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Having survived the Holocaust, the Jewish community in a Serbian town faces danger.

Having survived the Holocaust, the Jewish community in a Serbian town faces danger.

inside the courtyard. At the beginning of the 20th century, the synagogue was built and was able to accommodate up to 950 congregants. However, like the city and Serbia as a whole, the building had obviously seen better days.

The shrinking Jewish community

In the final days before the war, a family pitches a tent outside and asks passing passersby for help. Before World War II, about 60,000 people lived in New Garden, of whom 4,300 were Jewish - about 7% of the total population. They were wealthy merchants, lawyers, doctors and professors. Their wealth was reflected in the city's opulent synagogue, built between 1906 and 1909 by Hungarian Jewish architect Lipot Baumhorn, whose work incorporated Art Nouveau elements.

Today, however, this prominent structure serves''s dwindling community of Jews, which, like others from the Holocaust and further stratification during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, fears for its future, and many of its members are leaving abroad in search of better economic opportunity.

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Only about 640 Jews remain in Novi Sad; others are seeking their future in Israel or in countries offering more economic opportunity.

Lack of congregants and observance

"We use our synagogue only on Yom Kippur," said Novi Sad local Ladislav Traer, deputy president of the Union of Jewish Communities of Serbia. "On Shabbat we gather six to ten people, sometimes 15, but less than half are men, so we can't put together a minyan,'' - said''Traer, referring to a Jewish prayer quorum of 10 men. He spent eight years in Israel and served in the Israeli Defense Forces.

"Even in Belgrade, which is much larger, the rabbi doesn't always manage to get a minyan together. And no one observes kashrut. You can't buy kashrut meat.".

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