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Hamdije Kresevljakovica 83

71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina

+387 71 663 472

+387 71 663 473
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[January 2009] Administrative Divisions: two first-order administrative divisions currently approved by the US Government are

1. Muslim/Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Federacija Bosnia i Herzegovina). The Muslim/Croat Federation is comprised of 10 cantons: Goradzde (5), Livno (10), Middle Bosnia (6), Neretva (7), Posavina (2), Sarajevo (9), Tuzla Podrinje (3), Una Sana (1), West Herzegovina (8), and Zenica Doboj (4).
2. Republika Srpska.

Bosnia and Herzegovina: Reference - Country Guide, E-mail and Business Page Directories [January 2009]

Maps: http://slavophilia.net/ and http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~bosnia/bosnia.html

Maps of Bosnia http://www.escapeartist.com/bosnia/herzegovina.html

JewishGen's ShtetlSeeker references border changes to locate a given town.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Search Engines: [January 2009]

• http://www.searchengineguide.com/pages/Regional/Countries/Bosnia_and_Herzegovina/
• http://slavic.ohio-state.edu/people/yoo/links/bosnia/search.htm
• http://www.twics.com/~takakuwa/search/bosnia.html

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One of the republics in central Yugoslavia with the largest Muslim population (750,000). There is no evidence of the existence of a Jewish community in Bosnia before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Tombstone inscriptions prove the existence of Jews in Sarajevo in 1551. A special quarter was allocated to them later in the 16th century and they lived there until the conquest of the town by the Austrians in 1878. During the rule of Daudji Pasha, who was appointed in 1635, the relations between Turkey and Venice became strained. This had an adverse effect on the commerce of the local Jews. During the siege of Ofen in 1686 many Jews fled to Sarajevo, including Zevi Hirsch Ashkenazi (Hakham Zevi), who was appointed hakham there. A change for the worse in the situation of the Jews of Sarajevo occurred in 1833. In was only after payment of a heavy ransom that the Jews were saved from the danger of riots and blood libel. The laws of 1839, 1856, and 1876, which granted the Jews of Turkey equality of rights with the other citizens, also applied to the Jews of Bosnia. From then onward, some Jews were elected to the Ottoman parliament in Constantinople and the municipal councils. In 1876 Yaver Effendi Barukh was sent to the parliament as the representative of Bosnia. Isaac Effendi Shalom was a member of the Majlis Idareh ("Advisory Council to the Vali"). Upon his death, his place was filled by his son Solomon Effendi Shalom, who was also a representative in the parliament. Two Jewish delegates were sent to the Landstag which was opened in 1910. Besides Sarajevo, there were also Jewish communities in the towns of Travnik, Banja Luka, Bijeljina, and others. The following data are available on the number of Jews in Bosnia from the end of the 18th century. There were 1,500 Jews in 1780; 8,213 in 1895; 10,000 (Sephardim) in 1923; 13,701 in 1926; 14,000 in 1941 (together with Herzegovina); and 1,298 in 1958. In addition to the Nazis and the Usta2e who were active in Bosnia in World War II, the former mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj AmSource [February 2009]

[January 2009]

Post-Second World War communist Yugoslavia (six federated republics: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro under Marshal Josip Broz Tito): Jewish life began to return to the Balkans. With approximately 14,500 out of a pre-war population of 16,000 Serbian Jews killed, from 1948 many of those survivors migrated to Israel. Abandoned and ruined synagogues and cemeteries: Former synagogues gradually weree either demolished or had new uses. Many cemeteries were abandoned with some pillaged and gravestones used for construction. Others became overgrown and almost forgotten.

The Jewish community (about 6,000 people throughout the former Yugoslavia) was recognised as both an ethnic and a religious community. Communist Yugoslavia was not a part of the Soviet bloc so local Jews were not persecuted or isolated. They further assimilated into society and lost contact with religious life. There was only one rabbi in the country. The Federation of Yugoslav Jewish Communities cared for Jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and other infrastructure where communities no longer exist. Some cemeteries were moved. Some were maintained. The Jewish community also erected close to thirty memorials within former Yugoslavia to commemorate Jews  lost during the war. Throughout the 1980s, wide-ranging programs run by the Federation and individual Jewish communities were helped by international Jewish philanthropy.

This began with the secession of Slovenia, and then of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, in 1991. A series of bloody Balkan wars tore apart the country, left hundreds of thousands of dead and millions displaced, and destroyed thousands of religious, cultural and historic heritage sites. The state's collapse made the the continuation of Jewish institutions particularly difficult, even without the trauma of war and the Jewish emigration that resulted. Gradually the small Jewish communities of the former Yugoslavia have recreated themselves as more locally-based organisations, gradually rebuilt earlier connections, and expanded their association with Jewish communities and institutions in Israel and throughout Europe.

