Our Senior Surveyor Ian Galevskii has begun fieldwork and plans to survey around 40 cemeteries across Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In this country, Sephardic communities historically formed a significant part of the Jewish population. Therefore, we expect to document many Sephardic Jewish cemeteries.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is also the first country in which we are surveying Jewish cemeteries in a region where a significant portion of the population is Muslim, making this work particularly important for understanding the region’s diverse heritage.
ESJF’s surveys in Bosnia and Herzegovina are part of a broader plan to document Jewish cemeteries across across the Balkans and the Baltic region: Latvia, Estonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Slovenia. For now, ESJF has already completed the surveys in Bulgaria.
This work is made possible thanks to funding from the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.
We are also very grateful for the support of our local coordinator, Ekaterina Karaseva.