World Jewish Congress CEO Robert Singer visited Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina in late May, becoming the first high-level WJC official in at least the past decade to visit the former Yugoslavian countries.
Singer met during his visit with the leadership of the Jewish communities, the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as senior government officials from various ministries and agencies. This trip was prompted by the recent establishment of the World Jewish Congress Regional Office in Zagreb, Croatia.
Singer opened his visit in Belgrade in a meeting with Adv. Robert Szabados, the newly elected president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Serbia and previous head of the Subotica Jewish community, the second largest regional community in Serbia after Belgrade. Szabados updated Singer on recent developments regarding a law passed last year to compensate the Jewish community for property nationalized under the communist government after WWII. The community is now set to receive 25 million euros over the course of the next 25 years as restitution. This legislation, which established a national agency for restitution, also provides individuals with compensation for private property.
Singer also met with the director of the Serbian restitution agency, the foreign minister of Serbia, the political advisor to the prime minister, Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church Irinej, for talks on the various issues facing communities in Serbia, the Middle East and in Europe. 
The Serbian Jewish community today numbers roughly 3,000 members. There is a high rate of assimilation among young community members, and nearly a 90% rate of intermarriage. For the most part, the community does not face anti-Semitism from the citizens of Serbia.
Following his visit to Serbia, Singer travelled to Zagreb where he met with the leadership of the Jewish community and its president Dr. Kraus, who has led the community for the past 25 years.
The community in Zagreb numbers roughly 1,400 members. Jews there currently face numerous challenges including the resurgence of the fascist Ustase movement and its deep ties to the political leadership of Croatia, which has translated to a rise of outspoken anti-Semitism throughout the government and society at large. There are no enforced laws preventing hate-speech and there has been failure to restitute Jewish-owned property which was confiscated during the Holocaust.
The final stop on Singer’s visit to the region was Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Sarajevo, itself, is a city with a more than 80% Muslim population. In Sarjevo, Singer met with Denis Zvizdic, President of the Council of Ministers (prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Jakov Finci, President of the Jewish community, Amer Kaptanovic, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Bilateral Relations.
The Jewish community of BiH has a deep connection to the region and stretches back to the time of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. The Sarajevo Hagadah, the oldest illuminated Jewish text known to exist, resides within the Sarajevo Museum. The document dates to the early 14th century, and the government of BiH points to this as an example of their nation’s history of coexistence between various faiths and ethnic groups. A joint initiative by the World Jewish Congress and the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina to promote its existence would be positively welcomed by the Bosnian government.
The Jewish population of Yugoslavia reached its peak prior to World War II, with a total of 88,000 Jews residing within its borders. Having previously been under rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the north, and the Ottoman Empire in the south, there was a fairly even mix of Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
By war’s end, 75,000 of these individuals had been exterminated by the Nazis and the Independent State of Croatia run by the Ustase regime (a puppet state of Nazi Germany). Much of the remaining population then made Aliyah to British Mandate Palestine or immigrated to the UK and United States.
Following WWII, under leadership of Marshall Tito and the communist/socialist regime, the Jews of Yugoslavia were permitted to practice openly and maintain their unique identity. However, the community was closely monitored and the outside intervention of major international Jewish organizations, such as the World Jewish Congress and JDC, was prohibited out of fear that they would be operating on behalf of western intelligence services.
After the break-up of Yugoslavia, especially in Bosnia and Herzegovina, another large group of Jews made Aliyah, and the already small Yugoslavian Jewish community was further fractured into even smaller communities whose jurisdictional boundaries were drawn along the new international borders.