YUGOSLAVIA REFERENCES:

REFERENCES:

1. Aladjic, Viktorija. 'Detailed chronology of restoration work on the Subotica synagogue 1974-2000', 'Save Our Subotica Synagogue' website, 2004. Online at:
2. www.sos-sinagoga.org.yu/en/synagogue/restoration74_00.htm (2007)
3. American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. 'In historical inter-ethnic co-operation, Roma clean Jewish cemetery in Serbia.' www.jdc.org/p_ee_serbia_ps_build_nis.html (accessed 10 August 2007)
4. Anastasijevic, Dejan. 'The Synagogue in Zemun: Synagogue, restaurant, shooting Range,' Vreme News Digest Agency 290, 26 April 1997.
5. www.scc.rutgers.edu/serbian_digest/290/t290-8.htm (2007)
6. Banjica Concentration Camp museum: www.mgb.org.yu/eng/pmuz/banjica/banji.htm (2007)
7. Baumhorn Lipót Epitesz 1860-1932 (exhibition catalogue), Budapest: Jewish Museum of Budapest, 1999
8. Bunardzic, Radovan. Menore iz Čelareva/Menoroth from Čelarevo, Belgrade: Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, 1980
9. Bilten. (Monthly newsletter of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia) Belgrade
10. Bunardzhich, Radovan. Menore iz Čelareva. Belgrade: Savez Jevrejskih Opstina Jugoslavije, 1980. Museum exhibition guide for the menorah images from Čelarevo (in Serbian)
11. Bunardzhich, Radovan. 'Čelarevo - necropolis and settlement of the 8th-9th century'; Xazary: Vtoroi Mezhdunarodnii Kollokvium: Tezisy, Vladimir Iakovlevich Petrukhin and Artyom M. Fedorchuk, eds, Moscow: Tsentr Nauchnyx Rabotnikov i Prepodavatelei Judaiki v Vuzakh 'Sefer', Evreiskii Universitet v Moskve, and Institut Slavyanovedeniya Rossiiskoy Akademii Nauk, 2002, 19-21? [sic]
12. Čerešnješ, Ivan. Caught in the Winds of War: Jews in the Former Yugoslavia, Institute of the World Jewish Congress, Israel, 1999
13. Dorcol Holocaust Memorial: www.makabijada.com/images/Menora_u_plamenu.jpg (2007)
14. 'The Synagogue of Novi Sad, Serbia'. Database of Jewish Communities, Nahum Goldmann Museum of the Jewish Diaspora. www.bh.org.il/Communities/Synagogue/NoviSad.asp (2006)
15. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1990.
16. Belgrade holocaust memorial: www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=305# (accessed May 2006)
17. Grossman, Grace Cohen. Jewish Museums of the World, Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., 2003
18. Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.
19. Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Preliminary Survey of Historic Jewish Sites in Serbia and Montenegro, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, Washington, 2003.
20. Gruber, Ruth Ellen. 'Serbian cemetery being renovated, easing tiff between Jews and Gypsies', Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 29 August, 2004. Online at:
21. www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/Serbiancemeterybei.html (accessed August 2007)
22. Gruber, Ruth Ellen. 'Baffling painting in Serbian shul', Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 6 September, 2004. Online at: www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20040906InoldSerbianshul.html (2007)
23. Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe (new edition), New York: National Geographic, 2007.
24. History of the Jews of Serbia and Montenegro: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/serbia.html
25. International Survey of Jewish Monuments. 'ISJM-backed conservation team assesses condition of endangered Subotica synagogue', Jewish Heritage Report II, 2000 nos 3-4. Online at: www.isjm.org/jhr/IInos3-4/subotica.htm (2007)
26. Jewish Historical Museum, Belgrade, Scientific Meeting, Menoroth from Čelarevo [Shorthand notes]. Belgrade: Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia, 1983
27. Jewish Historical Museum: www.jim-bg.org (2007)
28. Jews in Yugoslavia (exhibition catalogue), Zagreb: Muzejski Prostor 1989.
29. Kosmajska Temple: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Beogradska_sinagoga.jpg (2007)
30. Krinsky, Carol Herselle. Synagogues of Europe, Boston: The Architectural History Foundation and the MIT Press, 1985.
31. Krosnar, Katka. "In Belgrade, man wants memorial to a 'forgotten concentration camp'",
32. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (27 March, 2003; accessed 5 September 2007)
33. Loker, Zvi, ed., Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities/Pinkas Hakehilot, Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, 1988
34. Mihailovic, Milica. 'The Jewish Historical Museum, Belgrade'. European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe, 2003, 36.2, 62-73.
35. Niš synagogue: www.yuheritage.com/niscentar.htm
36. Roman, Andras. Report on the Present State of the Synagogue in Subotica. Budapest, files of International Survey of Jewish Monuments, 1999
37. Sosberger, Pavle. Sinagoge u Vojvodini, Novi Sad: Prometej, 1998
38. Tomasevic, Nebojsa. Treasures of Yugoslavia: An Encyclopedic Touring Guide, Belgrade: Yugoslaviapublic, 1980.
39. Topovske Šupe Holocaust Memorial: www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=305# (2007)
40. Wood, Nicholas. 'Serbian Gypsies and Jews in dispute over cemetery', New York Times, 22 August 2004. www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/international/europe/22serbia.html?pagewanted=print&position= (2006)
41. Zemun Jewish community: www.joz.org.yu/ (2007)
42. Zuroff, Efraim. 'Message from Novi Sad to Tzipi Livni', Jerusalem Post, 30 January 2007. Online at:
43. www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1167467851112 (2007)

