Ancient holy book symbolises the fate of Sarajevo’s Jews

Sarajevo: Eli Tauber, a pillar of Sarajevo’s Jewish community, waited anxiously for worshippers to arrive at the synagogue as there must be at least 10 men present before starting the Sabbath prayers.

To the historian’s great relief 11 men and a woman, most of them elderly, turned up for the service led by a local man who represents the Jews on Bosnia’s ecumenical council. The rabbi lives in Israel and only comes to Sarajevo for the Jewish Passover and New Year holidays.

No more than 800 Jews still live in the Bosnian capital, according to their community’s 74- year- old leader, Jakob Finci.

Before World War II they numbered around 12,500, accounting for 15 to 20 percent of the city’s population, but many were killed during the Holocaust.

Still Jews remain part of the multi- cultural and religious identity of Sarajevo alongside Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Bosnian Muslims.

The symbol of the story of Bosnia’s Jews is a 14th- century treasure -— the famous Sarajevo Haggadah holy book, containing the biblical text of Exodus read by Jews at Passover.

The ancient manuscript on bleached calfskin, illuminated in copper and gold, has been on permanent display at Bosnia’s National Museum since last month.

The ancestors of Sarajevo Jews first found refuge in Bosnia, then part of the Ottoman Empire, after being expelled from Spain by the Roman Catholic royals in 1492. The Haggadah came with the Sephardic Jews fleeing Spain, originating most likely from the region near Barcelona. According to Tauber, it was brought to Sarajevo in the 17th century, escaping the flames of the Inquisition. Then in the late 19th century, a Jewish family in financial difficulty sold the holy book to the national museum.

During World War II, Sarajevo was terrorised by the Ustasha, Croat allies of the German Nazis who controlled Bosnia.

When a German officer came to the museum to seek the Haggadah, “its director Jozo Petrovic, a clever man, replied that another officer took it away the day before,” historian Enver Imamovic, 77, told AFP.

The Haggadah had been hidden from the Nazis under the threshold of a mountain hut near Sarajevo.