Mosaic Floor
Žudioska Street - entrance to the Jewish Ghetto.

The Bimah from which prayers are led

Žudioska Street - where the Dubrovnik Synagogue is based

The Gate of the Shul

Dubrovnik Shul





Gravestone

A beautiful example of a Tallit, (Jewish prayer shawl worn while reciting morning prayers)

Shabbat Morning Service

Jewish Fountain in Pile symbolicly moved here, after Napoleon issued a decree effectively giving equal rights to all citizens.

Interior Staircase leading up to the Shul

Alleyway above the Shul, in the Dubrovnik Ghetto

Opulant Entrance to the shul

A constant stream of tourists makes it a very steaky experience

Right next to the Shul; a small crafts shop sells (over priced, unauthentic) Jewish souvenirs.

Ever since Dubrovnik turned into a top destination, a small Chabad has been present every summer. Local Jews however don't support it, since Lubavitchers aren't authentic Jews of this region.

MyspaceCroatia
Central Network of Croatian Groups & Blogs

Blog.hr

Dubrovnik Palazzo

Dalmatian Catholic Blog

Little Sipan


SEPHARDIC CUISINE
Burek - An eye watering Cheese Pie, Courtesy of the Ottoman Cuisine. A must try!!

Prikle, are a traditional sweet on New Year's Eve in many mediterranean parts and in the Dubrovnik Jewish community at Hanukkah.
ALL REGIONS ASSOCIATED
Dubrovnik-Neretva County (Croatia)

Dubrovnik Zahumlje, Federation territory (B&H)

Trebinje County, Republika territory (B&H)

Kotor Bay  (Montenegro)

Dubrovnik Jews

06.01.2009., utorak

Marranos, Conversos, Christians & Jews

Marranos or secret Jews were Sephardic Jews (Jews resident in the Iberian peninsula) who were forced to adopt Christianity under threat of expulsion but who continued to practice Judaism secretly. The term in Spanish meant pigs; it stemmed from the ritual prohibition against eating pork, a prohibition practiced by both Jews and Muslims. In Spanish, the term marrano acquired the meaning of "swine" or "filthy". In contemporary Spanish it is no longer associated with Jews. In Portuguese, the word refers only to crypto-Jews, since pig or "swine" is marrăo or varrăo.

Under state pressure in the late 14th century, an estimated 100,000-200,000 Jews in the Iberian Peninsula converted to Christianity. (The numbers who converted and those who migrated from the area have been issues of debate by historians.) The converts were known as conversos. They were also called Cristianos nuevos and Cristăos novos (new Christians) in Spain and Portugal, respectively. (Within Jewish tradition there was sympathy for forced converts and an assumption they would prefer to practice their original faith.)

As a result, at the end of the 15th century, a large number of Sephardic Jews & Marranos fleeing persecution in Spain and Portugal settled in the Balkans & Asia Minor on the invitation of the Ottoman Empire.

And so it was, that a ship carrying the first refugees came to Dubrovnik in 1492. At first the Republic only welcomed a few. However, over the next 50 years, more kept comming. As the numbers swelled within this small republic (of less the 10,000 people), the church & the state, grew more & more suspiscious of its new neighbours.
In the same time, large numbers of those who came as Christians reverted back to their original faith in the new republic. Finally in 1546, the senate allowed the settlement of Jews within the walls of the city. While at first, it was welcomed by the Jews, in effect the senat created a Ghetto on the eastern edge where eventually Jews would be forced to live (thereby restricting the growing community by city walls).

As years went by, and laws were patiently applied towards the Jews, a clear gap between Jews and Marranos emerged.
The republic in essence was motivating individuals to covert to Catholicism. Jews who were either, Marranos, inter-married, or were already absorbed, had much to loose from staying Jewish. As such, while some continued secretly practising Judism, the vast majority changed faith.
The situation was simular in the nearby Ottoman Empire. Jews in theory could set up homesteads & stay Jewish in the Kingdom, as long as they paid their taxes. The difference in the 2 was really the aditional laws (in the Dubrovnik Republic) of 1550s that restricted Jews to the settlement of individual areas.

After 1580, Marranos & Conversos from the perspective of the Dubrovnik Senat seized to exist as a seperate entity. Jews who converted weren't much of a threat to anyone. From the perspective of those who stayed Jewish, however, they were still regarded as traitors, and as such, undesirables.
Having said that, about 40 years on, across the borderlands of Travunia & Zahumlje, some of those who earlier fled convertion orders, were starting to convert to Islam. This gradual process of assimulation continued, until the 1878, when Bosnia was taken over by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Partly due to widespread anti-semitism, and partly due to the end of Goverments desire to assimulate its citizens, the Jewish communities, had a huge revival. Between 1880 and 1940, the community was steadly growing, as Marranos who converted years back started reverting.
In Dubrovnik the situation was slightly different. When Dubrovnik became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the proclaimed freedom of Napoleon, was short lived, and those so called Marranos within Dubrovnik became part of the National Movement of Croatians, Slavonians & Dalmatians.

