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History of the Jews in Serbia
Jews first arrived in what is now the Republic of Serbia in Roman times. The Jewish communities of the Balkans remained small until the late fifteenth century, when Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions found refuge in Ottoman-ruled areas, including Serbia. Jewish communities flourished in the Balkans until the turmoil of World War I. The surviving communities, including that of Serbia, were almost completely destroyed in the Holocaust during World War II. The Jewish community of Serbia now numbers fewer than 800.
History of the communityAncient communitiesJews first arrived in the region now known as Serbia in Roman times, although there is little documentation prior to the tenth century AD. For the next five hundred years, documentation on the Jews of the Balkans is sketchy. Spanish refugeesThe Jewish communities of the Balkans were boosted in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by the arrival of Jewish refugees fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire welcomed the Jewish refugees into his Empire. Jews became involved in trade between the various provinces in the Ottoman Empire, becoming especially important in the salt trade[1]. Ottoman ruleWith generally good relations between the Jews and Serbs, the Jewish communities prospered, and by the nineteenth century Jewish merchants were largely responsible for the trade routes between the Ottoman Empire's northern and southern territories[1]. Beginning in 1804, the Serbs began to fight the Ottoman Turks for independence. Many Jews were involved in the struggle by supplying arms to the local Serbs, and the Jewish communities faced brutal reprisal attacks from the Ottoman Turks[1]. The independence struggle lasted until 1830, when Serbia gained its independence. The new Serbian government was not friendly toward the Jewish community, and by 1831 there were prohibitions against Jews entering some professions. Under rule of Milos Obrenovic, Belgrade jewish comunity have shortly their own monney issue. The situation of the Jews briefly improved under the rule of Prince Mihailo Obrenovi? (ruled 1839-1842). The Jews are wery respected minority in Serbia after ending of Obrenovic dinasty. The very first act of Serbian King Petar I, was royal support of building new sinagogue in Belgrade. With the reclamation of the Serbian throne by the Royal House of Obrenovi? under Milo? Obrenovi? in 1858, restrictions on Jewish merchants were again relaxed, but three years later, in 1861 Mihailo III inherited the throne and reinstated anti-Jewish restrictions.[1]. 
Synagogue in Subotica (still standing) 
Synagogue in Kikinda destroyed during Axis occupation in WWII By 1912, the Jewish community of Serbia stood at 5,000.[1]. In the aftermath of World War I, Serbia merged with Montenegro, and then united with State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which was soon renamed Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Serbia's relatively small Jewish community of 13,000 (including 500 in Kosovo)[3], combined with the large Jewish communities of the other Yugoslav territories, numbering some 51,700. In the inter-war years (1919-1939), the Jewish communities of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia flourished. Prior to World War II, 10,000 Jews lived in Belgrade, 80% being Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jews, and 20% being Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews[4]. The HolocaustThe Kingdom of Yugoslavia had had a pro-German government since 1935 with Milan Stojadinovi? and had enacted anti-Jewish legislation as early as 1937. A group of nationalist generals overthrew the government of Dragi?a Cvetkovi? and the regent Paul on March 27, 1941 under the pretense of opposing the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany[5], and on April 6, 1941 German, Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian troops invaded Yugoslavia. The Nazi genocide against Serbian (and Yugoslav) Jews began in September 1941, the Jews of Banat and Belgrade being the first to be persecuted by the German army and police with the help of the Serbian police under the orders of the Serbian Government of National Salvation. The Nazis set up two concentration camps in Belgrade with Serbian guards --Banjica and Sajmi?te-- in order to process and eliminate the Jews captured. As a consequence Emanuel Schäfer, Chief of the German police and Gestapo in Serbia, could boast as soon as 1942 that:
Similarly Harald Turner of the SS, stated in 1942 that:
