The history of Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be traced back more than 500 years, when, in the late 15th century, many Sephardic Jews arrived after their expulsion from Spain as stipulated by the Expulsion Decree from King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile. Often called the Alhambra Decree, this law expelled 20,000 Spanish Jews from the country.

 

Many of the expelled Jews re-settled in the Ottoman Empire, to which the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina belonged, and where they were welcomed by Sultan Bajazet II. The descendants of Jews from Spain (and Portugal) are referred as Sephardim, as “Sepharad” means Spain in Hebrew.

 

Sarajevo became the centre of flourishing Jewish life in the Balkans. In 1577, the Jewish community was allowed by the Ottoman rulers to build their own quarter - El Cortijo (“the courtyard”). Some years later, in 1581, the city’s first synagogue, the Old Synagogue, or Velika Avlija, was built with the help of a Muslim benefactor. Today, most of the Jews who live in the area are Sephardim. When Sarajevo became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878, however, Ashkenazi (Eastern-European) Jews also migrated to Sarajevo.

 

When the Second World War broke out, about 14,000 Jews lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the war, the majority of Bosnian Jews was annihilated. Only about 4,000 Jews survived, either by joining partisan groups or by fleeing. After 1945 many of the survivors returned and the Jewish community was reconstituted.

 

In recent years, the number of Jews emigrating from Bosnia and Herzegovina has decreased. Today, approximately 1000 Jews live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, about two-thirds of them in Sarajevo. About ninety percent of the community has a Sephardic background. Mostly older people still speak Ladino.