Danon Dr Jakov - Jadovno 1941.

the center of Bosnian pashadon of that time, Banja Luka and surrounding distric centres are
based on many facts which its indicative strongpoint in the historical archives of the towns
Dubrovnik and Split. Using the archive material of the town of Dubrovnik for a survey of
economic circumstances in Banja Luka during XVI century, Bogumil Hrabak wrote: from 80
years of XVI century in Banja Luka, there were individually and permanently settled Jewstradesmen,
and probably the doctors too. Yet the Jews were not so characteristic for Banja
Luka's downtown as much as for Sarajevo one's. Therefore, it can be freely said that the
coming of the Jews in Bosanska Krajina, in a smaller number, on the transition from XVI to
XVII century was connected to the development of the trade between Porta and Venice, more
exactly the transitive trade over Dalmatian ports, Dubrovnik and Split, and their coming in a
greater number was directly connected to the fall of Venice in 1797, and thus far weaker trade
exchange in the mentioned ports, what, at the beginning of XVII century, brought to the
expressive moving out of the Jews toward the inside of Bosanska Krajina. Nevertheless,
something greater coming of the Jews on these areas at the beginning of XIX century from the
direction of Bitolj, Skoplje and Sarajevo was connected for post-emancipated period of the
Jews in Bosnia, after the bringing of the firman of sultan Abdul Mejid in 1840, and their
numerical influence was increasing after the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by
Austro-Hungary, by the coming of Ashkenash Jews, the Jews, mainly as a city population,
were concentrating in four leading towns in Bosna: Sarajevo, Travnik, Banja Luka and
Bijeljina. 10
They were spreading from these places by further economic development, using the
tested system, at first coming alone, and then, after the insight into the possibility of working
and living, the whole families were moving in. So that they were going from Sarajevo to
Višegrad, Rogatica, Goražde, Foča, and then to Visoko, Vareš, Breza, Zenica, Banja Luka,
Mostar and Dubrovnik, which should be separated after as the primary option from the above
mentioned facts in the trade process of coming and inhabitance of the Jews in Bosnia. 11
The Jews from Banja Luka, as the center of Krajina, were spreading by the
development of trade roads toward the inside, wishing to conquer the new markets, what
contributes to the economic development, small Bosnian towns until then. On the first place
there should be mentioned the towns: Bihać, Sanski Most, Derventa, Doboj and Bijeljina,
where the Jews gathered in a greater number and formed their Jewish communities, and then
built the synagogues as well, while Gradiška, Prijedor, Bosanski Novi and Kostajnica should
be expirienced as the places where the Jews lived and worked in a smaller number.
And, finally, it can be freely said, on the
basis of implemented archive searches of the
funds, that the Jews of Bosanska Krajina, in many
cases, were related and functioned as a big family.
It should be further said that the Jews from
Bijeljina, tracing for the trade, were coming to
live in Brčko, Tuzla, Doboj, and Derventa, so that
they had the relations there too.
By developing of trade roads the Jews
crossed from Travnik to Jajce, Bugojno, Tešanj
and Zenica. While the creating and connecting of
trade systems in the world was being done in
accordance with economic politics of the towns and states, the connecting of tradesmen in
Ottoman Empire was being done on ethnical-religious basis. The only legal regulators of
economic and social life in Bosnian pashadon, Koran al-Raju, were Islamic kanuns, the basic
law of Ottoman Empire. All religions which had had the Holly book before (Judaism and
Christinianity) were saved from destruction, but their position in the conquerred countries was
10 Bogumil Hrabak, The general urban development of Banja Luka until the war 1683–1699. The same I.
11 Samuel Elezar, The enclosers to the history of the Jews in B&H, the Jewish Almanah 1971–96, Belgrade 2000.
20
Monument of rav Moša Danon (1830)