The Director of the Archives of Vojvodina, Dr. Nebojša Kuzmanović, visited Jerusalem from the 18th to the 21st of November 2019 where he took part in several events and meetings.
During the delegation‘s stay, the Director of the Archives of Vojvodina, Dr. Nebojša Kuzmanović, attended a round table conference about Serbian – Israeli relations organized by the Center for Counter-Terrorism (Jerusalem), the Institute for National and International Security (Belgrade), the Center for Social Stability (Novi Sad) and the Archives of Vojvodina (Novi Sad), which included talks about the persecution of Serbs and Jews during the Second World War.
On the second day of the visit, at the ONO College, the most prestigious private university in Israel, a Serbian-Jewish Center ”Saint Sava and Judah Alkalai” was opened where people will be able to study, among other thing, the Serbian language and culture as well as the history of Jews in Serbia. On the same day, the first Serbian language class was held whereby Serbian actors Ana Sofrenović and Vjera Mujović, as well as other prominent artists from Serbia, took part in the activities.
The President of Matica Srpska Dr. Dragan Stanić, together with Tova Hartman, Dean at ONO College, marked the start of the first Serbian-Jewish Center in Israel by cuting the ribbon. During this occasion, at the newly opened center, a commemorative plaque was placed in honor of the first pilgrimage of Saint Sava to the Holy Land during the 800-year anniversary since the Serbian Orthodox Church obtained its autocephaly. Dr. Darko Tanasković, while speaking about the connection between our two people, noted the importance of the Serbian-Jewish Center in Belgrade which will, via the opening of this center in Israel, continue the tradition of furthering the relations between Serbia and Israel. In the same sense, Dr. Milo Lompar spoke about the rich history of the Serbian tradition, culture and spirituality. Dan Orian, a supervisor to the Israeli ambassadors in the Balkans, while expressing his hopes that this is only the beginning of cooperation between the research institutions, looked back at the period during the Holocaust noting that it is necessary to study the topic more intensely.
The Director of the Archives of Vojvodina, Dr. Nebojša Kuzmanović, together with other members of the Serbian delegation, also attended the official reception by the Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, with whom he exchanged gifts.
At the meeting with the Director of the memorial center for Jewish victims of the Holocaust in Israel ”Yad Vashem”, the General Secretary of the Assembly of the AP of Vojvodina Nikola Banjac, Director of Matica Srpska Dr. Dragan Stanić and the Director of the Archives of Vojvodina Dr. Nebojša Kuzmanović, spoke about signing an agreement of cooperation in the sense of establishing cultural-academic cooperation between the two countries.
The Serbian delegation, among other important institutions, visited the National Library of Israel, while the visit itself, which was organized with the goal of strengthening the relations between the two countries and enabling academic cooperation, obtained the characteristics of a pilgrimage.
