More on the Sarajevo Haggadah
Re: "Sarajevo Hagaddah reprint debuts" (April 25), your readers will be interested to learn that more than 50 years ago, Dervish and Sesvet Korkut, a Muslim couple living in Nazi occupied Sarajevo, in Yugoslavia, risked their own lives to hide several Jews in their home. The favor was returned when their daughter, Lamija Jaha, and her husband, Vikaznim, were among the Muslim refugees from the war-torn Yugoslav province of Kosovo who were offered asylum by the State of Israel.
More on the Sarajevo Haggadah
Re: "Sarajevo Hagaddah reprint debuts" (April 25), your readers will be interested to learn that more than 50 years ago, Dervish and Sesvet Korkut, a Muslim couple living in Nazi occupied Sarajevo, in Yugoslavia, risked their own lives to hide several Jews in their home. The favor was returned when their daughter, Lamija Jaha, and her husband, Vikaznim, were among the Muslim refugees from the war-torn Yugoslav province of Kosovo who were offered asylum by the State of Israel.
Lamija Jaha and her husband were hosted in Israel by the children of one of the Jews whose lives were saved by Lamija’s parents during World War II, a most fitting development that both families attribute to the hand of divine providence.
Before and during World War II, Dervish Korkut was a highly respected museum curator in Sarajevo. He was instrumental in saving for posterity the Sarajevo Haggadah, a famous 14th-century manuscript and subject of a special "Nightline" documentary. He was keenly aware of the important contributions that the Jews made to the country’s culture and art, and publicly defended them against anti-Semitic attacks by the Nazi collaborators of that era.
Recently, Boys Town Jerusalem paid tribute to the courage of Mrs. Jaha’s parents by posthumously giving them the Jan Zwartendijk Humanitarian Award. Elyakim Rubenstein, who was then Israel’s attorney-general, presented the award and praised Boys Town Jerusalem for instilling in future generations the fundamental humanitarian instincts that prompted Mrs. Jaha’s parents to act so heroically. He said that such teachings are "particularly important in an age which finds so many Jews and non-Jews alike in search of basic moral values."
In recognition of these heroic acts, Mr. and Mrs. Korkut were officially recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Institute in Jerusalem as being among the "righteous among the nations."
Raphael Beneroya,
Chairman, Boys Town Jerusalem, Foundation of America‘Extraordinary moment’
How amazing and awesome it was to be part of history and witness Pope Benedict XVI’s Passover greeting to Rabbi Arthur Schneier at the Park East Synagogue on the evening before Passover.
Pope Benedict was forced to join the Hitler Youth and subsequently deserted from the German army. After being held as a prisoner of war for a brief time by the Allies in 1945, he went on to study theology and become a priest. The rabbi, who fled to Budapest from Vienna, survived the Holocaust in the Budapest ghetto and came to America in 1947. Rabbi Schneier has devoted his life to world understanding and tolerance.
It was an event to remember and so touching when the rabbi presented the pope with a seder plate and the pope presented the rabbi with a replica of a medieval Jewish manuscript from the Vatican library.
Given the background of these two men, one has to feel good about this extraordinary moment in our history.
Grace Jacobs,
Cliffside ParkAbbas ‘inexplicably’ welcomed
Is it possible that America’s leaders are unaware of the Palestinian Authority’s politics of deception? Yet, inexplicably, Mahmoud Abbas was welcomed at the White House last Thursday. Why is this arch-terrorist a guest in America? What is his purpose in coming to this country? Will he ask for and get more U.S. taxpayer dollars to support his program, leading to the dismemberment of Israel? Many Palestinian facilities built with U.S. aid have been named after PA "shahids" or "martyrs," thereby immortalizing the terrorists and encouraging children to become homicide killers.
Jack Albalah, Fair Lawn