Peace Accords:10 years

Marshall Weiss

The Dayton Jewish Observer

Leader of Bosnian Jewish community would like to establish links with Jews of Dayton

By the morning of Nov. 16, several dignitaries from Bosnia and Herzegovinia had arrived in Dayton to take part in the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Dayton Peace Accords.

Among them was Jakob Finci, president of La Benevolencija, the Jewish Cultural, Educational and Humanitarian Society of Bosnia and Herzegovinia.

Sitting together in their hotel just before noon, Finci told his colleagues, “I have a lot of relatives here. I’m going to visit them.”

Finci was on his way to meet with leaders and staff of the Jewish Federation for a lunchtime update on the Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovinia.

“There is a saying and it is correct: if you are a Jew, you are not alone. There are other Jews to help,” Finci says.

The Jews of Bosnia understand this at a visceral level: Jews around the world came to their aid during the war in Bosnia from 1992-1995 and its aftermath; and the Jews of Bosnia came to the aid of their non-Jewish neighbors, also caught in the ravages of civil war.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee sent reserve funds to enable the communities to buy food and medicine at that time. The JDC is a major beneficiary of the United Jewish Campaign.

Once violence broke out in Sarajevo, JDC helped more than 2,000 evacuees, Jews and non-Jews, flee to safe havens outside Bosnia through airlifts and convoys, providing care and shelter in Croatia and Serbia. The young went to Israel.

Finci says that during the war, 40 percent of all medical supplies for Jews and non-Jews in Bosnia were supplied by La Benevolencija.

“We opened a pharmacy called the Jewish Pharmacy and our soup kitchen served 320-350 hot meals daily,” Finci recalls. The organization also started a Sunday school for Jewish and non-Jewish children.

“The only way to survive is to help each other,” he says.

Before the war, 1,200 Jews lived in Bosnia. Finci says there are now approximately 700.

“All are living normal lives as much as lives can be normal for a country after the war,” he says.

With roots going back to the expulsion from Spain and Portugal in 1492, Bosnia’s Jews are 80 percent Sephardi.

“We (Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews) pray together in the only synagogue in town,” Finci adds.

“The challenge now is the transition from a state market economy to a free market economy. Working together, we think we can save the flame of Jewish life in Bosnia.”

La Benevolencija now organizes courses for small businesses to learn entrepreneurship.

“With the help of the World Bank, we established an organization to give people small-business loans with better than average rates.”

La Benevolencija now runs three pharmacies, two Sunday schools — one for Jews and one for non-Jews — as well as summer camps and programs for the elderly.

Instead of a soup kitchen, La Benevolencija now runs a small restaurant. “It is much cheaper and much better than all the restaurants in town.”

He says the country is “very free of antisemitism” because the Jewish community is “so well incorporated. Living in a country with three main ethnic groups, we try to be in good relations with all three groups.”

However, he notes that in the last two or three years, there has been a rise in anti-Israel sentiment in Bosnia.

“It would be excellent to establish a special relationship between the Jewish communities of Bosnia and Dayton,” he tells the group.

“You can’t appreciate how frequently Dayton is mentioned in Bosnia.”

Dayton Jewish Community Center Program Director Marc Jacob, present at the lunch, suggests a link between the DJCC and La Benevolencija summer camps.

Finci also suggests links with Bosnia’s newly formed Women’s Jewish Organization, and support of Jewish students in Bosnia. “Scholarships of $100 a month would mean a lot for them,” he says.

© 2005-06 The Dayton Jewish Observer