Geschichte der Juden in Nordmazedonien
Vorlage:Jews and Judaism sidebar Vorlage:Ethnic Macedonians
The history of the Jews in the Republic of Macedonia stretches back two thousand years.
The history of Jews in the territory of the present-day Republic of Macedonia began during Roman antiquity, when Jews first arrived in the region.Vorlage:Citation needed Today, around 200 Jews reside in the Republic of Macedonia, mostly in the capital, Skopje and a few in Štip and Bitola.
Ancient Roman times
The first Jews arrived in the area now known as Republic of Macedonia during Roman times, when Jews fled persecution in other Roman territories, with some settling in Macedonia.[1] The first evidence of Jews in the region is an ancient synagogue dating from the late 3rd century AD in the ancient town of Stobi, in the southeast of the Republic of Macedonia.[2]
Ottoman Rule and Sephardic migrations
The area's Jewish community remained small well into Ottoman times, with the next major influx of Jews to the area coming with the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Macedonia then became the home of a large Jewish population following Spain's expulsions of Jews after 1492. The Jews formed colonies in Macedonian towns and cities, most notably Bitola(Monastir), Skopje and Salonica.
As tens of thousands of Jews fled persecution from Spain and Portugal, Sultan Bayezid II of the Ottoman Empire welcomed Jews who were able to reach his territories. They were granted significant autonomy, with various rights including the right to buy real estate, to build synagogues and to conduct trade throughout the Ottoman Empire.[3] Wealthy merchant cities in the present-day Republic of Macedonia such as Skopje, Bitola and Štip attracted many Jews. Jews in this area prospered in the fields of trade, banking, medicine, and law, with some even reaching positions of power.
Relations between the Jews and the local non-Jewish population were generally good.[4] Confirmation of good conditions for Jews in Macedonia and Ottoman Europe in general comes from a fifteenth century letter from the Macedonian Jew, Isaac Jarfati, sent to German and Hungarian Jews advising them of the favorable conditions in the Ottoman Empire, and encouraging them to immigrate to the Balkans.[5]
The Jewish community was almost entirely Sephardic, and most spoke Ladino at home as opposed to Hebrew.
Distribution
Prior to World War II, the Jewish community of Vardar Macedonia (the area roughly corresponding to the borders of the present-day republic) was centered on Bitola (approximately 8,000 Jews), Skopje (approximately 3,000 Jews) [4] and Štip (approximately 500 Jews).[6]
Most of these Jews, and almost the entire Jewish community of Bitola, were Ladino-speaking Sephardim.
World War II and the Holocaust
Two thousand years of Jewish history in Vardar Macedonia effectively came to an end with the Holocaust and World War II.
In July 1940 Bulgaria adopted antisemitic law called "Law on Protection of the Nation".[7] In March 1941 Bulgaria became an ally of the Axis Powers.[7] In April 1941, as a part of the Invasion of Yugoslavia the Bulgarian army entered Vardar Macedonia, in a strive to recover the region, which it saw as a natural part of its own national homeland.[8]
Although Bulgaria had effectively occupied the region, German authorities, who were in charge, recognized only the Bulgarian military administration and not the civil one. The Bulgarian occupational zone included neither Thessaloniki, with its over 55,000 Jews, neither the Western-most part of Macedonia, including the towns of Debar, Struga, and Tetovo, which were part of Italian-occupied Albania.[8]On October 4, 1941, the Bulgarian authorities enacted a law prohibiting Jews from engaging in any form of commerce, and forcing them to sell their businesses to non-Jews.
However, such laws were not a novelty for allies the Axis Powers during the WWII (Example: Independent State of Croatia).Vorlage:Citation needed
Over the course of 1942, the Bulgarian authorities enacted increasingly harsh measures against the Jews in the part of Vardar Macedonia and northern Greece, occupied by them. The situation culminated in 1943 with the deportation of Macedonian and Greek Jewry to the extermination camp Treblinka set up by the Nazis in Poland.[7][9][10]
During the night between 10 and 11 March in 1943 Bulgarians monitored by SSVorlage:Citation needed, rounded up the entire Jewish population of Skopje, Bitola and Štip[11][4]Vorlage:Dubious The population was sent to temporary detention center in the state tobacco monopoly warehouse known as "Monopol" in Skopje.[11][6]
Bulgaria defended the Jews with Bulgarian citizenship from Nazi Germany. It transported only non-Bulgarian Jews to their deaths. [12] However, the situation of the Bulgarian Jews was not good. They were sent to forced labor, their houses were labeled, they were resettled in rural areas of Bulgaria and the protests against this were brutally suppressed.[12]
The Jewish communities of Bulgarian-controlled Yugoslavia and Greece were almost completely wiped out. There was much harsh treatment before being transported in cattle-cars to Treblinka. A few dozen Bitola Jews managed to avoid deportation, and four escaped from the transit camp; none of the 3276 Jews of Bitola deported to Treblinka survived.[13] and none of the total number of about 7200 Jews fro Vardar Macedonia survived Treblinka.
In 2003, one Jew remained in the city that had been home to a Sephardic community for more than 400 years. Štip's ancient Jewish community was also completely destroyed.
