Att entio n
:AI A
A kindergarten cop in training.
last Yugoslays. Until the
first shells began falling.
_ Since then, Jews in Serbia,
-) Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina have rallied
around their respective new
I republics. The majority say
they want to stay although
most of those in war zones
have left, primarily for Isra-
el. Those remaining claim
they have felt little anti-
Semitism and an estimated
75 percent are intermarried
with Catholic, Orthodox or
Moslems.
Many of the 2,000-plus
Jews in Serbia for instance,
have always voiced a special
kinship to their fellow coun-
trymen and Serbia's pre-war
record is not, unlike
Croatia's, peppered with an-
ti-Semitism.
The newly formed, post-
communist republic of
Croatia has gone through
two free elections since
1990. Franjo Tudjman's
center-right Croatian Demo-
cratic Union scored signifi-
cantly and kept voter sup-
port for rightist parties to a
minimum. That may be be-
cause his own party is seen
A Jewish artisan puts the finishing touches on the ark In the
Zagreb Jewish community's small synagogue before Its
reopening last month.
by some as more right than
center.
On the streets of Zagreb,
it is possible to find note-
books and placemats with
Ante Pavelic's visage peer-
ing out. Visitors are told,
"Pavelic was an anti-
communist, he headed the
only independent Croatian
state, he was forced to act
between Mussolini and
Hitler and he hated Serbs."
These facts, held in isola-
tion, are not altogether neg-
ative attributes for some
Security was tight at the opening.
Croatians.
It is, surely, a crude dis-
tortion of history, a method
community, leadership en-
sadly being used all over
dorses the Tudj man regime.
East-Central Europe: the
One member, who asked not
enemy of my enemy must
to be identified, said, "One
surely have had some excel-
could say we are dancing too
lent qualities. Yet when this
closely with this govern-
story is recounted to Jews in
ment, but I'm not sure we
Zagreb, most shrug. This is
actually have a choice. The
not the problem today, they
same dance is being done in
say. This is fringe and will
Belgrade."
remain so.
For its part, the Croatian
Jews here are among the
government gets to show
city's most respected busi-
the world how well it treats
nessmen and intellectuals.
its minorities; at least this
There have been few Jewish
one, while ethnic Serbs are
families who have left since
another matter. The Zagreb
the fighting began, and the
Jewish community, in turn,
al
Dr. Ognjen Krause (left), president of the Zagreb JCC, and Dr.
Joseph Burg at the reopening of the center on Sept. 22.
needs support. "This is a
state in the making," said
Miki Gelb, a successful
businessman. "It will be an-
other five or 10 years before
this country is built. And as
Jews, we want to help."
With low interest loans
and grants from the gov-
ernment, the new Jewish
community center is a four-
story showplace that rivals
any in Europe. A kindergar-
ten attended by 18 children
is in the basement while the
top floor holds a youth club
where 40-50 teen-agers con-
gregate. In between stand a
synagogue, movie theater,
library and lounge.
Funds still come from the
American Joint Distribution
Committee. And because of
the first bomb, the building
has bulletproof glass along
with its own security force.
An attack on Croatian Jews
would deeply embarrass the
government, and Zagreb
Jews have no intention of
being anyone's target.
On opening night of the
new center, the war in
CENTER / page 114