OF THE JEWS IN MACEDONIA

Jews have lived in the Balkans since Roman times. The synagogue from the ancient town of Stobi, which dates from the third century B.C. is the oldest evidence for the existence of Jewish communities in Macedonia.

 The Decree of Expulsion was issued in 1492 and it involved Jews who lived in Spain and Sicily. They had to make a very difficult decision—to convert or leave the country.

Most of them fled to Portugal, but in 1496 the Decree spread to Portugal as well. By the year of 1498 there were no more Jews in the Iberian Peninsula.

The expelled Jews from Spain who settled throughout the countries of the Ottoman Empire were known as Sephardic Jews (from the word Sefarad which in Hebrew means Spain). Soon there were more Sephardic Jews in the Balkans than the old Jewish population who had lived there for centuries.

 The largest Jewish communities in Macedonia used to be in Bitola (Monastir), Skopje and Shtip.  The Sephardic Jews have preserved their culture, religion, tradition and language called Ladino (Judeo- Spanish).

After the occupation of Macedonia by Fascist Bulgaria in 1941, Macedonian Jews suffered a number of anti-Semitic measures: Jewish people had to wear the yellow star of David, they lived in ghettos, they could go around the town only in certain hours of the day and they were not allowed to have a job or any type of property.

11 March1943 год.22, 25 and 29 March 1943  The Jews from Bitola, Skopje and Shtip were arrested and taken to the Monopol– a tobacco factory in Skopje.  About people were kept in the Monopol for few weeks with almost no food or water.

22, 25 and 29 March1943 The deportation of the Jewish women and children  In March 1943 the Bulgarian fascist authorities transported the Jews from Macedonia in cattle cars.  After travelling for six days in most inhuman conditions they arrived in the death camp Treblinka.  Macedonian Jews were killed in the gas chambers of this death camp.

 After the War, the Macedonian Jewish communities almost completely disappeared.  The synagogues, the schools and the Jewish homes were gone.  From nearly Jews who used to live in Macedonia only about 350 survived the Holocaust.  Most of them moved to Israel.

 Today there are about 225 members of the Jewish Community of the Republic of Macedonia.  They are the descendants of the few Macedonian Jews who survived the Holocaust.

The students from Naum Naumovski Borce -- primary school in Skopje, Macedonia 2013