Sarajevo Jewish Tour

Jewish Community in Sarajevo

Overall, Jews in the Ottoman Empire were generally well-treated and were recognised as “the people of the book”. Despite some restrictions, the Jewish communities in the Empire prospered. The Ottomans granted them significant autonomy, with various rights including the right to buy real estate. Jews also built synagogues and conducted trade throughout the Ottoman Empire. Ultimately, the Ottoman State granted full equality to Jews, along with the other non-Muslim subjects of the Empire, by 1856.

Definitely, we talk about the rich Jewish history on several Sarajevo tours, but this specific one is focused entirely on the long-lasting traditions and customs of Jews in Sarajevo.

Jewish monuments in Sarajevo

Sarajevo’s Jewish tour starts with a visit to the Old Jewish Temple. Today, it is the Jewish Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina that focuses on five centuries of the Jewish community in Sarajevo. There, we will talk about the trade network in Sarajevo and the development that happened in Sarajevo due to Jewish merchants. 

Additionally, the Sarajevo Jewish Tour includes a visit to the Ashkenazi Synagogue. It is the only active synagogue in Sarajevo nowadays. 

Later on, we will see the buildings that used to be the synagogues, including today’s Bosnian Cultural Centre Building – a former Moorish-style, beautiful Grand Jewish Temple.

We will also see where the first Jewish school in Sarajevo, the Jewish Villa AMA, and the Salom Family Palace buildings are.

Discovering the Sarajevo Haggadah

You should not miss the amazing story of the 700 years old Sarajevo Haggadah and the Muslim librarian who saved it from the Nazis. Sarajevo Haggadah is a compilation of different stories written by the Jews in Barcelona in the 14th century, and that, by destiny, was brought to Sarajevo by a Jewish family in the 16th century. The book survived three wars, and it is still the most important item of the National Museum and the most important item of Jewish heritage in Bosnia.

Jewish Cemetery

At the end of the tour, we will visit the Sarajevo Jewish Cemetery – the second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe. Now it is a mixed cemetery where you will find both Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews’ graves. We will talk about the important people buried there and, of course, the tragedy of the Jewish population in WW2.

The Jewish Cemetery during the war in Bosnia in the ’90s, as a very important strategic place, was destroyed and this is one of the topics of interest in this tour. Jews of Sarajevo, even though most of them left the city when the war started, never forgot what Sarajevo had done for them. They founded several foundations and trusts that directly helped the besieged city during the war.