A few of my favorite pictures from Ben Eden, they really give a nice picture of Jewish life in Sarajevo.
There is a documentary called "Jewish Nights, Muslim City" that
profiles two couples in Sarajevo. One is a Jewish man, Muslim woman -
the other a Muslim man, Jewish woman. It has some really nice views of
their culture and way of life as well.
Most of Sarajevo's Jews sent their children out of the city, to Israel,
during the war. They also sent just under 1,000 Muslim children as
well. Within 6 months of the war ending, more than 90 per cent of the
Jewish and Muslim children returned; they all can speak Hebrew fluently
so Israeli music has become an underground, popular thing in Bosnia.
Aida is a Muslim name. It's very common for Sarajevo's religious groups
to mix freely, most of the younger generations even actively seek out
members of other ethnic and religious backgrounds. It's especially
common among Jews because they're, by far, the least populous group and
are surrounded by others.
During the war, the only buildings not targetted were Serbian Orthodox
Churches. Sarajevo had two. One had a Priest who did not support the
genocide in Bosnia and opened the basement of his church as a maternity
hospital. Dzemil Kaunitz would brave sniper fire and shelling to reach
the church, at least once or twice a day, to tend to patients, deliver
babies, and so on - all for free.