jewish and muslim relations in bosnia found this in soc culture pakistan might be of interest am posting it without the permission of the original poster hope he she doesnt mind by lance gay scripps howard news service sarajevo bosnia herzegovina in this land of historic hatreds a tiny jewish community is braving serbian shells to repay a year old debt to muslims who saved jews from the holocaust ivica ceresnjes president of the jewish community of sarajevo says he and about other jews chose to remain in sarajevo rather than leave for israel to keep a feeding center in the medieval old town district running ceresnjes said that was partly in gratitude to the muslims who hid jews during the nazi occupation and partly to keep intact the centuries old presence of jews living in sarajevo some with guns are defending bosnia but i fight in bosnia by keeping people alive ceresnjes said as a student of balkan history ceresnjes said he saw this war coming and had ready plans to evacuate children and the elderly a year before the war erupted here last april ceresnjes said the jewish center began stockpiling supplies ensuring everyone had passports and arranging for places in israel and europe for the evacuees they were so well prepared he said that only five days after the shooting began the first plane left of about jews in bosnia herzegovina he estimates half have left many of those who stayed behind work in sarajevo s downtown synagogue which has been turned into a wartime feeding center that has so far given away meals the center which has been shelled several times along with most of sarajevo also runs a radio station mail center and distributes food packages sent by jewish organizations around the world while muslims and jews are fighting each other in the mideast jews here say there s a long tradition of cooperation inter marriage and tolerance between the two communities in sarajevo that goes back to centuries of turkish occupation sarajevo s jews trace their ancestry back to their expulsion from roman catholic spain in the community numbered more than before world war ii but only survived the holocaust which was carried out by the pro nazi croatian ustache in yugoslavia many of the survivors were hidden by muslim families in mostar sharon machlis gartenberg framingham ma usa e mail sharon world std com zafar tippu hassan