In WW2, Bosnia fell to Germans. With the revertions in full swing, Nazis managed to whipe out not just the Jewish communities, but the Marranos mostly as well.
Dubrovnik it self also fell to Germans. However by then most Dubrovnik Jews fled to the nearby Elafiti Islands, which were occupied by Italians. As the war went on, and Italy confusingly changed sides, virtually all Islands fell to the Local Partizans.
As the war drew to the end, 80% of all Jews in Dalmatia were saved. Most left for Israel, with a few making their way across the Channel into the United States.
Marranos in Dubrovnik (now well mixed with the locals), stayed. Those who survived in Hercegovina, mostly stayed Muslim, with some taking up the Unitarian Faith.
In the recent Balkan Wars, most Muslims in Stolac & Capljina were forced to flee. As Stolac had its fair share of Muslim Converts, it should be noted that some of those have since made their life in Central Bosnia, while others joined the Bosnian Communities overseas.

- 20:40 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

04.01.2009., nedjelja

Jewish Stolac

I begin this next article with a little help from a fellow enthusiast Stephen Schwartz, who has visited the Dubrovnik Highlands in 1999, and has since wrote a compilation of articles associated with the Balkan Jews in general.

Stolac -- the name means "stool" in the South Slavic dialects - is a beautiful village on the river Bregava, which cuts through the bleak, limestone mountains of Hercegovina, about 20 miles southeast of Mostar, the region's main city. The village's surroundings include a massive deposit at Radimilje of pre-Islamic Bosnian burial monuments, or stecci, of inconceivable value for the world
Bosnia is a country with five historical identities: Muslim, Sephardic, Serbian, Croatian, and Gypsy. Although Sephardim have been absent in numbers since the Holocaust, they once accounted for one out of six residents in Sarajevo, and their literary achievements, mainly involving poetry and song, are well known to Bosnians. But Stolac is especially important to Jews as the location of the grave of a rabbi, Rav Moshe Danon. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Sephardim made regular pilgrimages there from Sarajevo and elsewhere in Bosnia. The story of the rabbi of Stolac, as Rav Danon is known to surviving Bosnian Sephardim, reveals many facets of the mountainous country's existence, and deserves to be retold -- along with its contemporary postscript.

Stolac always had a mixed population, with (Sunni) Suffi Muslims making up the bulk. It developed into a small town right after Jewish settlement of Bosnia. This means that apart from Catholics Orthodox Christians & Muslims, it also had a dozen Jewish families. There are 3 Jewish graves there, one of which is of Rabbi Danon. The other 2 are most likely local residents.
There is an old chevra or mourners' shelter at the cemetery, which has been erected 30 meters from the graveyard in 1860s, and has since been restored numerous times (most recently 2004).

Close to Stolac, there is also an Archaeological site of the Hellenistic town of Daorson from 4th to 1st BC. Although, possible, it is highly unlikely that there was any Jewish presence in this city. However, it was preciously the survivors of this town that formed a new town of Diluntum Municipium, (modern day Stolac), after the Romans levelled Daorson. As such, with the advance of the Roman Empire, the town quickly grew into a garrison. Since we know that most Jews left Palestine as Army Conscripts during the Roman times, it is conceivable that Jews would have been present on this site as well.
Early indications have so far discovered major Roman Presence.
In 1492, Sephardic Jews started coming to Bosnia. The first 100 years or so Stolac remained a backwater village far away from Urban centres like Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, & Split. Even Mostar, wasn't much better.
However, with an increased Jewish presence in Dubrovnik, after 1546, all that changed. As the Catholic Church, became worried about the increased presence of Jews in their domain, they issued anti-Jewish decrees, followed by expulsion orders.
In 1546, Jews who settled outside the city walls of Dubbrovnik, were ordered to either convert to Christianity, thereby, stay, or move to the new Ghetto on the North Eastern Edge of the old city.
While most, simply stayed, those who couldn't afford to move to the Ghetto, but wanted to keep their faith, decided to settle else where.

Stolac, was just such a place. It was the biggest settlement in the immediate region(beyond the republic). Its industry was mostly farming, however thanks to the River Bregava, it also had a growing secondary industry, based around the Mills.
Those Jews who first came here plaighed a mixture of trades, from carpentry, to wool trading. All in all, the numbers never exceeded 30. Since most came as subjects of the Dubrovnik Republic, Ottomans gave them certian exceptions, which eventualy led most to seek their fortunes in the nearby city of Mostar.

