2. Ivan Ceresnjes, Jakob Finci and the Sarajevo Jews
On the eve of the Bosnian war Radovan Karadzic, a Bosnian Serb leader, warned “Sarajevo will be a black cauldron, where 300,000 Muslims will die… Europe will be told to go f**k itself, not to come back until the job is finished”… in the ensuing bloodbath 100,000 people lost their lives.
A year earlier Ivan Ceresnjes and Jakob Finci, leaders of the Jewish community in Sarajevo, foresaw the oncoming war and instructed the community to stockpile supplies. When war finally broke out they were ready and together with the Jewish community they converted their synagogue into an aid distribution centre and began supplying the entire city with medical and humanitarian relief. As the death toll rose they organised the safe passage of 3,000 Muslims, Christians and Jews from the besieged city.
One of those Muslims was Zejneba Hardaga, a 76 year old lady who’d been recognised as “Righteous among the Nations” by Israel for hiding her Jewish neighbour, Josef Kavilio, from the Nazis during the holocaust. Upon hearing war had struck Sarajevo the Kavilio family initiated a frantic search for Zejneba from Israel. Eventually this frail 76 year old was found in a cold basement without water or electricity and in desperate need of medication. Her rescue was coordinated and in an incredible twist of fate the Kavilio family had been able to repay their debt 52 years after Zejneba saved Josef.
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These are amazing and wonderful stories–please find and publish more of them. There is no monopoly on good and ethical behavior and it is a wonderful reminder that people who act for the good make such a difference.
It should not matter whether you are a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or Jewish. We must help each other at times of crisis and prove ourselves to be good human beings.
It’s a shame that this article conflates heroic and sacrificial resistance to Nazi tyranny with the behaviour of Israeli health officials. Israeli officials have a duty to ‘approve’ life-saving medical care for people in the territories they occupy, and they are violating the law when they deny that medical care, which they do much more frequently than this article suggests. Some Jewish people do try to save Muslim lives – but they do that by standing against the racism and militarism of the Zionist project.
Zionism is not inherently racist, it is simply the government of Israel that happens to have certain deeply flawed and regrettable policies toward non-Jews in the occupied territories. To say that Zionism as a whole is racist is unfair and incorrect. I personally consider myself a Zionist, (meaning I support Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state) but I do not support Israel unconditionally–that is to say, I do not support the occupation or any discriminatory policy of the Israeli government.
The average Israeli is not racist, nor is the average Israeli violent. Israelis are required to serve in the army–it is not their own personal choice. I have wonderful, decent family members and friends who serve or have served in the IDF. They are not racist and do not support the occupation. Please consider what you are implying when you label the entire state of Israel as racist.
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