Reconstruction efforts 1945–1990 Only one in five Croatian Jews survived the Holocaust of World War II. Between 1948 and 1952, nearly one half of the surviving members of Jewish Community of Zagreb opted for emigration to Israel, and the community dropped to one-tenth of its pre-war membership. The Yugoslav communist regime nationalized virtually all real estate owned by the Jewish Community of Zagreb, including the plot in Praška Street. All this, combined with the new regime's general hostility toward religion, made reconstruction of the synagogue nearly impossible. After World War II, the vacant site of the former synagogue was used as a makeshift volleyball court. The volleyball court made way for a prefabricated department store building, constructed in 1959. The department store was completely destroyed in a fire on December 31, 1980, and was subsequently dismantled. Despite some earlier ideas about a permanent department store building on the same spot, and a 1977 architecture competition for its design, no construction took place. Instead, the parcel was turned into a parking lot, which it remains to this day. After 1986, the Jewish Community of Zagreb began to consider a Jewish cultural center and a memorial synagogue. Two architects, Branko Silađin and Boris Morsan, both of whom participated in the failed 1977 department store competition, came forward on their own accord and contributed their ideas for a new Jewish center in Praška Street. Silađin's vision was ultimately not accepted by the Jewish community; instead, plans were being made for the construction of the cultural center and a synagogue, following an international architecture competition. However, despite support for the project both within Yugoslavia and abroad, the issuance of necessary permits was either stalled or denied by the municipal government. The project was not developed. 1990–present By the autumn of 1990, after the first democratic elections in Croatia, the municipal government finally approved the project. An architectural competition was planned for January 1991. Political turmoil in the country, followed by the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995), caused the project to be put on hold again. In 1994 President of Croatia Franjo Tuđman said to Jakov Bienenfeld, Council member of the Zagreb Jewish community, that they should build the new synagogue at the site of the former synagogue, which will be funded by the Croatian government. Bienenfeld declined the offer believing to be inappropriate when a great number of churches