The Balkan Sephardim: Their Stories, Our Heritage

In 1492, when the Jews of Spain—the Sephardim—were expelled from the land they had lived in for a thousand years, they sought refuge in many lands: the new world, the Netherlands, England, and all along the Mediterranean. Around 200,000 settled in the Ottoman’s recently conquered Balkan territories. In what became modern-day Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia, Jews lived alongside their Muslim and Christian neighbors for 400 years, in relative peace. By 1945 the vast majority of them had been murdered. Then, in 1992, a band of Holocaust survivors in Sarajevo turned their synagogue into a humanitarian aid agency during the Bosnian-Serb siege of their city. Who worked there? Jews and Muslims, Serbs and Croats.

Centropa, a Jewish historical institute based in Vienna, Austria, interviewed elderly Jews in the Balkans, and digitized the old family photographs they showed us as they told us their stories. Using these photos, we produce short multimedia films telling the most compelling stories.

Join us for an evening of watching short films about 20th century Sephardic life in the Balkans, and conversation with Dr Joseph Benatov, of the University of Pennsylvania, and Edward Serotta, director of Centropa.

Admisssion is free; please sign up here: jewishmuseummd.org/calendar-event/upcoming/
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