WE ARE HERE

Jewish Life in Central and Eastern Europe 1985 - 2000.
Photographs by Edward Serotta.

No one would argue that distraction of the magnificant Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe in the Second World War made a void in the heart of Europe itself.

Edward Serotta

Director of the Center for Study and Documentation of Central Europe (CENTROPA) Edward Serotta indefatigably fixates a present-day life of Jewish communities in the countries of the former "Socialist Camp". He works not only as a historian and genealogist, but also as a remarkable photo-artist.

The countries of Central Europe were a home for a large part of the Jewish people, but the chain of generations was broken off by the Holocaust and the Jewish life there, as it seemed recently, was destroyed forever. However, during the last several years, one can see more and more clearly that the Jews not were but still are the integral part of the Central Europe. In spite of the Holocaust and the following decades of Socialism in the East European countries, the time was not "out of its joints" and the tradition was not stopped. Collapse of the "Iron Curtain" and of the Communist regimes conditioned the revival of the Jewish communities there.

The return of the Jewish life in Eastern Europe marks first and foremost a celebration of the resilience of the Jewish spirit. It has been helped by the intensive cultural, educational, and of course generous financial assistance provided by international Jewish institutions.

Without the Jewish "spark", there would have been no "miracle" of renewed Jewish life, but without a democratic flame there would be no hospitable environment at all. The Jews became active participants in the movement of the countries of Central Europe towards democracy, even in case when this movement took place in the flame of military conflicts. The best example had been shown by the Jews of Sarajevo who through their own revived social aid association "La Benevolencija" during the military conflict in Bosnia. The workers of this institution struggled to relieve the lives of Serbs, Croats, and Moslems alike in the besieged city by eschewing all ethic hatreds. The Jewish community of Sarajevo in conjunction with the Joint Distribution Committee brought 2300 Sarajevans to safety on eleven rescue convoys - regardless of their ethnicity.

Faces of people depicted by Edward Serotta's photographs glow with symbolic power and existential optimism. It is more than fitting that they should do so. They are people who have chosen voluntary to continue to live in the lands of their forefathers while reasserting their Jewish identity. Their daily lives may not be easy but they are full of dignity and hope.

It would be wrong and unfair to compare these small Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe today with their glorious predecessors before the Shoah. They must be taken such, as they are, often fragile but always determined, not particularly traditional, but always full of trust in their future. Recently no one thought it would happen.

Once again one can repeat as a spell the words from "The Hymn of Jewish Partisans": "Mir zainen do!" - "We are here!"