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Holocaust Intersections in 21st -Century Europe
Editor(s): Gordon, Robert S. C.; Perra, Emiliano
Date: 2016
Topics: Holocaust, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Survivors, Jewish Culture, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Memorial
Rectification of Racial Discrimination during WWII: the Case of Restitution Laws in Serbia
Author(s): Davidović, Maja
Date: 2017
Topics: Holocaust, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations, Roma, Race, Racism
Abstract: Restitution for the mostly Jewish property and assets that were confiscated by the Nazis during World War II (WWII) in various European states has been a highly debated issue ever since the end of the war. Countries that adhered to the ideas of communism and nationalisation of property in the immediate aftermath of the war failed to address this issue until very recently. Serbia, too, has only began to consider remedying the incredible damage done to its rather small Jewish community. More specifically, in the past decade, Serbia has been trying to repair the damage by passing a series of restitution laws which eventually led to separate legislation on heirless property. This paper explores the substance and application of these laws, as well as the history of discrimination based on which the Serbian Jewish community was persecuted by German occupiers and their collaborators. In doing so, through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT), this paper identifies another group that has been persecuted on the basis of race, namely the Romani. What follows from such research is the following: firstly, the law allowed for discrimination on a racial basis of both Jews and Roma during WWII and, secondly, the law is now remedying the damages caused towards the former group, but not the latter. In conclusion, this paper suggests that such a distinction is made due to a possible interest convergence, as defined by CRT.
The Biggest (Stolen) House on the (Eastern) Bloc: Lessons from the Terezin Declaration to Poland for Enacting Holocaust Property Restitution Legislation
Author(s): Nelson, Kristen L.
Date: 2019
Topics: Restitution and Reparations, Holocaust, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Law
The Holocaust and Restitution in Serbia: Confiscation of Jewish Property in Serbia
Author(s): Lakic, Branko; Dajc, Haris
Date: 2019
Topics: Restitution and Reparations, Holocaust, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Abstract: If we are talking about the consequences of a successful restitution process, the Serbian example shows that restitution has a positive impact on public finances: it is undoubtedly confirmed that each square meter of returned property is bringing bigger, more long-term, and stable income to the central state and local authorities’ budgets. It also has an important anti-corruption, anti-monopoly effect: restitution is efficiently removing enormous incomes from the handful of privileged people, monopolists and even organized crime members.
Yellow Star, Red Star Holocaust Remembrance after Communism
Author(s): Subotic, Jelena
Date: 2019
Topics: Holocaust, Holocaust Commemoration, Holocaust Education, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Survivors, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, Post-1989, Nationalism, National Identity
Abstract: Yellow Star, Red Star asks why Holocaust memory continues to be so deeply troubled—ignored, appropriated, and obfuscated—throughout Eastern Europe, even though it was in those lands that most of the extermination campaign occurred. As part of accession to the European Union, Jelena Subotić shows, East European states were required to adopt, participate in, and contribute to the established Western narrative of the Holocaust. This requirement created anxiety and resentment in post-communist states: Holocaust memory replaced communist terror as the dominant narrative in Eastern Europe, focusing instead on predominantly Jewish suffering in World War II. Influencing the European Union's own memory politics and legislation in the process, post-communist states have attempted to reconcile these two memories by pursuing new strategies of Holocaust remembrance. The memory, symbols, and imagery of the Holocaust have been appropriated to represent crimes of communism.

