the former premises of the \u2018Lab\u00ebria\u2019 Club, now home to Vlor\u00eb\u2019s Ethnographic Museum. Project documents, records of Vlor\u00eb Municipal Council and institutional clarifications show that these are two separately registered buildings with different functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In public documents, the building is called the \u2018House near the Lab\u00ebria Club\u2019, whereas social media posts presented it as the building in which the club itself had been founded. This created an avalanche of reactions against the museum project itself, culminating in a civic\u00a0protest<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The narratives merged two buildings into one<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sk\u00ebnder Spahiu, director of Vlor\u00eb\u2019s local museums, explained to Amfora that the Jewish Museum is being established in a town house dating from the 1850s, separate from the Ethnographic Museum. According to him, the location of the construction site shows that work is taking place in the neighbouring building, not in the existing museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The building is located about 10 metres east of the Ethnographic Museum, across the road,\u2019 Spahiu said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This distinction had been discussed before the museum project was approved. At the meeting<\/a> of Vlor\u00eb Municipal Council on 13 March 2024, Klaudio Mehmeti, a representative of the Urban Planning Directorate, explained that the Ethnographic Museum was identified by record card no. 158, while work was permitted in the neighbouring house, identified by record card no. 162.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minutes state that \u2018the Lab\u00ebria Club itself will not be affected\u2019. Councillor Ervis Mo\u00e7ka also stated at that meeting that the Ethnographic Museum property was not included in the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project envisages a basement level in the Jewish Museum building and the reinforcement of the Ethnographic Museum\u2019s foundations during the work. These measures are intended to protect the neighbouring monument, but the documents do not provide for any change to its function or its conversion into a Jewish Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The detailed design\u00a0documentation<\/a>\u00a0identifies the site where the Jewish Museum is being built as the \u2018House near the Lab\u00ebria Club\u2019. The structural report describes it and the Ethnographic Museum as two buildings separated by a construction joint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Architect Elis Baba published an analysis on his Facebook profile<\/a>, from which it is clear that the new development is taking place near the Ethnographic Museum, the former \u2018Lab\u00ebria\u2019 Club. Although he raised concerns about the project\u2019s visual impact, he treated the new museum and the historic monument as two separate buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the website<\/a> of the Albanian-American Development Foundation (AADF), the Jewish Museum is presented as an ongoing project with a financial commitment of $6.5 million. According to the foundation, it will tell the history of relations between Albanians and Jews and will form part of the revitalisation of Vlor\u00eb\u2019s historic centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The architectural design was produced by the Israeli firm Kimmel-Eshkolot Architects, which AADF\u00a0named<\/a>\u00a0the winner of the international competition in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Islami Sot\u2019 identifies itself as a media outlet and\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on 25 August: \u2018In addition to the Jewish Museum in Vlor\u00eb, another of its kind is planned for Tirana by the Albanian-American Foundation AADF.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the claim that AADF is building two Jewish museums, one in Vlor\u00eb and another in Tirana, is not supported by the official information published to date. AADF presents the Albanian Jewish Museum in Vlor\u00eb, to which it has committed $6.5 million, as its own project, while a second Jewish museum in Tirana does not appear in its portfolio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced plans for a Jewish centre in the capital, while in April 2026 the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport announced an agreement with the Besa Cultural Foundation to establish the \u2018Besa Museum\u2019 in Tirana, which will document the stories of Albanians who saved Jews during the Second World War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the protest to the narrative of Vlor\u00eb\u2019s \u2018Jewification\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The museum where the Father of the Nation worked is being demolished and a museum for the Jews is being built,\u2019 G\u00ebzim Zilja wrote in a Facebook post<\/a> on 10 August. The post by the former mayor of Vlor\u00eb, who held office from 1996 to 1997, presented the Jewish Museum as a replacement for the Ethnographic Museum, even though work was taking place in the neighbouring building. By 8 September, the publication had received 386 likes, 134 comments and 44 shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post was\u00a0republished<\/a>\u00a0as an article by Gazeta Telegraf on 12 August and was\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0by the online media outlet \u2018Fjala e Lir\u00eb\u2019 under the same\u00a0headline<\/a>. A day later, the \u2018Lab\u00ebria \u2013 Honour of the Nation\u2019 Association\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0the authorities for clarification