Muzej Jevreja Bosne i Hercegovine - Muzej Sarajevo

The Sarajevo Museum is a public institute founded by Sarajevo Canton, Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It now consists of the main building, with depots, and five dependencies: Svrzo’s House, the Despić House, the Jewish Museum, the Brusa Bezistan, and the Museum of Sarajevo 1878-1914.

The Museum’s collections are housed and displayed in its depots and dependencies, where they tell the story of Sarajevo’s past, from the prehistoric settlements at Butmir through the Illyrian and Roman settlements to mediaeval Bosnia, the Ottoman period, the Austro-Hungarian period and modern times. The Museum has several collections of considerable value, among them its archaeology, oriental and ethnography collections, works of art, the Jewish collection, the Austro-Hungarian collection and the Isztvan Meze collection. The Sarajevo Museum has made a major contribution to the city’s culture, education and tourism in the past, and this remains its mission for the future.

The Jewish Museum or Museum of the Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina is housed in the oldest synagogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina, built in 1581.

Many experts are of the opinion that this was the finest exhibition space in the whole of ex-Yugoslavia; and indeed, on entering the Synagogue, one steps into a different, sheltered world, which attests to the centuries-old presence of the Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina country and to the contribution they made to its development in many fields, particularly science and the arts. Particular attention is devoted to the suffering of the Jews during World War II. The Museum is a dependency of the Sarajevo Museum and is located in Velika avilja.

Most of the Jewish collection is located permanently in the Museum of the Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which has been part of the Sarajevo Museum since 1966.

The collection contains objects from metal, textiles, wood, glass, documents, books of artwork, a number of photographs, and a handful of materials preserved from the Ottoman period. The collection dates from the middle of the 19th century until the beginning of the Second World War.

The most attractive parts of the collection are ritual synagogue items, but there are also manuscripts, marital agreements, prayer books, and items linked to prominent scientists and artists of Jewish origin (Kalmy Baruch, Danijel Ozmo, Marcel Schneider, Isak Samokovlija).