Metadata: Jewish Communities from Macedonia
Collection
- Country:
- Serbia
- Holding institution:
- Jewish Historical Museum
- Holding institution (official language):
- Јеврејски историјски музеј (Jevrejski istorijski muzej)
- Postal address:
- Kralja Petra 71A, 21000 Belgrade
- Phone number:
- (+381) 112622-634
- Web address:
- http://www.jimbeograd.org/
- Reference number:
- AJIM, Mk
- Title:
- Jewish Communities from Macedonia
- Title (official language):
- ЈО са простора Македоније
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Communities from Macedonia
- Date(s):
- 1945/1990
- Language:
- Serbian
- Macedonian
- Extent:
- 1.15 linear metres (23 boxes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
- The documents referred to as Macedonian material mostly comprise short texts about events in the Jewish communities of Monastir (Bitola), Skopje and Štip, as well as some photographs collected by the Association in the last few decades, personal photographs of individual Jews and craft shops, cemeteries and synagogues. The collection also include a photo album of Jews from Bitola, purchased from the famous Macedonian film maker, Milton Manaki.
- Archival history:
- After the Succession Agreement was signed by the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia republics, the Association of the Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia also disintegrated into Jewish communities of the five member states. In line with the Succession Agreement, the Jewish Historical Museum handed over to the Embassy representatives of North Macedonia 23 archival boxes of original documents which originated from the territory of Macedonia. The entire collection of the Macedonian documentation was duplicated.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The first Jews arrived in the territory of northern Macedonia during the Roman Empire, when they fled from persecution. The Jewish community in Macedonia was well established in the Ottoman Empire, when Jewish immigrants from Spain and Portugal arrived. They lived throughout the Empire and were entitled to profess their faith and trade freely. The majority of Jews in that period lived in the cities of Bitola, Ohrid, Ber and Kostur within their communities. The city of Thessaloniki became a very important trade and textile centre thanks to Jewish merchants. The Sultan, who valued their trade abilities, selected several Jewish rabbis for the State Council. Just before the outbreak of World War II some 8,000 Jews lived in Bitola, some 3,000 in Skopje and 500 in Štip. In April 1941, the Bulgarian army, an ally of the Third Reich, entered the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and invaded the territory of southern Serbia and present-day Northern Macedonia. Almost all Jews from Northern Macedonia were executed; those who had Bulgarian citizenship were spared.
Nowadays, about 200 Jews live in Northern Macedonia, mainly in Skopje; only one family lives in Štip and one Jew in Bitola. In 2003, the Jewish community opened a new synagogue in Skopje. Jews from Northern Macedonia maintain ties with the Jewish communities in Belgrade and Thessaloniki. The testimony of the Holocaust of Macedonian Jews is recorded and preserved in the Memorial Centre of the Macedonian Jews in Skopje.
- Access points: locations:
- Macedonia
- Subject terms:
- Cemeteries
- Jewish community
- Photographs
- Professions
- Professions--Crafts
- Synagogues
- System of arrangement:
- The documents are partially arranged.
- Finding aids:
- A list of documents is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Historical Archives of Belgrade
- Author of the description:
- Bojan Zorić; Jewish Historical Museum; 2020