This is a 1908 photograph of Bujna and Sabetaj Levi dressed in the traditional costume of Balkan Jews. The photograph was taken in Sarajevo, then part of Austria-Hungary and now in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Sabataj is wearing a fez on his head and a coat with a wide fabric sash and appears to have a jacket slung over his left shoulder. Bujna is wearing the hat traditionally worn by Sephardi women and a long dress with a short jacket. Bujna and Sabetaj are posing here for a formal portrait taken in a photography studio. Their grandson, Josip Papo, reports in his oral history that his grandmother, who spoke Ladino and Serbo-Croatian with her children, always wore this hat. Sabetaj died in 1912, leaving Bujna alone in Sarajevo. Josip remembers visiting his grandmother once a year during school holidays. He stayed with her, and she cooked traditional foods such as dilece, a dish made of ground rice and milk. Bujna Levi died in 1942 in Croatia.
Buna and Sabetaj Levi’s grandson, Josip Papo, was born in 1923 and grew up in Makarska, Yugoslavia, which was a town with a very small Jewish community. His parents met in Sarajevo, married, and moved to Makarska – a decision that Papo credits for saving their lives during the Holocaust. He reports that there wasn’t any anti-Semitism in Makarska and that 90% of the residents were anti-fascist. During the war, Papo was arrested as a communist and spent a significant amount of time in jail. After his released, Papo was frequently in hiding or on the run and was captured and released several times. After the war, Papo moved to Belgrade and Zagreb, where he studied law and worked as a lawyer. Although he was married to a non-Jew, he became a member of the Zagreb Jewish community, mainly because of his grandchildren and because he felt a sense of responsibility and connection to the Jews who had been killed in the Holocaust
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Jewish Community of Sarajevo – The first record of Jews living in Sarajevo was 1565. Many of these were Spanish refugees from Salonika, Greece, who spoke Ladino. They were accepted by the wider community and worked as artisans and merchants and in the field of medicine. They lived in a Jewish quarter, but generally had good relations with their non-Jewish neighbours. In 1878, Sarajevo was annexed to Austria, which brought the first group of Ashkenazi Jews to the community. After World War I, Sarajevo became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Jews experienced freedom and opportunity during this time and the population rose to 14,000. The period during the two world wars was a time of Jewish growth including the establishment of new institutions and a rising interest in Zionism. During World War II, Sarajevo was occupied by Nazi Germany as of 1941. In the autumn of 1941, most members of the Jewish community were deported to Croatian concentration camps, where most of them were killed. After the war, the majority of the survivors moved to Israel, although a small group returned to Sarajevo. The Ashkenazi synagogue, built in 1902 and not destroyed during the Holocaust, became the centre of the Jewish community. Sarajevo was under siege during the Bosnian War (1992–1995). During the siege, 900 Jews were evacuated, and many left for Israel. Of those who stayed, many were involved in humanitarian relief through the Jewish institution La Benevolencija, which provided food and medicine to those in need, regardless of their ethnic background. There are currently 500–1,000 Jews in Bosnia, with most living in Sarajevo.
The Jewish Community of Bosnia – The Jewish community in Bosnia was first founded by Sephardi Jews who had been expelled from Spain. Bosnia was under Ottoman rule at the time, and the Jews were welcomed to the country. The first Ashkenazi Jews arrived from Hungary at the end of the seventeenth century. The community prospered and lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbours. A famous figure in the community was Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, known as a proto-Zionist who lay the ideological foundations for the Zionist movement of the nineteenth century. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Bosnia became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Despite bringing another influx of Ashkenazi Jews to the country, most of the community remained Sephardi, speaking Ladino and observing specific Sephardi traditions. With the post-World War I collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , Bosnia was included in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and the Jews continued to prosper. Before World War II and the Nazi occupation of the country, there were approximately 20,000 Jews in Bosnia, most of whom lived in Sarajevo. In 1941 Bosnia was controlled by Croatia, which was governed by an anti-Semitic political party. In September 1941 deportations of Jews began, mostly to Auschwitz or to concentration camps in Croatia. By the end of World War II, 10,000 Bosnian Jews had been murdered. Despite this huge number, it is important to note that many Bosnians helped the Jews; in fact, 42 Bosnians were honoured by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations. The Jewish community was revived after the Holocaust, but most of the survivors chose to immigrate to Israel. The Bosnian War of the 1990s also affected the Jewish community. Throughout the war the Sarajevo Jewish Humanitarian Society, La Benevolencija, supported thousands of people of all religions, providing food, medicine, medical aid, and radio communication. La Benevolencija also organised the evacuation of Sarajevo residents (only a third of them Jewish) with the help of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Today, with the independence of Bosnia, the Jewish community numbers around 1,000. Community life is centred around La Benevolencija, which runs a community centre and a synagogue.
