Ivan Ceresnjes | Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs

Author: Ivan Ceresnjes

Ivan Ceresnjes was the head of the Jewish community of Bosnia-Herzegovina until his emigration to Israel in 1996, and a vice-chairman of the Yugoslav Federation of Jewish Communities. During the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina he organized rescue efforts to evacuate Jews and non-Jews and also organized nonsectarian humanitarian relief for citizens of the besieged city and other parts of the country. An architect by profession, he presently is employed by the Center for Jewish Art of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Destruction of the Memory of Jewish Presence in Eastern Europe; A Case Study: Former Yugoslavia

November 16, 2008 | Ivan Ceresnjes

The memory of the large pre-war Jewish presence in Eastern Europe is increasingly being destroyed. Part of this process is intentional; part is because of neglect of Jewish sites, monuments, and memorials.

Bosnian Jewry: A Small Community Meets a Unique Challenge During the 1990s War

September 16, 2007 | Ivan Ceresnjes

During wars, Jewish communities often become scapegoats and victims of the combatants. In the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s, the opposite happened. The Jewish community in the country’s capital Sarajevo extended humanitarian services indiscriminately to people of all religions and was respected by the three warring parties, Muslims, Orthodox Serbs, and Roman Catholic Croats. At present, six Jewish communities remain in Bosnia-Herzegovina with a total of a thousand members.