Jewish Museum

Sarajevo


More religiously open-minded than most of Western Europe in its day, the Ottoman Empire offered refuge to the Sephardic Jews who had been evicted en masse from Spain in 1492. While conditions varied, Bosnian Jews mostly prospered until WWII, when most of the 14,000-strong community fled or were murdered. The community's story is well told in this 1581 Sephardic synagogue that still sees active worship during Jewish New Year.