Yellow Star, Red Star presents in-depth accounts of Holocaust remembrance practices in Serbia, Croatia, and Lithuania, and extends the discussion to other East European states. The book demonstrates how countries of the region used Holocaust remembrance as a political strategy to resolve their contemporary "ontological insecurities"—insecurities about their identities, about their international status, and about their relationships with other international actors. As Subotić concludes, Holocaust memory in Eastern Europe has never been about the Holocaust or about the desire to remember the past, whether during communism or in its aftermath. Rather, it has been about managing national identities in a precarious and uncertain world.
Serbia: Equation with Two Knowns
Author(s): Đuričić, Nada Banjanin; Stojčić, Marijana
Editor(s): Dziaczkowska, Magdalena; Messina, Adele Valeria
Date: 2020
Topics: Jewish Community, Jewish Identity, Dialogue, Jewish Culture, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Interviews
Abstract: This article has a twofold aim: historical and practical. First, it conducts a brief historical review of the Jewish community in Serbia, addressing the ways in which this community has contributed to country’s culture, history, sciences, politics, and social life. It focuses especially on Jewish life in Serbia after the Holocaust, and the various difficulties of assimilation and emigration. Second, the essay investigates the practical realities of interculturalism in Serbia, weighing these realities against concerns about preserving Jewish identity. The article stems from three interviews: Stefan Sablić, theater director, musician, and founder of Shira U’tfila; Sonja Viličić, activist and founder/director ofNGOHaver Serbia; Dragana Stojanović, anthropologist and scholar of cultural studies. Taken together, the responses of these speakers offer novel approaches to multiculturalism and intercultural dialogue in an area with a complex history and cultural makeup.
The Nature of Postcommunist Antisemitism in East Central Europe: Ideology’s Backdoor Return
Author(s): Shafir, Michael
Date: 2018
Topics: Antisemitism, Antisemitism: Discourse, Holocaust, Holocaust Denial, Communism, Post-1989, Main Topic: Antisemitism
Abstract: This article analyzes contemporary antisemitism and Holocaust distortion in Eastern Europe. The main argument is that Brown and Red, Nazism and Communism, respectively are not at all equal. In Eastern Europe, in particular, antisemitic ideology is grounded on the rehabilitation of anticommunist national “heroes.” The history of the Holocaust is thereby distorted. Based on Maurice Halbwachs’s theory of “social frameworks,” the author shows how “competitive martyrdom,” the “Double Genocide” ideology, and “Holocaust obfuscation” are intertwined. Empirically, the paper examines these concepts in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Serbia and Croatia, and Romania.
Wieviel Wandel verträgt eine Tradition? Gesang und Gebet der jüdischen Gemeinde Belgrad in den Herausforderungen der Gegenwart.
Translated Title: How much change can a tradition handle? Singing and prayer of the Jewish community Belgrade in the challenges of the present.
Author(s): Huber, Jasmina
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Music, Religious Observance and Practice, Sephardi Jews, Jewish Music, Jewish Heritage, Liturgy, Synagogues
Abstract: Juden haben immer – auch in Zeiten des Ghettos – mit ihrer Umwelt kulturell interagiert. Dies zeigt sich auch in den musikalischen Traditionen der balkanischen jüdischen Gemeinden, die vereinzelt kaum erforscht wurden. Der Wandel des jüdischen Musiklebens im liturgischen und säkularen Raum wird hier exemplarisch am Beispiel der jüdischen Gemeinde Belgrads veranschaulicht. In dieser Stadt sind wegen ihrer bewegten Geschichte und des häufigen politischen Machtwechsels auf dem Balkan die Verschmelzung verschiedener kultureller Einflüsse zu finden, von denen die Juden, bereits geprägt von ihrer aschkenasischen und sephardischen Herkunft, betroffen waren. Mit der vorliegenden Fallstudie, in der Fragestellung wie deren methodische Durchführung und Umsetzung interdisziplinär angelegt sind, wird ein Desideratum der jüdischen Musikforschung auf dem Balkan erfüllt. Die Autorin nähert sich musikwissenschaftlich und judaistisch dem musikalischen Gut der Belgrader Gemeinde, indem sie es in ihrem kulturgeschichtlichen Kontext mit Blick auf den historischen Wandel und auf das soziale Umfeld erforscht sowie das Kernrepertoire der gegenwärtigen synagogalen Schabbatabend- und Morgengebete in der Gesamtheit ihrer musikalischen Abläufe darstellt.
Sephardic and Oriental Oral Testimonies: Their Importance for Holocaust Commemoration and Memory
Author(s): Kerem, Yitzchak
Editor(s): Roth, John K.; Maxwell, Elizabeth; Levy, Margot; Whitworth, Wendy
Date: 2001
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors, Oral History and Biography, Sephardi Jews