After liberation of Vardar Macedonia in 1944, total number of surviving Jews, according to Society of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, was 419[14]. Some sources state that the remnants of the Jewish community re-gathered in Belgrade, Serbia [15] and only about 140 had survived.[16] Most had survived by going into hiding or fighting with the Yugoslav, Jewish partisans.[4] Of those transported to the death camps, nobody survived.[17] Most survivors chose to immigrate to Israel, with some returning to Macedonia, and others remaining in Serbia. As a result of this the number of Jews living in Macedonia drop down to 81 in 1952.[14]
The present
Presently, the Jewish community of the Republic of Macedonia numbers some 200 people. Almost all live in Skopje, with one family in Štip and a single Jew remaining in Bitola.[16]
The community recently (2003[16]) opened a synagogue, and has a community center in Skopje. The community also maintains ties with Jewish communities in Belgrade and Thessaloniki, while a rabbi travels to Skopje from Belgrade to aid in the conducting of services.[18] The community also recently sent, for the first time, a representative to the annual bible quiz in Israel celebrated every year on Israel's independence day.[19]
Religious revival
The Macedonian Jewish Community after a long period of 60 years, has a new native Rabbi born in Macedonia, Avi M. Kozma (27 years old), a student of the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community in Serbia Isak Asiel, who was also Rabbi of Macedonia.
Rabbi Avi M. Kozma, born in Macedonia, is a graduated student at the Law Faculty in Skopje, Macedonia.
He studied rabbinical studies with his first teacher, mentor and Rabbi, Rabbi Isak Asiel from (2000 - 2007), and after that he enrolled at the world famous Yeshiva - Rabbinical College Beth midrash Sepharadi in Jerusalem, Israel, led by the world famous rabbinical figure, Rabbi Shlomo Kassin, where Kozma is still studying. Kozma was inaugurated on 5 May 2008 at the Macedonian Synagogue "Beth Yaakov".
The First Balkan Rabbinical Conference was also held there, organized by the Jewish Community in Macedonia "Yeshiva Bet Midrash Sepharadi - Rabbi Shlomo Kassin, World Zionist Organization - Department for Religious Affairs in Diaspora - Jerusalem - Israel", led by Rabbi Yechiel Wasserman and by the Government of the Republic of Macedonia (a commission for relations with religious communities and groups).
For this event, about 25 rabbis from all over the world participated including the Chief Rabbis of Moscow, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Strasbourg, Paris, Yeshiva Bet Midrash Sepharadi - Rabbi Ezra Kassin and other rabbis from yeshivas who are serving all around the world.
The president of the European Jewish Congress - Mr. Moshe Kantor also participated, as well as a Representative of the JDC, World Jewish Congress, European Jewish Fund and many others. The Conference was hosted, in part, by H.E. Gligor Tashkovich, Minister of Foreign Investment of the Republic of Macedonia and he also gave a luncheon address.
This project to train Kozma, to serve in a community where the institution of rabbi didn't exist for 60 years, was supported by the Jewish community in Macedonia, Yeshiva - Rabbinical College Bet Midrash Sepharadi in Jerusalem - Israel and the World Zionist Organization - Department for Religious Affairs in Diaspora - Jerusalem - Israel.
Notes
References
- Frederick B. Chary: The Bulgarian Jews and the Final Solution, 1940-1944. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1972 (englisch).
External links
- A website of the Jewish community in Republic of Macedonia (in Macedonian)
Vorlage:Macedonia topics Vorlage:History of the Jews in Europe
- ↑ Jewish Virtual Library - Macedonia
- ↑ A. T. Kraabel: Ancient synagogues: historical analysis and archaeological discovery. Brill, 1994, The diaspora synagogue: archaeological and epigraphic evidence since Sukenik, S. 112–115.
- ↑ "Macedonia and the Jewish people", A. Assa, Skopje, 1992, p.36.
- ↑ a b c d Remembering the Past - Jewish culture battling for survival in Macedonia, Zhidas Daskalovski
- ↑ A. Assa, "Macedonia and the Jewish people", Skopje, 1992, p.40.
- ↑ a b The Holocaust in Macedonia: Deportation of Monastir Jewry, Mark Cohen, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- ↑ a b c Bulgaria, Holocaust Encyclopedia http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005355
- ↑ a b Chary, p. 45
- ↑ Shlomo Alboher, The Jews of Monastir Macedonia - The Life and Times of the Departed Jewish Community of Bitola [1]
- ↑ Vera Rich, Bulgaria: Shadows of the holocaust, The Lancet, Vol. 337, Issue 8750, Page 1152, 11 May 1991.
- ↑ a b Holocaust Encyclopedia -The Holocaust in Macedonia: Deportation of Monastir Jewry, [2]
- ↑ a b Brustein, W.I., King, R.D., Anti-semitism as a response to perceived jewish power: The cases of Bulgaria and Romania before the holocaust, Social Forces 83, December 2004, Pages 691-708
- ↑ The Jewish Community of Monastir: A Community in Flux, Mark Cohen, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- ↑ a b David Pipera, Jewish Almanach 1968-1970, Society of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia. {serbocroation}: Давид Пипера, Јеврејски алманах 1968-1970, Савез јеврејских општина Југославије.
- ↑ "TBI congregants raise funds for synagogue in Macedonia", Tami Bickley, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix
- ↑ a b c "Macedonia's Jews battle the odds of survival", Katka Krosnar, Centropa Reports
- ↑ Zamila Kolonomis, Bera Veskovic-Vangeli, Macedonian Jews in World War II (1941-1945), Collection of documents (vol I and vol II, Skopje, 1986). {macedonina}Жамила Колономос, Вера Весковиќ-Вангели, Евреите во Македонија во Втората светска војна (1941-1945), Зборник на документи, том 1, и том 2, Скопје, 1986.
- ↑ "Only 200 strong, Macedonia's Jews celebrate unity and new synagogue", Ruth E Gruber, Jewish World Review
- ↑ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/851851.html Ha'aretz