BOOK ON JEWS IN CROATIA PRESENTED IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, March 10 (Hina) - The second issue of the book "@idovi u Hrvatskoj - `idovske zajednice ('Jews in Croatia- Jewish Communities' in an unofficial translation) by the author Melita Svob was presented in Zagreb on 9 March.#L# The two volumes of the 1140-page book tackle the history of Jews from the time when first of them arrived in Croatia up to now. The book is published by the research and documentation centre called CENDO within the Jewish Community in Zagreb. This is not a book only about the suffering of Jews but also about the life of Jews who have been here since ancient times and who have contributed to this society, and therefore it would be unfair if they disappear from the area, the author of the book said. She went on to say that in the past there used to be 30 Jewish communities while at the present there were only ten such communities in Croatia. According to the book's list of 20,000 Jews who are no longer in Croatia, 15,000 are victims and the rest are those who have moved into other countries for different reasons. At the presentation of the book, the author said that every victim had his or her name and this was something which should be investigated. "Now the third generation comes, it seeks its roots and comes back , and this is something which encourages us," she said. Ognjen Caldarevic described the book as a very valuable work and an example of research based on cooperation with families from all over the world. Ljubomir Antic said Jews were not only the victims but that they were a part of the energy of the victorious coalaition against Fascism. The head of the US charity "Joint", Yechiel Bar-Chaim, who helped establish the CENDO centre, addressed the event. According historical data, some tombstones show that Jews were present in Benkovac in the 1st century, in Solin the third century. In the Middle Ages they had their communties in Split, Dubrovnik, Zadar and Rijeka. All those are coastal towns. In the period before the Second World War, a majority of the local Jewish population lived in Zagreb and Osijek and some other mainland areas. Jews were mainly clerks, bankers, traders and industrialists. It is believed that in 1940, there were some 11,000 Jews in Zagreb, and that they made up four percent of the then population of the city. According to the 2001 census, 576 persons declared themselves as Jews, and 368 of them lived in the Craotian capital. (Hina) ms