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La Benevolencija is a Jewish humanitarian organization based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, the organization provided medical aid, food rations and educational services for the people trapped in the city.
The Jewish Community in Bosnia dates back to the 15th century, when Sephardic Jews escaping the Spanish Inquisition found refuge in the Ottoman-occupied Balkans. [1] The Jewish community thrived in Bosnia, having good relations with the other religious groups in the area.
The history of La Benevolencija, however begins in 1892, after the Austro-Hungarian Empire occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina. [2] [3] The occupation brought with it well-educated Ashkenazi Jews from other parts of the Empire. The original goal of La Benevolencija was to pool funds so that Bosnian Jewish students could attend better universities in other parts of the Empire. [2] Because levels of antisemitism were relatively lower in the Balkans than in other parts of the Empire, many students returned to Sarajevo after their university studies, which helped the long-term growth of the organization. The organization continued to encourage education, opening what would be the largest public library in Sarajevo. [2] [4]
World War II decimated the Jewish community in Sarajevo and Bosnia as a whole. After the creation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945, religious-based organizations like La Benevolencija were banned. [2] Despite these bans, the community continued similar activities to that of La Benevolencija, however on a more secular scale.
The fall of socialism provided an opportunity for the Jewish community in Bosnia to re-launch the organization. In 1991 La Benevolencija was re-formed, with a mission to "share and celebrate the richness and diversity of Bosnian-Jewish culture" with the rest of the community. [2] 1992 brought with it both celebration and tragedy. The organization was able to celebrate its 100th anniversary, but regional conflicts were beginning to reach Bosnia. [4]
Even before the conflict began in earnest in Bosnia, La Benevolencija prepared for the worst. Upon hearing that elderly patients in Dubrovnik were unable to access medication because of the War in Croatia, the organization began stockpiling medication and food with a long shelf-life. [2] [3] When shelling of the city began in May 1992, many people in the city sought shelter in the city's synagogue as people were afraid and had nowhere else to go. [5]
The Jewish community in Bosnia was benefited by two different situations. First, they were able to use their neutral status to protect people from all the other ethnic groups in the city. Additionally, they benefited logistically. While many of the other humanitarian aid organizations had their supplies outside of the city and were unable to bring them past the siege, La Benevolencija used the gymnasium of the Synagogue to store supplies, thereby making it one of the few places where food and supplies could be found after all the stores had been looted. [2]
During the Siege, the organization had many roles. La Benevolencija opened three pharmacies in the city. A clinic was opened in the Jewish Community Center to treat the sick and injured. [5] A non-denominational soup kitchen was organized, which provided 320 meals a day, 7 days a week. [2] [3] The organization provided educational and cultural programs for citizens trapped by the siege, teaching language courses, holding exhibitions for journalists at the Sarajevo Holiday Inn, and organizing the Miss Sarajevo pageant. [2] When phone lines and postal service was cut, the organization set up a two-way radio link for people to keep in contact with the outside world, and worked with international journalists to receive and distribute letters. [5] [3] [6]
This was not merely a Jewish effort, however. People from across the community offered their support and expertise to the organization during the siege, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. [5] [3]
As the siege dragged on, the organization worked with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to allow convoys of civilians to escape the city and travel to peaceful territory. [5] Jakob Finci, one of the leaders of La Benevolencija, helped forge the travel documents of Serbs, Croats and Muslims in the city so they would be listed as Jews on their travel documents and therefore escape the city safely. In the end, La Benevolencija helped over 2000 people escape Sarajevo during the Siege. [2] [3]
After the war, the organization slowly ended its humanitarian work; closing down its pharmacies, ending the soup kitchen and shifting its education programs to job training programs. Working with the World Bank, the UNHCR and the US Government, the organization developed a microcredit program that offered loans up to 10000 Bosnian convertible marks to small businesses. [7] As of 2012, this microcredit program had a 97% repayment rate. [4]
The Organization also provides home care services to the elderly in Bosnia. [4] With the help of the JDC, the organization provides care for 100-400 people two to three times a week, operating not only in Sarajevo, but in Mostar, Zenica, Doboj, Banja Luka and Tuzla. [8]
In 2002, inspired by La Benevolencija, a group media professionals in the Netherlands founded the NGO Radio La Benevolencija Humanitarian Tools Foundation (RLB), an organisation producing the radio soap Musekeweya , as well as documentaries and educational programmes in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi for the empowerment of people who are the targets of hate violence. [9] [ need quotation to verify ]
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe, situated on the Balkan Peninsula. It borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest. In the south it has a 20 kilometres long coast on the Adriatic Sea, with the town of Neum being its only access to the sea. Bosnia has a moderate continental climate with hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In the central and eastern regions, the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and in the northeast it is predominantly flat. Herzegovina, the smaller, southern region, has a Mediterranean climate and is mostly mountainous. Sarajevo is the capital and the largest city.
