Dr. Eli Tauber is a prominent figure in the public life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a writer, journalist, lecturer and historian who wants to convey a picture of the life of the Jewish people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, often emphasizing the example of good neighborly relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities during centuries of coexistence in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We spoke with Dr. Tauber on the occasion of his whirlwind guest appearance at the Saray Illuminado Ensemble concert at the Jewish Museum in Melbourne on April 2, 23, when he spoke about the history of the "Sarajevo Haggadah," a famous Jewish painted manuscript that is nearly 700 years old.
In an unknown way, the manuscript reached BiH together with the Spanish Jews - Sephardim, when they were expelled from Spain in the 15th century and found refuge in Bosnia under the Ottoman administration.
It is believed that some Sarajevo merchants brought the Haggadah to Sarajevo in the 17th century as a wedding gift to the Coen family. This is what we know. And there the story of the Haggadah is lost until the moment when an impoverished family member, Josef Coen, sells the book to the National Museum of BiH in Sarajevo in 1894.
Since then, the book "Sarajevo Haggadah" has been a national treasure.
Doctor Tauber is the author of a large number of scientific works and publications, notable exhibitions such as Remembrance of the Holocaust and The Righteous of the Jewish People from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In his research work, he was particularly interested in the phenomenon of rescuing Jews in the Second World War, which he presented in the book "When the neighbors were real human beings".
Zeyneba Hardaga was the first Muslim woman in the world to receive the Medal of the Righteous of Israel's Yad Vashem Museum for rescuing Jews. When asked how a Muslim woman saved Jews, she said, "I didn't save the Jews, I saved the neighbors."
There are good people in times of evil. They really exist. We must preserve the truth about these people and tell those stories, because if we don't tell them, then we lose part of the history of our country.
With his wife Mirjam, he wrote the Bosnian-Sephardic cook, which actually represents a combination of Mediterranean cuisine and Bosnian dishes.
Passover is the most important Jewish holiday. It has been marked for thousands of years when believers identify themselves with people who were in slavery.
We associate this holiday with both history and religion because Pesach actually marks the exit of the Jews from Egyptian slavery, where they were imprisoned for several hundred years. What is also important is receiving God's 10 commandments, by accepting that the Jews become a people.
