MARSEILLE – Reflecting good interfaith relations in the French city, Marseille synagogue was bought by an Islamic cultural association that will convert it into a mosque to accommodate the growing Muslim community in the city.

“For the past 20 years or so we have seen the shift of the Jewish community to other neighborhoods,” the city’s top Jewish leader Zvi Ammar said, adding that he viewed the sale “positively”, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported on Wednesday, April 27.

“We all have the same God, the main thing is for this to proceed in harmony,” he said.

According to Ammar, Al Badr Muslim cultural association will purchase the Or Thora synagogue, which has been witnessing a decline in its congregation over the past years.

Marseille’s Jewish community is thriving, Ammar said, with the number of synagogues nearly doubling to 58 from 32 over the past three decades.

The city’s 70,000 Jews make up one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities.

“It was an emblematic synagogue. But in this city, the Jews have moved… It’s a sign of the times,” Michele Teboul, president of Crif Marseille-Provence, told Marseille-based Le province newspaper.

“Marseille doesn’t lack synagogues.”

On the other hand, the building is expected to accommodate the growing Muslim population, who currently attends a nearby mosque that is too small.

Marseille’s Muslims, estimated by 220,000 out of France’s five million Muslims, are still awaiting the construction of a Grand Mosque, but the project promised by the city’s mayor in 2001 is mired in financial woes as well as legal challenges by the far-right National Front.

At an estimated cost of some 23 million euros ($26 million), the mosque would be France’s largest if the project is finally achieved.