Why Israel was almost founded in Albania

For centuries, Jews were persecuted in almost all countries of Europe. They were pushed to the fringes of society and in some cases completely excluded. The persecution of the Jews then culminated in the Second World War, one of the darkest chapters in history. In order to ensure that history would never be repeated, a plan was put into action that had already been discussed as early as the 19th century.

The Jews were to be given their own state in which they could live peacefully. So in 1948, under the protection of the United States, the state of Israel was eventually founded in the Middle East. But in fact, the location in the Middle East was just one of many proposals. Originally, there were plans for a Jewish state in Albania, but also plans for a state in the US, in Eastern Russia and even in Uganda.
In total, 30 different places were considered for a potential Jewish state. Let's take a look at some of these places, why these proposals were discarded, and why it ultimately turned out to be the Middle East.

Music:
LAKEY INSPIRED - Chill Day

#jewishstate #israel #albania

[mariovallanzasca]

Imagine adding Israel to the Balkans. As if this region is already not filled enough with ethnic tensions. Adding Israel into the mix could have been the cherry on top. The memes would have been hilarious tho

[arielp]

As a Native American, I have great love and respect for the Albanian people

[AlOfNorway]

As an Albanian I am so grateful it didn't happen as it would have erased us completely, although it almost happened on several occasions. What a horrendous thought. It is the tragic fate of small cultures and ethnicities to be swallowed by bigger, dominating ones. Thankfully our language and culture held on and prevailed despite Greek and Serbian dominance in the area.

[albtr]

We didn't save them because they were Jews we saved them because they were people .... and we didn't want other humans to go through what we did in our lands

[subspeciaeternis]

Albania was NEVER considered as a possible place to found the new state of old Israel. It was Palestine, Uganda and Argentina.
There was a plan to buy land in Myzeqeja, south Albania for 500 Jewish families but NOT to make a state.
The Albanian people saved all the Jews, and even the pro-nazi Government in Albania refused 4 times to give to Nazis
the list of the Jews in Albania. That's true. And Jews in Albania came mosty from Greece and they were very well integrated:
they were merchants, professors, translators, army officers, physicians, musicians etc.

[TauLanT-]

Proud of my Albanian people for how we save the Jews ! A role model to the world for tolerance and humanity ❤️🇦🇱 👐

[Bosniak]

Albanians are very well known by "Great Hospitality" ... One of best people in the Balkans

[glbale]

It was never considered as far as I know, but I've always thought that the enclave of Kaliningrad (the former Prussian Konigsberg, annexed by the USSR after WW2) would have been a fitting place for Jewish state. This would have been at the expense of Germany, the arch persecutor, rather than at the expense of a people who simply lived in the wrong place.

[johnbullpit]

Thank you for that. I'm 81 and still learning stuff that I didn't know about.

[Pulse]

As an Albanian, I am so grateful this didn't happen.

[AviSapir]

As an Israeli Jew living in Israel I want to say a huge thank you to the ancestors of the Albanians.
Thank you for accepting and helping to save Jewish families from the Nazis. Thank you for hiding them in the mountains and bringing them food and lodging and accepting them and no one sold them to the Nazis and even the neighbors who knew where they were in the basements did not give information to the Nazis.
I want to point out that the Jews have no other place except the land of their ancestors in the promised land according to the Torah. And all the assumptions and desires that others state are fake.
I wish the Albanians a blessing from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they will remain in our history as a nation that helped save the Jews from Nazi ex-termination

Thank you

[illiria]

We didn’t just dodge a bullet we dodged a bomb.

[torikeqi]

That would be a terrible idea.

It is true we saved jews in ww2, but that has nothing to do with them colonizing Albanian lands.

Albanians would have never accepted this plan.

[mendjelire]

This is very disturbing! Taking a country that at the time had only 700K indigenous inhabitants with their own very old culture, traditions, history and dumping on it 5 million of any other culture and background, let alone Jews who have a very strong culture, tradition, religion etc.. That would have meant death for the Albanian nation. I mean we are now a country of only 3 million plus the 2 million Albanians in Kosovo and about another 600K in North Macedonia and Montenegro, and we can certainly use a couple hundred thousand of top tier Jews for their knowledge and work ethic and their religion so to enrich our religious scene so to strengthen our religious tolerance culture, but Albanian identity, language (as one of the oldest Indo-European languages that stands on its own as a language isolate) is very much worth preserving and this would have been a devastating mistake should it have taken place. We miss our Jews who left our country for Israel after the communism in the poverty stricken 1990s. They were very smart, hard working and good people. Today hardly any Jews are left in Albania.

[Baruch-qn]

Albanians of albania have never been anti jewish.Part of my own family lived in albania as refugees from Spain for 500 years.They lived free from anti semitism.

[Sveta]

Haha like that's all we needed in the Balkans, yet another religion and ethnicity and again with backing of America, what could possibly go wrong 😂

[zekipeki]

This is like playing Russian Roulette, which country gets picked is the unlucky one who has to deal with jews. I feel so bad for Palestinians.

[Speakthetruth]

As Albanian, I'm proud to have saved human life.
But I'm very disappointed of today's Israel, who has no regard for Palestinian life.
As I'm sure the 1940s islrali people would be very disappointed of what their people became. The oppressed has become the oppressor. Regardless of what background you come from, huma life is very precious.

[nesune]

Although albanians helped jews during the holocaust, no way zionists would survive in albania as they do in occupied palestine. Lucky them i guess.

[tombombadil]

so basically it was just a half baked idea of ONE man that never even reached the planning stage, let alone the 'almost' phase