World War IIAt the beginning of World War II in Serbia in 1941, some Jews joined Yugoslav resistance forces, which consisted of two factions: the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans (or simply the "Partisans"), and the royalist Chetniks. The Chetniks were founded as a Royalist movement, but increasingly evolved into a Serb nationalist militia. The movement was reactivated under the form of the 'Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland' by Colonel Dra?a Mihailovi? in the Serbia's Ravna Gora province after the invasion of Yugoslavia. Jews were also members of the "Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland" (Jugoslovenska vojska u otad?bini, JVUO) Although an overwhelming majority of its members were Serbs, the movement also included a number of Jews, Croats,[2] Slovenes,[3] and Bosnian Muslims.[4][5] Most of the non-Serbs were monarchists and/or anti-communists. In the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), Chetniks were under the command of Mom?ilo ?uji?, in the sp called Krajina region of modern-day Croatia, they organized themselves in response to Usta?a attacks on Serbian villages and Jews. By the time Serbia and Yugoslavia were liberated in 1944, most of the Serbian Jewry had been murdered. Of the 82,500 Jews of Yugoslavia alive in 1941, only 14,000 (17%) survived the Holocaust[1]. Only 4,000 Serbian Jews had survived the Holocaust[7]. Post-war communityThe Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia was formed in the aftermath of World War II to coordinate the Jewish communities of post-war Yugoslavia and to lobby for the right of Jews to immigrate to Israel[8]. The Federation was headquartered in Belgrade, the capital of the post-war Yugoslavia. More than half of Yugoslav survivors chose to immigrate to Israel after World War II. The Jewish community of Serbia, and indeed of all constituent republics in Yugoslavia, was maintained by the unifying power of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia. However, this power ended with dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Yugoslav warsThe Jews of Serbia lived relatively peacefully in Yugoslavia between World War II and the 1990s. However, the end of the Cold War saw the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the ensuing civil wars. While there was some anti-Semitism in Serbia during the wars[9], the Jewish community, as with all Serbians, suffered as a result of the wars. Many Jews chose to immigrate to Israel and the United States. During the Kosovo Conflict, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia relocated many of Belgrade's Jewish elderly, women and children to Budapest, Hungary for their safety; many of them emigrated permanently[10]. TodayNumbersPrior to the conflicts of the 1990s, approximately 2,500 Jews lived in Serbia[1], most in Belgrade. According to the 2002 Serbian census, there were 785 Jews in Serbia. Almost all Jews (91%) in Central Serbia live in Belgrade. Forty-percent of Serbian Jews live in Vojvodina. The results of the 2002 census are displayed below[11]:
The only remaining functioning synagogue in Serbia is the Belgrade Synagogue. There are also small numbers of Jews in Zrenjanin and Sombor, with isolated families scattered throughout the rest of Serbia. Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in Serbia are relatively rare and isolated. According to the US State Department Report on Human Rights practices in Serbia for 2006,
and that anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in Serbia.[12] As nationalism replaced communism as the main ideology in Serbia, there was a resurgence of anti-semitic statements, as well as a simultaneous attempt on the part of the Serbian regime to instrumentalize the supposed influence of the Jewish community abroad.[13] The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church "canonized" on May 19, 2003, "Vladika" Nikolaj Velimirovi?[14], who had this to say about Adolf Hitler in a public speech --"The nationalism of saint Sava", pronounced in the spring of 1935 and published in 1937:
Nikolaj Velimirovi? also boasted in an interview in 1953[16] that he had been the spiritual leader and éminence grise of Dimitrije Ljoti?, the founder and leader of the Serbian Nazi movement Zbor, whose Srpski Dobrovolja?ki Korpus ("Serb Volunteer Corps") was integrated into the Waffen SS organization in November 1944[17]. The Serbian government recognizes Judaism as one of the seven "traditional" religious communities of Serbia[18]. AncestryEven today, the majority of Serbian Jews are Sephardim (descendants of refuges from the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions). VojvodinaWhile the rest of Serbia was still ruled by the Ottoman Empire, Vojvodina an autonomous province within the Republic of Serbia was ruled by the Habsburg Monarchy from the end of the 17th century. Vojvodina too had previously been ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and it was under Ottoman rule that the first Jews settled in the region. In 1782, Emperor Joseph II issued the Edict of Tolerance, giving Jews some measure of religious freedom. The Edict attracted Jews to many parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, including Vojvodina. The Jewish communities of Vojvodina flourished, and by the end of the 19th Century the region had nearly 40 Jewish communities.[19] 
Monument in Novi Sad dedicated to killed Jewish and Serb civilians in 1942 raid. Today, 329 Jews almost half of Serbian Jewry live in Vojvodina, most in Subotica, Pan?evo, Zrenjanin and Sombor. Notable people
Notes and references
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fr:Histoire des Juifs en Serbie he:????? ????? ????????? Source: Wikipedia | The above article is available under the GNU FDL. | Edit this article
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