Danon Dr Jakov - Jadovno 1941.

THE DERVENTA JEWISH COMMUNITY
Sporadic arrival of Sephardic Jews in Derventa dates from the Ottoman Empire, when
strengthening the position of the Turkish army to the River Sava becomes a need for further
conquests toward Europe, as well as the establishment of stable trading routes between the
Levant and Venice. In the documents the city of Dubrovnik in the Dubrovnik Republic, was
mentioned the name of the city of Derventa, related to the invention of stećak (type of old
Bosnian tombstone) in the Plehan - Derventa District with epitaph "Asie grob cej” (This is a
grave of assembly workers), which indirectly indicates the complexity of trade relations in
Bosnia, and that people from Dubrovnik among others, due to knowledge of languages and
scripts on both sides of the commercial field, and their great trading capacities for their
representatives and agents of big shopping and insurance companies, just selected Levant
Jews who were led their trade colonies in developed mining places, where they bought mining
products, and sold various oversees goods (vine, oil, salty fish, rice). So it was with the
original arrival of Sephardic Jews in Derventa and, as we see, who came more in a capacity
of individual tradesmen. In this city they had civil rights, preserved their religious rituals,
while they at the same time, adapted themselves to new environment and the living in it.
Some elderly Jews, as wholesaler Levi Pesah, worn Bosnian suits as other citizens of
Derventa. The Jewish community was not isolated in separate parts of the town; neither was
given the space for the so-called settlement - ghetto. They were mixed with other citizens
throughout the city, mostly in their own homes and less like subtenants in rented houses.
In this period, the Ottoman empire through its various representatives of military and
civil authorities viziers, aga (Turkish - title for civil or military leader, added to surnames),
valija (Engl. governors) and kadija (Engl. judges) seeks to promote those factors that
contribute to the rapid development of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Administrative structure of
government allow the Jews to hold and as good traders keep trading connections with all the
countries of Western Europe over Dubrovnik and somewhat later Split, and thus operate in
developing and improving the economic life of the area. This is evident in the field of
craftsmanship, as Jews were skilled masters of their craft, and dealt with the various jobs
They were good tailors, goldsmiths, cobblers, watch makers. However, the Jews, according to
research conducted, by the reform law of Sultan Abdul-Mejid in 1840 might have ownership
of the property and as other citizens, depending on their capabilities; they bought houses and
land, trade and economic facilities. Consequently, during the Ottoman rule, the relationships
of Derventa authorities towards the Jews all the smaller were procedures that differed from
the other residents of this city. Further strengthening of positions of Austria in the Balkans
and the fall of Venice are the key moments that led to changes of trading routes to Vienna and
Budapest, has led to arrival of Sephardic Jews in Derventa in some great numbers from the
direction of Bijeljina, accurately Sarajevo and Travnik. According to the preserved historical
data that those Sephardic Jews who come to Derventa, come in the capacities of tradesmen
and craftsmen as exclusively urban people, while Ashkenazy primarily come after the
annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 as a professional educated middle bureaucratic
personnel, and career-oriented physicians as: Dr Jozef Grünberg, Dr Izrael, Dr Andrija
Miller, and pharmacist Aleksa Sussman, from Austria and Poland (Moritz Katz,
Aleksandar Štraus, Dr Jozef Grünberg, Aleksandar Sussman, Hermann Deutsch, Jakov
Grünhut) with families.
Genuine reason for arrival of Ashkenazy was in essence and not only economic, as it
was formally stated in the publications, but was the root of a new – old anti-Semitism (for
domination of the leading force of Germans in Central Europe), which will later lead to
unimagined scale of the Holocaust of Jews, wherever they were in the world.
Jews, as well as admirers of government and law, quickly and easily incorporated
themselves into all life flows, acting as a good, hard working and saving merchants, good
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