Dear friend, Welcome to our humble home of Bitola. Today, I have the pleasure to be the voice of a growing force in international relations – the civil society organizations.

Pelister, Jan 23rd 2016Maria Geras Dochovska

The organization I represent at this event is a local one, focused on sustainable urban development. Its name is ARHAM which is short for ARCHITECTURE AND AMBIANCE.

At the beginning of 2015, ARHAM successfully restarted an old initiative of Bitola’s to revitalize the remarkable Jewish cemetery.

This initiative was accepted by the Municipality of Bitola, the ambassador of Israel H.E. Dan Oryan, the Jewish community of the Republic of Macedonia, the Holocaust Fund of Macedonia and recently, by the Ministry of Culture.

It developed into a project program titled MEMORIAL PARK OF THE JEWS FROM MONASTIR/BITOLA.

MEMORIAL PARK OF THE JEWS FROM MONASTIR/BITOLA

In the past 6 months we have received intensive support and shows of interest for partnership from many national and international organizations such as the Bar Ilan University, which is one of the leading universities of Israel, IKOMOS, our own St.Kliment Ohridski University, as well as promoters of Sephardic culture and eminent world class artists.

You may wish to know what is so special about this cemetery to warrant your attention. Following World War Two Europe was filled with old and abandoned Jewish cemeteries…

The special significance of our initiative is not a result of the fact that it is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Balkans (dated 1497), nor that it is the largest one remaining in its entirety (approx. 4.3 ha), neither the fact that after the extermination of 3351 people, or 793 Jewish families, not a single Jew remained in this city to take care of the final resting place of their ancestors.

What makes this project special is our belief that the five centuries long history of the Jewish community in Monastir/Bitola significantly contributed to the creation of the cosmopolitan spirit of this city in which a culture of hospitality and a deep respect for diversity were nurtured.

In a time when notions such as globalization, multi-culture and social inclusion were still in their infancy, Bitola was a city that bloomed and progressed because of its many different cultures and faiths, including the Sephardic one, which all came together to create a highly functional atmosphere of true coexistence and mutual respect.

This spirit was not destroyed by the new borders of the Balkans imposed with the

1913 treaty of Bucharest (which transformed Bitola into a border city for the first time

in the 23 centuries of its existence),

nor the incessant shelling during the First World War.

It only started to fade in earnest when the city lost its Jewish community, when communistic idealism raised barriers to the South, East, and West and the number of people that belonged to other ethos’s, cultures and religions became marginal. It was then that Bitola became a provincial place in a spiritual sense..

But the tombstones of the Jewish cemetery still hold the inscriptions which tell stories of people that lived here, and of how they lived. Those memories are now covered by dirt and overgrowth. Our goal is to rediscover them and bring them back to light.

But the tombstones of the Jewish cemetery still hold the inscriptions which tell stories of people that lived here, and of how they lived. Those memories are now covered by dirt and overgrowth. Our goal is to rediscover them and bring them back to light.

That is why we are initiating an international action in which we include experts,artists and young volunteers from the country and abroad, so that we can together revitalize this space which has enormous historical and cultural potential.

Let us work together to transform it into a memorial park, where esthetics, creativity and education can be implemented using the most modern technological solutions to create a unique place both culture and nature wise.

The Memorial Park of the Jews from Bitola will be the meeting point of the remembrance of times past and our views towards the future. This action can only succeed if an international platform is created to provide each participant a sense of belonging to what the People of Bitola recognize as the city’s cosmopolitan spirit.

Thank you for your attention and looking forward for your response,

Maria Geras Dochovska, Project coordinator