Abstract: In the absence of documentation, oral testimonies of Sephardic and Oriental Holocaust survivors serve as important sources for remembering and learning about the Holocaust in the Balkans, North Africa, and Iraq during World War II. Furthermore, the published testimonies are an additional way of including Sephardic and Oriental Jewry in the Holocaust historiography, which has largely ignored the non-Ashkenazic Jews who suffered in the Holocaust in the death camps, in hiding, or during their escape from their home countries. Since Holocaust museum exhibitions have often failed to represent Sephardic Jewry as Holocaust victims, Sephardi oral testimonies are educational tools and vehicles for raising public awareness about the theme.
Restitution as the Legal Vacuum in the System of Law
Translated Title: Pravna praznina u procesu restitucije
Author(s): Krstić, Jovan
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations, Law
Abstract: One of the clear examples of the existence of legal gaps in the legislation of the Republic of Serbia is the problem of restitution of property of Holocaust victims, which is shown as a separate problem that remains unregulated. The academic community of experts deserves serious scientific criticism for tolerating legal gaps in the legal system. Criminological phenomena of hate crime and hate speech which in the past resulted in the adoption of racial laws, civil rights and confi scation of property and physical liquidation – Holocaust –are such unique instances of evil that they exceede the limits of one life span and affect generations to come, unprepared to deal with them due to the unwillingness of our generation to act preventively regulating social relations based on modern principles and standards in order to prevent recurrence of the past. This is considered to be the essential (symbolic) inadequacy of the security systems from the perspective of knowledge management and diplomacy. Wrong attitude of the academic community towards the problem of increasing the capacity within the security system to protect the public interest and towards the reform of the security system can be critically assessed through present profiling of the security community outside of executive power – in the judiciary, in the status of law enforcement agencies, although the nature of their work and the principle of secrecy is incompatible with the principle of transparency in the work of law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, it is likely that all these problems will be crashing down on the future generations.
An Overview of the Law on Rehabilitation from the Point of View of the Holocaust Victims and other Victims of Nazi Terror
Translated Title: Pregled Zakona o rehabilitaciji iz perspektive žrtava Holokausta i drugih žrtava nacističkog terora
Author(s): Lazić, Radovan
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations, Law
Abstract: Law on Property Restitution and Compensation stipulates that its provisions apply to confiscated property provided that the owner of that property is rehabilitated. In this case, the request for the return of property must be accompanied by a court decision on the rehabilitation or proof that the application for rehabilitation was submitted. The first Serbian Rehabilitation Act was passed in 2006. According to the Law on Rehabilitation, from December 2011, persons who have been deprived of a right (to life, to freedom of movement, to property...) because of political activism, ideological or religious beliefs and national origin before the entry into force of this Act can be rehabilitated. However, the question is how the provisions of this law are applied to the victims of the Holocaust and other victims of Nazi terror. Does this law take into account the victims, does it provide any satisfaction to the victims of the Holocaust and other victims of the occupiers and various quisling formations? What consequences the
implementation of the Rehabilitation Act may have on the property rights of persons who, in the course of World War II, acquired property that was previously forcibly taken away (factual and legal violence) from their
rightful owners? What consequences the implementation of this law may have on the rights of the victims of the Holocaust and their heirs and what consequences the implementation of this law may have on the rights of the
victims of the Holocaust who have no heirs?
Several Ideas on Holocaust and Restitution in Historical Overview: Serbian Ethical and Property Dilemma and the Legacy of Anti-Semitism
Translated Title: Nekoliko ideja o Holokaustu i restituciji kroz istorijsku perspektivu: etička i imovinska dilema Srbije i nasleđe antisemitizma
Author(s): Samardžić, Nikola
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations, Law, Antisemitism
Abstract: Following on the overview presented at the first annual Holocaust and Restitution Conference concerning what is known about the expropriation of cultural property in Serbia during World War II and where that cultural property is presently located, ways in which restitution of art, Judaica, and other cultural property might best be implemented are discussed.