[January 2009] Source of the following: http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/country/bosnia/bosnia.htm#5

United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad: Gruber 2002 and Čerešnješ (forthcoming). Ivan Čerešnješ was former president of the Jewish Community of Sarajevo.

1. Beiser, Vince. ‘A will to survive', The Jerusalem Report, 2 May 1996.
2. Bosnian Culture Days. Bosniens Juden: Legende-Tradition-Leben, Vienna, October-November, 1996.

Center for Jewish Art, Jerusalem. ‘Bosnia/Herzegovina and Croatia: Documenting Jewish art and architecture', CJA Newsletter, 15, Summer 2000:
http://cja.huji.ac.il/NL15-yugoslavia.htm (accessed January 2008).

Čerešnješ, Ivan. Caught in the Winds of War: Jews in the Former Yugoslavia. Jerusalem: World Jewish Congress, 1999.

Čerešnješ, Ivan/United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. Jewish Heritage Sites in Bosnia and Herzegovina (forthcoming).

Gotovac, Vedrana. Sinagoge u Bosni i Hercegovnini. Sarajevo: Muzej Grada Sarajeva, 1987.

• Gruber, Ruth Ellen.‘Serbs demand their "share" of rare Sarajevo Haggadah', Jewish Telegraph Agency, 24 December 1998.
• Gruber, Ruth Ellen. ‘New synagogue project unites Bosnians of different backgrounds', Jewish Telegraph Agency, 25 April 2001.
  
• Gruber, Ruth Ellen. 'Sarajevo Haggadah restored - Next up: putting it up on display', Jewish Telegraph Agency, 9 January, 2002.
• Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Preliminary Report to the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (2002).
  
• Gruber, Ruth Ellen. ‘Priceless 14th-century Haggadah on permanent display in Sarajevo', Jewish Telegraph Agency, 3 December 2002.
  
• Gruber, Ruth Ellen. ‘After 60 years, prayer returns to historic Sarajevo synagogue', Jewish Telegraph Agency, 27 September 2004.
  
• Gruber, Ruth Ellen. ‘Illuminated Sarajevo Haggadah is being reproduced for Passover', Jewish Telegraph Agency, 3 April 2006.
  
• Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage Travel: A guide to Eastern Europe. New York: National Geographic, 2007
  

Gruber, Samuel D. ‘US Commission urges Sarajevo cemetery restoration,' Jewish Heritage Report II, 3-4, 1998-9: www.isjm.org/Links/Sarajevo.htm

Hecht, Esther. Hadassah Magazine, October 2007 (accessed January 2008)

Herscher, Andrew. ‘Remembering and rebuilding in Bosnia', Transitions: Changes in Post-Communist Societies, 5:3, March 1998, 76-81.

Jews in Yugoslavia (exhibition catalogue), Zagreb: Muzejski Prostor, 1989.

Krinsky, Carol Herselle. Synagogues of Europe. Boston: The Architectural History Foundation and the MIT Press, 1985.

Mooney, Bel. ‘Saviours scorned', The Times, London, 30 November 1996.

National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina: www.zemaljskimuzej.ba/ (accessed 10 December 2007

Schwartz, Stephen. ‘The Rabbi of Stolac', 1999: www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/stolac/stolacrab.htm

Schwartz, Stephen. ‘Jewish Stolac: Sephardic Judaism, Balkan Islam, and tomb visitation in Bosnia-Hercegovina: Remarks-in-progress on Rav Danon and the Stolac tomb', 10 November 2002: www.haverford.edu/relg/sells/stolac/JewishHeritageStolac/HaverfordRemarks.doc

Serotta, Edward. Survival in Sarajevo: How a Jewish community came to the aid of its city, Vienna: Brandstätter, 1994.

Tomasevic, Nebojsa. Treasures of Yugoslavia: An encyclopedic touring guide. Belgrade: Yugoslaviapublic, 1980.

Werber, Eugen. The Sarajevo Haggadah. Sarajevo: Proveta-Svjetlost, 1983.