Uncategorized
Bosnia’s Jewish community is putting together an archive for an eventual museum
(JTA) — As their numbers dwindle, Bosnia’s Jewish community is creating an archive of Balkan Jewish history, including documents, photographs, artifacts and genealogies to preserve the Bosnian Jewish story.
The Jewish Community of Bosnia Herzegovina group acquired a 7,500 square foot space in downtown Sarajevo in the fall, with the hopes of turning the eventual archive into a museum.
Eli Tauber, 72, who has written several books on Bosnian Jewish culture and history, is leading the project.
“Our idea is to write the history of the Jewish people in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Tauber told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “But this is not so easy, we are talking about 500 years of history and not just history but people, families and the destinies of all those people across 500 years.”
Today, at most 900 Jews live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, around 500 in the capital Sarajevo. But before the Holocaust, Sarajevo was about 20% Jewish and known lovingly as “little Jerusalem” for its variety of synagogues, mosques and churches — both Catholic and Orthodox — all in close proximity.
Sephardic Jews first arrived in the region during the time of the Ottoman Empire, after fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. Ashkenazi Jews followed suit when the area fell under Austro-Hungarian rule in the 1870s.
The Holocaust, which in western Yugoslavia was implemented by Ustaše — a brutal Nazi puppet regime — decimated Bosnia’s Jewish community. Less than 40 years later, the Bosnian War, another genocidal conflict which broke out during the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, caused many of those who remained to emigrate to Israel and beyond.
Eli Tauber in Sarajevo in 2018. (Elvis Barukcic/AFP via Getty Images)
Tauber has been criss-crossing the Balkans for the project, working with state archives and meeting with descendants of Bosnian Jews in cities from Belgrade to Vienna to Budapest.
“I just returned from Belgrade a few months ago with 7,000 scans,” he told JTA on a recent call.
He said he hopes the archive — which is still at least two years away from completion — will help reconnect all those who left to the country they or their ancestors had come from.
“What is important is that at the end we will establish some computer program with family trees, for all those people who have their roots in Bosnia, and find all that they did,” Tauber said.
—
The post Bosnia’s Jewish community is putting together an archive for an eventual museum appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
American Airlines to Resume Flights to Israel Amid Gaza Ceasefire
American Airlines planes sit on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York City, U.S., July 30, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kylie Cooper.
American Airlines said on Sunday it would resume flights to Israel in March, after the US carrier halted the New York JFK to Tel Aviv route following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the two-year war in Gaza.
American said it would re-launch its flights from JFK on March 28.
US rivals Delta and United have already resumed flights to Israel.
Many foreign carriers halted flights to Tel Aviv after October 7 and stayed away for long stretches during the past two years due to intermittent missile fire from Iran and Yemen.
That largely left flag-carrier El Al Israel Airlines, and smaller Israeli airlines Arkia and Israir, operating international routes, but with demand far higher than supply, airfares soared.
In the wake of a US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, many foreign airlines have restarted flights to Tel Aviv. British Airways, SAS, Iberia and Swiss are slated to resume flights this week.
When American resumes flights, it will become the fifth carrier to fly nonstop to Israel from the United States, along with El Al, Arkia, Delta and United.
In addition to daily flights from Newark, United later is expected to also add flights to Tel Aviv from Washington (November 2) and Chicago (November 1).
Passenger traffic at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv was up 25% over the first nine months of 2025 to 13.6 million, according to the Israel Airports Authority. El Al’s market share dropped to 32.5% from 44% a year earlier.
Uncategorized
Israel Allows Red Cross, Egyptian Teams into Gaza as Search for Hostage Bodies Widens
Palestinians gather around a Red Cross vehicle transporting hostages as part of a ceasefire and hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 13. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Red Cross and Egyptian teams have been permitted to search for the bodies of deceased hostages beyond the “yellow line” demarcating the Israeli military’s pullback in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli government spokesperson said on Sunday.
Uncategorized
Abbas Names Hussein al-Sheikh as Temporary Successor for PA Presidency
Hussein Al-Sheikh, former Secretary General of the Executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), speaks during an interview with Reuters, in Ramallah in the West Bank December 16, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
i24 News – Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) issued a statement on Sunday outlining the succession process should the chairman’s position become vacant.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Deputy Chairman Hussein al-Sheikh will temporarily assume leadership of the PA in the absence of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The decree stipulates that al-Sheikh’s interim term would last up to 90 days, during which direct elections must be held to select a new chairman, in accordance with Palestinian election law.
If elections cannot be conducted within this period due to exceptional circumstances, the Palestinian Central Council may authorize a one-time extension.
Hussein al-Sheikh, born in 1960 in Ramallah, has a long history in Palestinian politics. As a teenager, he was sentenced to prison in Israel for terrorist activity and was incarcerated from age 18 until 1989. In the past year, he was appointed Deputy Chairman and designated successor by Abu Mazen after the Palestinian Central Council approved the creation of the position.
The announcement is seen as a move to formalize the line of succession and ensure stability within the PA amid ongoing political uncertainty and the absence of a functioning Legislative Council. Analysts say the decree clarifies leadership procedures in case of incapacity or vacancy, reflecting Abu Mazen’s efforts to maintain continuity and prevent a leadership vacuum in the Palestinian territories.