Serbia is encouraged to do historical research on the history of cultural plunder during World War II and on what was restituted to Serbia and within Serbia after the War, and to create a listing or database on the internet of what was taken in Serbia, noting what was subsequently returned and what is still missing. An entity should be responsible for provenance research in the country, either one that actually does the research as in Austria or one that oversees the research carried out by museums, libraries, and archives as in the Netherlands. Information should be made public over the internet of the results of such provenance research. A separate entity, as neutral and independent as possible, should be responsible for restitution decisions based on the provenance research. Serbia should pass legislation covering the return of private movable cultural property that is applicable to both Serbian and foreign citizens. Preferably there should be no deadline for claims for cultural property, whether individual or communal, since such cultural property is often not immediately identifiable. A non-bureaucratic process for filing claims should be established. Cultural property for which original owners and heirs are not identified (heirless property) should be listed on an internet site so that potential claimants can come forward. Such
items should not necessarily move from their current location, but their provenance history should be publicly noted.
Further Observations on the Restitution of Art, Judaica, and Other Cultural Property Plundered in Serbia
Translated Title: Dalja zapažanja o restituciji umetničkih dela, judaike i drugih kulturnih dobara opljačkanih u Srbiji
Author(s): Fisher, Wesley A.
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations, Law
Abstract: Following on the overview presented at the first annual Holocaust and Restitution Conference concerning what is known about the expropriation of cultural property in Serbia during World War II and where that cultural property is presently located, ways in which restitution of art, Judaica, and other cultural property might best be implemented are discussed.
Serbia is encouraged to do historical research on the history of cultural plunder during World War II and on what was restituted to Serbia and within Serbia after the War, and to create a listing or database on the internet of what was taken in Serbia, noting what was subsequently returned and what is still missing. An entity should be responsible for provenance research in the country, either one that actually does the research as in Austria or one that oversees the research carried out by museums, libraries, and archives as in the Netherlands. Information should be made public over the internet of the results of such provenance research. A separate entity, as neutral and independent as possible, should be responsible for restitution decisions based on the provenance research. Serbia should pass legislation covering the return of private movable cultural property that is applicable to both Serbian and foreign citizens. Preferably there should be no deadline for claims for cultural property, whether individual or communal, since such cultural property is often not immediately identifi able. A non-bureaucratic process for filing claims should be established. Cultural property for which original owners and heirs are not identifi ed (heirless property) should be listed on an internet site so that potential claimants can come forward. Such
items should not necessarily move from their current location, but their provenance history should be publicly noted.
Jews of Former Yugoslavia and Their Decline After Wars In Yugoslavia: Legal and Material Positions in Serbia, Croatia And Bosnia & Herzegovina 1991-2016
Translated Title: Jevreji Bivše Jugoslavije i Njihovo Opadanje Nakonratova u Jugoslaviji: Pravni i Imovinski Položaj u Srbiji, Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini 1991-2016
Author(s): Dajč, Haris
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community, Restitution and Reparations, Law, Finance, Economy
Abstract: Once one of the most numerous and prosperous minorities in Yugoslavia, the number of Jews declined from over 80,000 to 15,000 in the years aer WW2. is number further decreased due to migration to Israel in the first post-war years, and further impoverishment took place because of confiscation and restitution of the majority of private and communal Jewish property, and enforced renouncing of Yugoslav citizenship. e first multi-party elections in Yugoslavia brought to power nationalist elements in all republics, which was followed by civil war, and the breaking of socialist Yugoslavia. Jews of Yugoslavia found themselves on different warring sides. Fragmentation on all confronted sides made the Jewish community even more vulnerable. A huge majority of former Warsaw Pact members aer the Berlin wall fell passed laws for restitution of property taken by the state in post WW2 period. Jews of Yugoslavia, in several new states, had promises from state offi cials that their property would be restituted and errors made half a century ago would be rectified. e only case where such a promise came true was Serbia. In 2011 Serbia passed General Restitution Law concerning individuals, therefore also Jews. In 2006 Serbia passed Law on property of the religious communities that also included Jewish community and that helped restitution of the Jewish communal property. e state of Serbia is the only state in the region that passed the Jewish Lex Specialis that concerns on Jewish property with no successor but also unclaimed Jewish property in February 2016. Croatia passed a General Restitution Law in 1996, and amended it in 2002, but it only affects property nationalized aer May 1945. at Law is limited to direct successors who are Croatian citizens or citizens of countries which have bilateral agreements with Croatia. Due to very high taxes, in some cases reaching 25% of property value, a lot of Jewish requests remained unsolved. Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the rare European countries that did not pass such a law. Moreover, the BIH constitution declares three constituent nations: Serbs, Croats and Bosnians, while others as minorities cannot be nominated for state positions, according to chapters IV and V of the BIH constitution (Sejdić and Finci v. Bosnia and Herzegovina). is paper aims to give insight into the economic power of Jews just before the breakdown of Yugoslavia, and the current economic situation of Jewish communities in Serbia, Croatia and BIH, with a special emphasis on their economic, legal and social position in the last two decades. is restitution issue is very important for it shows how much goodwill states have for helping their local Jewish communities. e research material is obtained from local Jewish communities, periodicals, reports, interviews, conferences, scientific journals and statistical data of all three states and various Jewish organization. Facing the past, admitting and rectifying remain open issues in those countries, and they are excellent indicators of the progress achieved in the last 25 years.
Jewish Communities in The Political and Legal Systems of Post-Yugoslav Countries
Author(s): Vukićević, Boris
Date: 2017
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community, Minorities, Restitution and Reparations, Politics, Law
Abstract: After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the Jewish community within Yugoslavia was also split up, and now various Jewish communities exist in the seven post-Yugoslav countries. Although all of these communities are relatively small, their size, influence, and activity vary. The political and legal status of Jewish communities, normatively speaking, differs across the former Yugoslav republics. Sometimes Jews or Jewish communities are mentioned in constitutions, signed agreements with governments, or are recognized in laws that regulate religious communities. Despite normative differences, they share most of the same problems – a slow process of return of property, diminishing numbers due to emigra­tion and assimilation, and, although on a much lower scale than in many other countries, creeping anti-Semitism. They also share the same opportunities – a push for more minority rights as part of ‘Europeanization’ and the perception of Jewish communities as a link to influential investors and politicians from the Jewish diaspora and Israel.
Yugoslav Jewry. Aspects of Post-World War II and Post-Yugoslav Developments
Author(s): Kerkkänen, Ari
Date: 2001
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Post-1989, Post-War Jewish History, Nationalism, National Identity, Communism
Voices of Yugoslav Jewry
Author(s): Gordiejew, Paul Benjamin
Date: 1998
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity, Secularity, Nationalism, Oral History and Biography, Post-1989, Post-War Jewish History
Abstract: Voices of Yugoslav Jewry emphasizes the role of history in shaping Yugoslav Jewish identity. World War II imposed irreversible effects on this population of Jews, leaving them with an acute sense of disjuncture and fragmentation. This once-unified Jewish community lost its secure place in the politico-symbolic order of a single multiethnic state, and the surviving local Jewish communities, which are now a part of new states, face the task of refashioning their identities once again. The process of creating the new Yugoslavia has allowed for the emergence of a new Jewish collective voice, one that blended harmoniously with the emerging voice of Tito. This collective voice manifested itself by using language, material culture, and dramaturgical performances in ways that exhibited high public integration with the symbolic order of the new state. In searching for the voices of individuals and listening to them closely, a wide range of diverse individual experiences and ways of constructing meaningful Jewish selves can be heard. It is these voices that constitute the core of the book.
Fourth Survey of European Jewish Community Leaders and Professionals, 2018
Author(s): Kosmin, Barry A.
Date: 2018
Topics: Antisemitism, Fundraising and Philanthropy, Israel Attachment, Jewish Continuity, Religious Denominations, Security, Surveys, Jewish Leadership, Jewish Organisations, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity
Abstract: The Fourth Survey of European Jewish Community Leaders and Professionals, 2018 presents the results of an online survey offered in 10 languages and administered to 893 respondents in 29 countries. Conducted every three years using the same format, the survey seeks to identify trends and their evolution in time.

