SYMPOSIUM ON HISTORY OF JEWS IN CROATIA BEGINS IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, Dec 4 (Hina) - A three-day symposium "Two Centuries of History and Culture of Jews in Zagreb and Croatia," began on Wednesday in Zagreb. The symposium was organized by the Jewish Community on the occasion of marking the 190th anniversary of founding the Community in Zagreb. The Jewish Community's head Ognjen Kraus said that the history of Jews in Zagreb and Croatia had not been yet written in books, and added that the recording of the Jewish history in this country was something what the current generation owes to the past generations and is obliged to do to future generations of Jews in Croatia. Kraus said that 48 participants were attending the symposium, most of whom Croatia's Jewish communities members and there were also several Croatian and Jewish scholars. The history of the Jewish Community in Zagreb was the subject at the symposium on Wednesday morning. Ivo Goldstein spoke of the Community from its establishment in 1806 to 1941, whereas Slavko Goldstein spoke of the history of the Community from 1941 to the present day. Slavko Goldstein recalled that at the beginning of the crucial 1941 there had been 10,740 registered members of the Community, but at the end of World War Second only 2,300 members remained who began to revive the Zagreb Jewish Community activities following the suffering during the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Times of decision for our Community were between 1948 and 1952 when almost a half of our members departed to Israel. About 1,300 members remained in Zagreb, and this is the number of the current members of the Jewish Community in Zagreb, Goldstein said. According to Goldstein, 'the Jewish Community in Croatia today is not discriminated against other population of Croatia,' but he warned that it was faced with two big illogical things: 'unexpected rehabilitation of the NDH and vandal destruction of monuments to the victims of WW II." Mihael Sobolevski spoke of the plight of the Jewish Community from 1941 to 1945, while Petar Strcic spoke of the loot of Jewish gold in the NDH. The fist day of the symposium also discussed the beginning and development of Zionism in southern Slavic areas, Jewish intellectuals in Croatia at the beginning of the 20th century and the central European identity of Jews in Croatia. (hina) mm mš 042029 MET dec 96