about the project and the future of the former \u2018Lab\u00ebria\u2019 Club building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 31 August, Zilja repeated the claim in a\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0entitled \u2018Edi Rama preaches the Jewification of Vlor\u00eb\u2019. The project was no longer presented merely as the replacement of a building, but as part of a broader transformation of the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post attributed to Prime Minister Edi Rama the statement that the museum would be built \u2018on the premises of the former patriotic \u201cLab\u00ebria\u201d Club\u2019. The wording appeared in a Euronews Albania\u00a0report<\/a>, but it was part of the outlet\u2019s text and not Rama\u2019s quoted statement. The Prime Minister had said that the museum was being built \u2018in the former Jewish quarter, near Vlor\u00eb\u2019s main square\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The claims about the building were accompanied by a wave of posts suggesting that Israelis were taking over Albanian spaces, with Vlor\u00eb specifically singled out. On 11 August, the\u00a0account<\/a>\u00a0\u2018Histori Studentore\u2019\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0a graphic bearing the captions \u2018Vlor\u00eb, 2035\u2019, \u2018Tirana, 2035\u2019 and \u2018Shkod\u00ebr, 2035\u2019. The image representing Vlor\u00eb showed Orthodox Jewish men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018This is not a joke, people!\u2019 the description read. By 8 September, the post had received around 1,300 likes and 223 comments. Other similar\u00a0posts<\/a>\u00a0promoted the idea that Vlor\u00eb was being targeted by Israelis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What began as a reaction on social media was followed by calls to rally against the project. On 4 September, Eriselda Balliu and her husband, Baki Goxhaj, published a\u00a0call<\/a>\u00a0for a protest, which was also shared through other channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a video shared before the protest, four older residents, \u2018on behalf of a group of Vlor\u00eb citizens\u2019, issued the call: \u2018No to a Jewish museum! Yes to the \u201cLab\u00ebria\u201d Museum!\u2019 The post called for the construction of the museum in front of the \u2018Lab\u00ebria\u2019 Patriotic Club to be cancelled, expressing absolute opposition \u2013 even though some posts had conflated the two separate buildings into one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A day later, a group of citizens protested near the construction site, according to local media\u00a0reports<\/a>. The protesters demanded that the Jewish Museum be built elsewhere. The story moved from social\u00a0media<\/a>\u00a0to online media outlets and eventually reached the protest in Vlor\u00eb. The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Blendi Gonxhja, also intervened in the debate,\u00a0responding<\/a>\u00a0by distinguishing between the two buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The historic building where the \u201cLab\u00ebria\u201d Patriotic Club was founded in 1908 will not be converted into a Jewish museum [\u2026] The Jewish Museum is being established in another building, a cultural monument registered as the \u201cHouse near the Lab\u00ebria Club\u201d,\u2019 Gonxhja said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gonxhja\u2019s statement was distorted by \u2018Gazeta Impakt\u2019, which led with the\u00a0headline<\/a>: \u2018Edi Rama sends out Blendi Gonxhja to pressure Vlor\u00eb residents protesting against the Israeli museum.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article presented no evidence that Prime Minister Rama had \u2018sent out\u2019 or instructed Minister Gonxhja to influence the protesters. Instead, it largely reproduced Gonxhja\u2019s clarification that the Albanian Jewish Museum is being built in the building next to the Ethnographic Museum, rather than in the historic building where the \u2018Lab\u00ebria\u2019 Patriotic Club was founded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Lab\u00ebria\u2019 Patriotic Club was founded in Vlor\u00eb in 1908, with Ismail Qemali as its honorary president, and supported the spread of the Albanian language and Albanian-language schools before Albania declared independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The distortion of a single word in the official project title \u2013 \u2018near\u2019 \u2013 helped reshape the narrative: two separate buildings were presented as one, prompting a protest in Vlor\u00eb and expanding into claims about the city\u2019s \u2018Jewification\u2019, without any concrete evidence that Israelis were settling there or taking over specific spaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A building near Vlor\u00eb\u2019s Ethnographic Museum, where the Albanian Jewish Museum is being built, was presented on social media and in the media as the historic building of the \u2018Lab\u00ebria\u2019 Patriotic Club. Project documents and records of Vlor\u00eb Municipal Council show that they are two separate buildings, but the confusion spread until it prompted a civic protest against the project. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":24876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3895],"tags":[11059,11053,11052,11060,11055,10741,11057,10882,11058,11056,11054],"class_list":["post-24889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis-en","tag-aadf","tag-albanian-jewish-museum","tag-antisemitic-narratives","tag-blendi-gonxhja","tag-cultural-heritage","tag-disinformation","tag-laberia-patriotic-club","tag-media","tag-protest","tag-vlore","tag-vlore-ethnographic-museum"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t