Jews in the Republic of Macedonia

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The history of Jews in the territory currently called Republic of Macedonia began in Roman times, when Jews first arrived in the region in the first century BC. Today, no more than 200 Jews reside in the Republic of Macedonia, almost all in the capital, Skopje.

Contents 1 History of the community 1.1 Ancient Roman times 1.2 Sephardic migrations 1.3 Distribution 2 The Holocaust 3 Today 4 References

[edit] History of the community

[edit] 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 3rd or 4th century BC, in the ancient town of Stobi, in the south-east of the Republic of Macedonia^[2].

[edit] 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.

As tens of thousands of Jews fled persecution 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 emigrate to the Balkans.^[5]

The Jewish community was almost entirely Sephardic, and most spoke Ladino at home.

[edit] Distribution

Prior to World War II, the area's Jewish community was centered on Bitola (approximately 8,000 Jews), Skopje (approximately 3,000 Jews) ^[6] and Štip (approximately 500 Jews) ^[7].

Most of these Jews, and almost the entire Jewish community of Bitola, were Ladino-speaking Sephardim.

[edit] The Holocaust

Two and a half thousand years of Jewish history in Vardar Macedonia (the area roughly corresponding to the borders of the Republic of Macedonia) effectively came to an end with the Holocaust and World War II.

In April 1941, the Bulgarian army entered Vardar Macedonia, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Bulgaria had initially been neutral in World War II, but opportunistically became an ally of Nazi Germany in 1941. Bulgaria invaded Vardar Macedonia for largely internal reasons: Bulgarian nationalists have always considered Slavic Macedonians to be ethnic Bulgarians, and the Macedonian language to be a Bulgarian dialect.

On October 4, 1941, the Bulgarian authorities enacted a law prohibited Jews from engaging in any form of commerce, and forcing them to sell their businesses to non-Jews. The Bulgarians then ghettoized the Jews of Bitola, forcing them to move from the Jewish areas of the town, which were relatively affluent, to poorer areas of the town.^[8]

Over the course of 1942, the Bulgarian authorities enacted increasingly harsh measures against the Jews under their control in Vardar Macedonia, Thrace and northern Greece, culminating in 1943 with the deportation of Macedonian, Greek and Thracian Jewry to the Nazi extermination camps of Poland.

The Bulgarians rounded up the entire Jewish population of Skopje, Bitola and Štip. Although Bulgaria defended Jews with Bulgarian citizenship from Nazi deportation orders, it nevertheless transported non-Bulgarian Jews to their deaths. The Jewish communities of Macedonia, Thrace, northern Greece and areas of Bulgarian-controlled Yugoslavia 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 3,276 Jews of Bitola deported to Treblinka survived ^[9]. 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 Vardar Macedonia was liberated in 1944, the remnants of the Jewish community re-gathered in Belgrade, Serbia ^[10] -- only about 140 had survived ^[11]. Most had survived by going into hiding or fighting with the Yugoslav, Jewish or Soviet Partisans ^[12]. Of those transported to the death camps, almost none survived. Most survivors chose to emigrate to Israel, with some returning to Macedonia, and others remaining in Serbia.

[edit] Today

Today, 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 ^[13].

There is no anti-Semitism in the country, and intermarriage rates among Jews are high^[14]. The community recently (2003^[15]) opened a synagogue, and has a community center in Skopje. The community also maintains ties with Jewish communities in Belgrade and Salonica, while a rabbi travels to Skopje from Belgrade to aid in the conducting of services ^[16].

[edit] References

• History of the Jews in Spain
• Jewish Virtual Library - Macedonia
• "TBI congregants raise funds for synagogue in Macedonia", Tami Bickley, Jewish News of Greater Phoenix
• The Holocaust in Macedonia: Deportation of Monastir Jewry, Mark Cohen, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Remembering the Past - Jewish culture battling for survival in Macedonia, Zhidas Daskalovski
• "Macedonia's Jews battle the odds of survival", Katka Krosnar, Centropa Reports
• "Jewish Yugoslavia", Ruth E Gruber, Our Jerusalem
• "Only 200 strong, Macedonia's Jews celebrate unity and new synagogue", Ruth E Gruber, Jewish World Review