The survey asked Jewish lay leaders and community professionals questions regarding future community priorities, identifying the main threats to Jewish life, views on the safety and security situation in their cities, including emergency preparedness, and opinions on an array of internal community issues. Examples include conversions, membership criteria policies on intermarriage, and their vision of Europe and Israel.

The respondents were comprised of presidents and chairpersons of nationwide “umbrella organizations” or Federations; presidents and executive directors of private Jewish foundations, charities, and other privately funded initiatives; presidents and main representatives of Jewish communities that are organized at a city level; executive directors and programme coordinators, as well as current and former board members of Jewish organizations; among others.

The JDC International Centre for Community Development established the survey as a means to identify the priorities, sensibilities and concerns of Europe’s top Jewish leaders and professionals working in Jewish institutions, taking into account the changes that European Jewry has gone through since 1989, and the current political challenges and uncertainties in the continent. In a landscape with few mechanisms that can truly gauge these phenomena, the European Jewish Community Leaders Survey is an essential tool for analysis and applied research in the field of community development.

The Survey team was directed by Dr. Barry Kosmin (Trinity College), who has conducted several large national social surveys and opinion polls in Europe, Africa and the U.S., including the CJF 1990 US National Jewish Population Survey.
A New Song: Emerging Sephardic Music in Serbia
Author(s): Wiens, Kathleen Ruth
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Jewish Music, Sephardi Jews, Jewish Revival
Abstract: A unique moment in Sephardic music is emerging in the Republic of Serbia. Since 2000, a small but vibrant Sephardic music scene has been formed through the efforts of a small group of individuals. The scene keeps alive a repertoire that has survived many upheavals: the Holocaust and the near-total extermination of Sephardic sacred music practitioners from the region; a half-century of religious suppression under the Yugoslav government; and the political turmoil of the 1990s and the establishment of the Republic of Serbia from what was once Yugoslavia. Each of these major socio-political shifts had an impact on how today's musicians learned and contributed to the creation of Sephardic music. Since 2000, the maintenance and reworking of the Sephardic music scene in Belgrade has taken place almost entirely because of small group individuals. The Sephardic music scene that has emerged is now made up of one concert stage ensemble, Shira u’tfila [Song and Prayer], and a collection of synagogue singers. Though the scene comprises only a small number of musicians, these individuals exercise considerable power in determining how broader categories like Sephardic and Jewish are represented and contribute to the civic, state, and international public imagination.

The expression of being Serbian, Sephardic, and Jewish is shaped and transmitted by this small group of musicians as they actively engage in a variety of discourses. These discourses concern the role of technology in the transmission of their practice, historical consciousness and nostalgia, and personal and social identities. By looking at how musical and social domains are established and promoted through performance, I show how personal taste and individual creativity play a role in representing Jewish culture in Serbia and Serbian-Jewish culture to an international audience. Ultimately, Shira u’tfila helps redefine ideas of Serbian Jewishness, and articulates an understanding of music in Jewish life as behavior that embraces both sacred and
secular, both Jewish and non-Jewish, repertoire.
A Serbian Jewish Perspective on Media and Musical Transmission
Author(s): Wiens, Kathleen
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Music, Liturgy, Synagogues, Sephardi Jews, Ethnomusicology, Ethnography, Education, Jewish Revival
Abstract: This study of the intersections of media and musical transmission spotlights the activities of Sephardic Jewish synagogue prayer leaders in Belgrade, Serbia. The essay traces the reconstruction of Jewish synagogue singing in the past 50 years and outlines motivations for utilising media as an addition to, or replacement for, person-to-person transmission. Music, as a crucial element of weekly synagogue services, played a significant role in the reconstruction of observance. By tracing the narrative of reconstruction, I demonstrate that the meeting of music and media is a dynamic nexus situated within social experience. It was not until the 1970s that a small group of people in Belgrade began a process of reconstructing religious Jewish observance after the near-extermination of local Jewish life between 1941 and 1942. From that time until the present, prayer leaders altered methods of musical transmission as a response to shifting political circumstances. By choice or necessity, print, audio and Internet-based media now play essential roles in teaching and learning Jewish synagogue singing in Belgrade and media-based methods of transmission have transcended person-to-person learning. Over the course of this narrative, I describe both how musicians perceive certain methods of learning as aids or hindrances, and those musical changes that resulted from transition in method.
Bringing the Dark Past to Light The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe
Editor(s): Himka, John-Paul; Michlic, Joanna Beata
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Memory, National Identity, Antisemitism, Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust Commemoration, Jewish Revival, Post-1989, Communism, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations
Abstract: Despite the Holocaust’s profound impact on the history of Eastern Europe, the communist regimes successfully repressed public discourse about and memory of this tragedy. Since the collapse of communism in 1989, however, this has changed. Not only has a wealth of archival sources become available, but there have also been oral history projects and interviews recording the testimonies of eyewitnesses who experienced the Holocaust as children and young adults. Recent political, social, and cultural developments have facilitated a more nuanced and complex understanding of the continuities and discontinuities in representations of the Holocaust. People are beginning to realize the significant role that memory of Holocaust plays in contemporary discussions of national identity in Eastern Europe.