The Balkans, corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whole of Bulgaria. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Musala, 2,925 metres (9,596 ft), in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria.
Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area including Sarajevo Canton, East Sarajevo and nearby municipalities is home to 555,210 inhabitants. Located within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of the Balkans, a region of Southeastern Europe.
The Siege of Sarajevo was a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War. After it was initially besieged by the forces of the Yugoslav People's Army, the city was then besieged by the Army of Republika Srpska. Lasting from 5 April 1992 to 29 February 1996, it was three times longer than the Battle of Stalingrad, more than a year longer than the siege of Leningrad, and was the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.
The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992, following a number of earlier violent incidents. The war ended on 14 December 1995 when the Dayton accords were signed. The main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, and the Republika Srpska, the latter two entities being proto-states led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively.
Svetlana Broz is a Bosnian author and physician who specializes in cardiology. She is the granddaughter of the Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito.
The Jewish people of Bosnia and Herzegovina are one of the minority peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to country's constitution. The history of Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina spans from the arrival of the first Bosnian Jews as a result of the Spanish Inquisition to the survival of the Bosnian Jews through the Holocaust and the Yugoslav Wars. Judaism and the Jewish community in Bosnia and Herzegovina have one of the oldest and most diverse histories of all the former Yugoslav states, and is more than 500 years old, in terms of permanent settlement. Then a self-governing province of the Ottoman Empire, Bosnia was one of the few territories in Europe that welcomed Jews after their expulsion from Spain.
The Sarajevo Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located on the south bank of the river Miljacka, in Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The synagogue was constructed in 1902 and is the only functioning synagogue in Sarajevo today. The congregation worships in the Ashkenazi rite.
Isak Samokovlija was a Bosnian writer. By profession he was a physician. His stories describe the life of the Bosnian Sephardic Jews.
Ivan Čerešnješ, also known as Ivica Čerešnješ, is a Bosnian architect-researcher at the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem specializing in the documentation of the Jewish architectural-cultural heritage in the former Yugoslavia and Eastern Europe. During the Bosnian War of 1992–1995 he served as the president of the Jewish community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and played a central role in the rescue and evacuation of thousands of Sarajevo residents.
Kalmi Baruh was a Bosnian Jewish scholar in the field of Judeo-Spanish language, pioneer of the Sephardic studies and Hispanic studies in former Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
United Nations Security Council resolution 859, adopted unanimously on 24 August 1993, after recalling all resolutions on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the council noted that, despite all previous security council resolutions since Resolution 713 (1991), the region was still a scene of hostilities and there was little compliance with previous resolutions, particularly by the Bosnian Serb party.
Jakob Finci is a prominent Bosnian Jew, former ambassador, and the current president of the Jewish Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The OId Jewish Cemetery is a cemetery in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located on the slopes of Trebević mountain, in the Kovačići-Debelo Brdo area, in the south-western part of the city. It is the largest Jewish cemetery in Southeast Europe, and second largest sepulchral complex in Europe after the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague. It was in use for approximately four hundred years from the beginning of the 16th or 17th century, but most likely from 1630 until 1966.
Velma Šarić is a Bosnian journalist and the founder and president of the Post-Conflict Research Center – a peace building organization, based in Sarajevo, which works to cultivate an environment for sustainable peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the greater Balkans region. As a trained researcher, journalist, and human rights defender, she has dedicated her career to investigative reporting and peace building in the Balkans. Šarić works on behalf of marginalized groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina, promoting and encouraging respect for the rights of victims, women, and ethnic minorities.
Laura Papo (Yiddish: לָאוּרָה פָּאפּוֹ; born Luna Levi; 15 March 1891, also known by her pseudonym Bohoreta, was a Bosnian Jewish feminist, writer, and translator who devoted her research to the condition of Sephardic women in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She is considered the first Bosnian feminist.
See also History of the Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Balkan Jews refers to Jews who live or lived in the Balkans.
David Kamhi, Jewish theologian, Sarajevo hazan and violinist.
The Jewish Municipality of Sarajevo, also the Jewish community of Sarajevo, is a religious organization of citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina of Jewish origin. The seat of the municipality is in Sarajevo.
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