Book on the Righteous - Jevrejska opština Zemun

Righteous Among The Nations - Serbia
Historical Background
Notwithstanding constitutional clauses, Jews were still
limited in respect of place of abode and ownership of
property outside Belgrade since the anti-Jewish laws
passed in 1856 and 1861 remained in force. According
to the 1869 Constitution, conscription of Jews was
obligatory although they were bared from commissioned
ranks up to the wars of 1876-1878. During these wars
Jews proved themselves as brave soldiers and members
of the military sanitary corps. That Jews were socially
acknowledged and that individuals among them were
duly respected is best documented by the fact that in
the 1877 elections for the Great National Assembly by
a majority of votes out of eight of its elected Belgrade
members, one was a Jew.
The stated forms of discrimination affected Jews up to
the international recognition of Serbia’s independence
at the Berlin Congress on July 13, 1878. By Article 34
of the Peace Agreement, the Great Forces recognized
the independence of the Princedom of Serbia obliging
Serbia to conditions stated in the following Article of the
Agreement. According to Article 35 of the Agreement,
difference in faith and religion practicing within Serbia
could not be an impediment to enjoyment of equal civic
and political rights, to employment in public services
or engagement in different trades and jobs “wherever
this may be”. Citizens of Serbia of all religions were
granted freedom of worship rites in public and freedom
of hierarchal structure. 3
Serbian Jews were guaranteed full civic equality by the
1888 Constitution. The Constitution ranked among the
most liberal statutes of Europe at the time. The following
decades saw an accelerated progress and integration
of Jews into Serbian society. Such accelerated development
resulted in the emergence of a new social structure
where origin and tradition were in retreat before the new
values of civic society and had its effect on both Jews
and their social surroundings.
After Serbia gained independence, individual anti-Semitic
outcries and newspaper accounts were relatively
rare. It soon became evident that such cases were above
all integrated into political contentions and served to
disqualify the opposition. To some extent the Serbian
environment maintained a different stance toward Jews
who had lived in Serbia for generations and who were
predominantly Sephardim, and the newly arrived Austro-Hungarian
Ashkenazi Jews. Life alongside generations
of Jews had been a shared one where the good and
the bad had been seen through together. On the other
hand, the new arrivals brought with them a novel spirit,
customs and habits not only foreign to Serbs, but to
Sephardim Jews as well. They differed not only in the
language they spoke but in customs, places of abode and
burial grounds. Right up to 1912, the official language
of the Belgrade Ashkenazi Community was German.
Acquirement of full civic equality resulted in a rapid
growth of the Jewish populace in Serbia although their
number was still relatively low. This growth in population
was most prominent in towns, mainly Belgrade,
where the centuries old oriental tradition refused to
give way to European practices easily. From the mid
seventies, the number of Jews in Serbia was growing
fast and their numbers within the total of its population
was increasing: in 1874 there were 2.049 Jews (0,15%
of the 1.353.890 inhabitants of Serbia). Ten years later,
in 1884, the number reached 4.160 Jews (0,21% of 1.
901.736 inhabitants). According to the census of 1890,
there were 4.652 Jews living in Serbia (0,22% of the
2.161.961 inhabitants). By 1900, this number increased
to 5.729 (0,23% of 2.492.882 inhabitants). During the
next decade the increase in the number of Jews slowed
down and their share in the total population also decreased;
in 1910 out of Serbia’s 2.911.701 inhabitants,
5.997 or (0.2%) were Jews.
More than four fifths of Serbian Jews lived in Belgrade.
Their numbers rose constantly although their share in
289