This volume of original essays explores the memory of the Holocaust and the Jewish past in postcommunist Eastern Europe. Devoting space to every postcommunist country, the essays in Bringing the Dark Past to Light explore how the memory of the “dark pasts” of Eastern European nations is being recollected and reworked. In addition, it examines how this memory shapes the collective identities and the social identity of ethnic and national minorities. Memory of the Holocaust has practical implications regarding the current development of national cultures and international relationships.

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction
John-Paul Himka and Joanna Beata Michlic
1. "Our Conscience Is Clean": Albanian Elites and the Memory of the Holocaust in Postsocialist Albania
Daniel Perez
2. The Invisible Genocide: The Holocaust in Belarus
Per Anders Rudling
3. Contemporary Responses to the Holocaust in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Francine Friedman
4. Debating the Fate of Bulgarian Jews during World War II
Joseph Benatov
5. Representations of the Holocaust and Historical Debates in Croatia since 1989
Mark Biondich
6. The Sheep of Lidice: The Holocaust and the Construction of Czech National History
Michal Frankl
7. Victim of History: Perceptions of the Holocaust in Estonia
Anton Weiss-Wendt
8. Holocaust Remembrance in the German Democratic Republic--and Beyond
Peter Monteath
9. The Memory of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Hungary
Part 1: The Politics of Holocaust Memory
Paul Hanebrink
Part 2: Cinematic Memory of the Holocaust
Catherine Portuges
10. The Transformation of Holocaust Memory in Post-Soviet Latvia
Bella Zisere
11. Conflicting Memories: The Reception of the Holocaust in Lithuania
Saulius Sužied<edot>lis and Šarūnas Liekis
12. The Combined Legacies of the "Jewish Question" and the "Macedonian Question"
Holly Case
13. Public Discourses on the Holocaust in Moldova: Justification, Instrumentalization, and Mourning
Vladimir Solonari
14. The Memory of the Holocaust in Post-1989 Poland: Renewal--Its Accomplishments and Its Powerlessness
Joanna B. Michlic and Małgorzata Melchior
15. Public Perceptions of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Romania
Felicia Waldman and Mihai Chioveanu
16. The Reception of the Holocaust in Russia: Silence, Conspiracy, and Glimpses of Light
Klas-Göran Karlsson
17. Between Marginalization and Instrumentalization: Holocaust Memory in Serbia since the Late 1980s
Jovan Byford
18. The "Unmasterable Past"? The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Slovakia
Nina Paulovičová
19. On the Periphery: Jews, Slovenes, and the Memory of the Holocaust
Gregor Joseph Kranjc
20. The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Ukraine
John-Paul Himka
Conclusion
Omer Bartov
Contributors
Index
Remembering Jasenovac: survivor testimonies and the cultural dimension of bearing witness
Author(s): Byford, Jovan
Date: 2014
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Memory, Oral History and Biography, Interviews
Abstract: This article examines testimonies of Jasenovac survivors recorded in Serbia between 1989 and 1997 for the oral history collections of the Fortunoff Archive and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The author highlights the differences between the assumptions about survivors and testimony underpinning the US-based interview projects, on the one hand, and the understanding of bearing witness that is apparent in testimonies recorded for projects in Serbia on the other. Contrasting the emotion-centered American approach to survivor testimony with the atrocity-centered Serbian approach, the author argues for a more explicit acknowledgment among scholars, as well as among those involved in recording testimonies, of witnessing as a socially, historically, and institutionally embedded practice.
Overview of Immovable Property Restitution/Compensation Regime - Serbia (As of 13 December 2016)
Author(s): European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI)
Date: 2017
Topics: Holocaust Survivors, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations, Holocaust
Abstract: The Holocaust (Shoah) Immovable Property Restitution Study is the first-ever comprehensive
compilation of all significant legislation passed since 1945 by the 47 states that participated in
the 2009 Prague Holocaust Era Assets Conference and endorsed the 2009 Terezin Declaration
that came out of the Prague conference.

The Terezin Declaration (and its companion document, the 2010 Guidelines and Best Practices,
endorsed by 43 countries) focuses in substantial part on the treatment of immovable (real)
property restitution: private, communal, and heirless property. The Study examined private,
communal, and heirless property as discrete components of each country’s restitution efforts
from 1944 to 2016.