There is a local account in Bosnian oral tradition of poor families converting to Islam to make ends meet (since Muslim Converts were Free of Tax Obligations). Such records do mention 44 such families in the Stolac region. While it is obvious that most were Christians, there were Jews as well.

After WW2, when Yugoslavia was formed, Most Jews in Bosnia were killed. The only town in Dubrovnik Highlands where Jews were saved, was Stolac. However, virtually all Jews who survived migrated to Israel. The small group that stayed simply merged with the local population, with a few migrating to Dubrovnik, Sarajevo & Belgrade.
During the 1990s war, Stolac was majorily damaged from a combined military action of all 3 entities (Serbs, Croats & Muslims). 3 out of 4 Mosques were completely leveled. The 2 Orthodox & 1 Catholic Churches suffered numerous direct hits. Most Muslims & Serbs left after the ardious population transfers of 1995, leaving Croatian Roman Catholics as todays Majority.
At present there are no Jews in Stolac. The only contact the city has with Jews, is in June, when annual pilgrimages to the tomb of Rav Moshe Danon takes place.

- 20:44 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

Rabbi of Stolac - Rav Moshe Danon

Until the Holocaust the Jews were Bosnia's fourth nation. Many came in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition of 1492. In 2005 Stephen Schwartz published a fascinating collection of his essays on the Jews of Bosnia and other parts of the Balkans. One of the stories he retells is that of Rav (or rabbi) Moshe Danon of Sarajevo whom he notes is sometimes called "the rabbi of Stolac". Danon however did not come from Stolac, was not a rabbi there but died there and is buried nearby. "Rav Danon," writes Schwartz, "is a Bosnian Jewish saint, or, as Muslims would say, a wali. " The story goes that in 1817 one Dervis Ahmed of Travnik, in fact a Jewish convert to Islam, began to agitate against the Jews. He was executed by the Ottomans but then some of his followers complained to Rudzi-pasha, the next governor of Bosnia who then seized ten of Sarajevo's leading Jews including Rav Danon, demanding a ransom to save them from execution. However a respected member of the community, one Rafael Levi, now exhorted his Muslim neighbours to help. The next day some 3,000 of them freed the Jews. In 1830, Rav Danon decided to leave for the Holy Land. On his way to take a ship from Dubrovnik however he died at a coffee house in Stolac. From then on, until the Second World War, his tomb became a place of annual pilgrimage for Bosnian Sephardim. The tomb, at Krajisni, a few kilometres west of Stolac remains and this is what it says:

THIS STONE IS HERE PLACED
SO THAT IT BE A SIGN AND MONUMENT
FOR THE BURIAL OF THE SAINTLY PERSON
WHOSE WORKS WERE WONDEROUS
AND OF WHOM IT IS SAID THAT HE WAS PIOUS
AND SAINTLY
HE WAS OUR MASTER TEACHER AND GREAT
HAKHAM RAV MOSHE DANON HIS GOOD
WORKS AID US. AMEN.
HE LEFT THIS WORLD ON THE 20TH DAY OF SIVAN
5590

Sarajevo Rose: A Balkan Jewish Notebook. Stephen Schwartz. 2005.
[pp63-64. Saqi / The Bosnian Institute]

- 20:32 - Komentari (0) - Isprintaj - #

<< Arhiva >>

Creative Commons License
Ovaj blog je ustupljen pod Creative Commons licencom Imenovanje-Dijeli pod istim uvjetima.

< siječanj, 2009  
P U S Č P S N
      1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31  

Siječanj 2009 (3)
Prosinac 2008 (3)

Dnevnik.hr
Gol.hr
Zadovoljna.hr
OYO.hr
NovaTV.hr
DomaTV.hr
Mojamini.tv

Opis bloga
Blog je posvečen Zajednicama Dubrovačkih, Bokeljskih, Zahumskih i Trebinskih Židova, koji na ovim prostorima žive več dugih 500 godina.
Cilj bloga je vratit Dubrovniku autentičnost povjesti Republike i Istočne Hercegovine, iz perspektive jedne ugledne bogate manjine, koja i dan danas ostavlja otiske našim krajolikom.

Blog če biti po naj više na Engleskom (meni drugi jezik), i bit če u korist mnogo brojnim turistima.
Često se dogodi da se povjest lako stvara u mjestu novčanih događaja.
Bez neke sumje, provat čemo razotkrit neke legende, i možda (uz pomoč mnogo brojnim Povjesničara na Balkanu), "stvorit nove" :))




Old City from Pile

Ancient City Walls

White Sail on the open sea

Old City Panorama

Dubrovnik - Stradun



Gruž (Gravosa)

Winter Holidays in Dubrovnik

Mljet Island

Close to Lastovo

Sandy Beach on Lopud Island

Map of Mljet

Šipan Island

Miniture City of Ston

An Isle

Original Suburb of Pile from the old wall to Hilton Hotel