Old Jewish Cemetery, Sarajevo

Cemetery The OId Jewish Cemetery lies on Mount Trebevic , in the Kovačići-Debelo Brdo area, in the south-western part of Sarajevo , Bosnia.¹ It is the second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe after Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery .² It was in use from the beginning of the 16th or 17th century until 1966.³ Established by Sephardic Jews , it also became the burial ground for Ashkenazi Jews after they arrived in Sarajevo with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 19th century. It contains more than 3850 tombstones and covers an area of 31160 square meters. It has four monuments dedicated to the victims of fascism : a Sephardi one designed by Jahiel Finci and erected in 1952, two Ashkenazi ones, and one dedicated to the victims of Ustasha militants. The Jewish Cemetery was on the front line during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina , and was used as an artillery position by Bosnian Serbs . It was thus severely damaged by bullets and fire caused by explosions. It was also heavily mined but was completely cleared in 1996. Notable people buried in the cemetery include Rabbi Samuel Baruh (first rabbi of Sarajevo from 1630 to 1650; his grave is believed to be the oldest in the cemetery), Rabbi Isak Pardo (rabbi from 1781 to 1810), Rabbi Avraham Abinun (Grand Rabbi from 1856 to 1858), Laura Levi Papo LaBohoreta (writer of the early 20th century), and Isak Samokovlija .⁴