As part of the European Shoah Legacy Institute’s Immovable Property Restitution Study,
a Questionnaire covering past and present restitution regimes for private, communal and
heirless property was sent to all 47 Terezin Declaration governments in 2015. Serbia
submitted a response in September 2015.
Holocaust (Shoah) Immovable Property Restitution Study
Author(s): European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI)
Date: 2017
Topics: Holocaust Survivors, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Restitution and Reparations
Abstract: The Holocaust (Shoah) Immovable Property Restitution Study is the first-ever comprehensive
compilation of all significant legislation passed since 1945 by the 47 states that participated in
the 2009 Prague Holocaust Era Assets Conference and endorsed the 2009 Terezin Declaration
that came out of the Prague conference.

The Terezin Declaration (and its companion document, the 2010 Guidelines and Best Practices,
endorsed by 43 countries) focuses in substantial part on the treatment of immovable (real)
property restitution: private, communal, and heirless property. The Study examined private,
communal, and heirless property as discrete components of each country’s restitution efforts
from 1944 to 2016.
Report on issues related to property restitution and compensation in former Communist countries
Author(s): Naamat, Talia; Ilan, Ronna
Date: 2012
Topics: Law, European Union, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Third Survey of European Jewish Leaders and Opinion Formers, 2015
Author(s): Kosmin, Barry A.
Date: 2016
Topics: Antisemitism, Fundraising and Philanthropy, Israel Attachment, Jewish Continuity, Religious Denominations, Security, Surveys, Jewish Leadership, Jewish Organisations, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity
Abstract: Launched by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s International Centre for Community Development (JDC-ICCD), and conducted by a research team at Trinity College (Hartford, Connecticut, USA) between June and August 2015, the Third Survey of European Jewish Leaders and Opinion Formers presents the results of an online survey administered to 314 respondents in 29 countries. The survey was conducted online in five languages: English, French, Spanish, German and Hungarian. The Survey of European Jewish Leaders and Opinion Formers is conducted every three or four years using the same format, in order to identify trends and their evolution. Findings of the 2015 edition were assessed and evaluated based on the results of previous surveys (2008 and 2011). The survey posed Jewish leaders and opinion formers a range of questions about major challenges and issues that
concern European Jewish communities in 2015, and about their expectations of how communities will evolve over the next 5-10 years. The 45 questions (see Appendix) dealt
with topics that relate to internal community structures and their functions, as well as the external environment affecting communities. The questionnaire also included six open-ended questions in a choice of five languages. These answers form the basis of the qualitative analysis of the report. The questions were organized under the following headings:• Vision & Change (6 questions)
• Decision-Making & Control (1 question)
• Lay Leadership (1 question)
• Professional Leadership (2 questions)
• Status Issues & Intermarriage (5 questions)
• Organizational Frameworks (2 questions)
• Community Causes (2 questions)
• Jewish Education (1 question)
• Funding (3 questions)
• Communal Tensions (3 questions)
• Anti-Semitism/Security (5 questions)
• Europe (1 question)
• Israel (1 question)
• Future (2 questions)
• Personal Profile (9 questions)
Survey Results: General Assembly Budapest 2004
Date: 2004
Topics: Jewish Organisations, Jewish Community, Jewish Identity, Surveys, Jewish Leadership, Antisemitism, Affiliation and Belonging, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This survey was given to participants in the 3rd General Assembly of European Jewry, which was held in Budapest in May 2004. Participants were asked how many Jews participate in community programs in their respective cities; the programs and activities their Jewish community offers; and how they believe their community could be more effective in attracting more members.
Second Survey of European Jewish Leaders and Opinion Formers, 2011
Author(s): Kosmin, Barry A.
Date: 2012
Topics: Antisemitism, Fundraising and Philanthropy, Israel Attachment, Jewish Continuity, Religious Denominations, Security, Surveys, Jewish Leadership, Jewish Organisations, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Identity
Abstract: unquoted attribute value: &quot;margin-left: 4
Етнички идентитет и замена језика у сефардској заједници у Београду
Translated Title: Ethnic identity and language replacement in the Sephardic community in Belgrade
Author(s): Vučina Simović, Ivana; Jelena Filipović
Date: 2009
Topics: Sephardi Jews, Ladino, Language, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Sociolingvistička monografija Ivane Vučina Simović i Jelene Filipović Etnički identitet i zamena jezika u sefardskoj zajednici u Beogradu popunjava dve značajne praznine: nedostatak celovite studije o Sefardima u Beogradu i nedostatak dijahrone sociolingvističke analize nekog manjinskog jezika u Srbiji sa razvijenim teorijskim pristupom
Jewish Women in the Former Yugoslavia
Author(s): Lebl, Ana
Editor(s): Epstein, Helen
Date: 1999
Topics: Jewish Women, Jewish Organisations, Small Jewish Communities, Post-War Reconstruction, Communism, Conflict, Main Topic: Other
Abstract:

The author provides an overview of Jewish history in the former Yugoslavia, with an emphasis on the lives and activities of women. Until the Holocaust, the diverse Jewish community prospered and Jewish women's organizations multiplied and grew. Jewish women were active in organizing and providing aid, in supplies and medical work, in every Balkan war. After the decimation of the Holocaust, only a fraction of the community remained. Yugoslavia enjoyed relative freedom of movement and freedom of religion under communism, however, and eventually some women's organizations were rebuilt and were able to continue their benevolent work throughout the modern conflicts, even at the high point of violence in Sarajevo. Each of the new countries continues to have its own women's organizations, even in smaller communities like Split, where the Jewish population is only 120.
Why Don't They Participate? A Short Voyage into the Hearts, Minds and Concerns of the Jews of Subotica, Yugoslavia
Translated Title: ה"נעדרים": מסע קצר של התוודעות אל יהודי סובוטיקה, יוגוסלביה
Author(s): Stojkovic, Sara
Date: 2007
Topics: Interviews, Jewish Community, Memory, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This field report provides us with a poignant account of the current condition of Jewish life in the author's home-town, Subotica, set against the story of the community over the course of the 20th century. The integration of interviews with community members together with Ms. Stojkovi?'s own personal insights and recollections create a fascinating window into the community’s situation, dilemmas, hopes and prospects. While this report deals with one small, specific locale, it has broader implications; as she writes: "Set in a unique historical and geographical environment, I believe that the Jewish community of Subotica tells a story common to many other post-socialist settings, especially the ones placed in the realm of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire".
A Survey of Jewish Museums in Europe
Author(s): Sion, Brigitte
Date: 2016
Topics: Jewish Museums, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: The goals of the Foundation in conducting this survey were manifold:
we aimed to generate a comprehensive picture of the Jewish museum
landscape across Europe, and to identify the most pressing issues,
challenges and needs faced by these institutions. We wanted to learn about
the mission, philosophy and methodology of Jewish museums, and better
understand their role and position in the cultural and educational realm at
large. We were also interested in the level of professionalization of Jewish
museums, both in staff training, collection preservation and cataloguing,
management, and the ways in which Jewish museums communicate and
arrange partnerships with one another. With a better understanding of
these issues, we want now to assess the resources needed and the funding
priorities for the next five to ten years.

The questionnaire was sent to 120 institutions in 34 countries and we
received 64 completed forms from 30 countries. The questions addressed
eleven broad topics: organisation, collections, permanent and temporary
exhibitions, facility, visitor services, public programmes, visitor
demographics, marketing and PR, finances, future plans and needs.

This diverse sample enabled us to get, for the first time, a quasicomprehensive
picture of the Jewish museum landscape in Europe, from
small community museums to landmarks of “starchitecture;” from
institutions boasting thousands of rare objects to others mostly text
panels- or technology-based; from museums employing scores of
professional staff and interns to synagogues-turned-exhibition halls run by
volunteers for a few hours a month. That was precisely the challenge: the
large and numerous discrepancies between institutions, depending on their
location, their financial and human resources, their political and economic
context, the type of visitors they receive, and other contextual
considerations.

The results point to four major findings:
1. Transition from museums to multi-purpose hubs;
2. Lack of collaboration and partnerships;
3. Tension between particularistic and universalistic missions;
4. Increasing need to serve a diverse audience.
European Jewish Digest: January 2015
Author(s): Goldstein, Richard
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Other
Abstract: JPR’s monthly European Jewish digest provides a concise look at some of the major events impacting on Jewish life around Europe.
Antisemitism and Jewish Identity in Serbia After the 1991 Collapse of the Yugoslav State
Author(s): Sekelj, Laslo
Date: 1997
Topics: Main Topic: Antisemitism, Antisemitism, Conflict
Abstract: The paper first describes the Jewish community in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which consists of the two federal units of Serbia and Montenegro. There is no Jewish community in Montenegro; only a few Jews have ever lived there. In Serbia there are only 3,500 Jews in nine local communities affiliated with the Federation of Jewish Communities of Yugoslavia. Jewish identity is a voluntary ethnic self-identification; some members of these communities are not of Jewish origin, but have integrated into the community through their marriage ties.

The paper then focuses on the heritage of antisemitism in Serbia. After 1945, i.e., from the time Communists came into power until the final disintegration of the Yugoslav state, one may distinguish three stages: 1945–1967, a period characterized by no public display of antisemitism; 1967–1988, in which antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism; and 1988–1991, which saw the process of "republicanization" and functionalization of Jews. The paper describes the re-emergence of traditional antisemitism in Serbia since 1991, and the misuse of Jews for the Serbian nationalistic agenda as part of the post-communist development in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

It can be concluded that antisemitism in post-communist Yugoslavia, although peripheral, is a constant phenomenon.
The Jewish Dimension of the Yugoslav Crisis
Author(s): Golub, Jennifer L.
Date: 1992
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Conflict