Canadian soldier initiates restoration of Bosnian cemetery
http://www.cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=11972By JANICE ARNOLD
Staff Reporter
For Capt. Gabriel Granatstein, it’s mission accomplished – or almost.
Granatstein is the young Canadian Jewish soldier who discovered a derelict Jewish cemetery in a Muslim village in Bosnia while serving with a peacekeeping mission this past year.
Granatstein raised 2,500 euros, or about $3,600 (Cdn), mainly from family and friends back in Montreal, to help restore the Beth Olam cemetery in Jezero-Privilica, about 15 minutes from Bihac in the northwest region of the country.
That amount was matched by the municipality of about 30,000 people, a huge sum in a place where the average monthly wage is $250 and it’s still a struggle to provide electrical power because the infrastructure destroyed during the war has not been fully rebuilt, Granatstein said.
Work on the cemetery was just beginning when he left Bosnia at the end of March and the first phase is now complete.
The 200-year-old cemetery was overgrown and filled with garbage when Granatstein, 26, came upon it during his regular patrols of the mountainous region.
All that was left were 20 or 30 half-toppled, weather-beaten monuments and a crumbling concrete wall on one side. The only clue that this was a Jewish cemetery was the Hebrew inscriptions faintly visible on some markers.
No Jews live in the vicinity today.
The cemetery has now been cleaned up: an entranceway very similar to the one it once had has been installed, and the foundations have been poured for a new wall.
The only known extant photograph of the cemetery when it was in good condition, obtained through a researcher in Israel, served as a guide to reconstructing the entranceway, which consists of a concrete arch with the name Beth Olam carved out on it and wrought-iron gates.
The local authorities have pledged to keep up the cemetery indefinitely.
On June 20, Granatstein will be the guest speaker at an event organized by the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre (MHMC). Part of the proceeds from the fundraiser will go to the cemetery project.
Granatstein wants to see the fence completed and, if the money allows, some of the monuments restored. He plans to deliver the cheque personally to Bosnian officials during a private trip back to the country in August.
The Canadian mission in Bosnia has now been wound up after 12 years.
Granatstein credits a local Muslim leader, Salko Rekanovic, with bringing the cemetery’s sorry state to the attention of the foreign peacekeepers. For several years, he had been asking for help, but with no success.
Then he met Granatstein, the only Jewish member of the 11-member Canadian contingent that arrived last September, and finally found a sympathetic ear. Granatstein’s superiors, Maj. Josip Zunic and Capt. James Houlihan, gave their full support and intervened with Bihac’s Harvard University-educated mayor Hamdija Lipovaca, who immediately thought the project was a good idea.
“It’s a miracle this project was a priority at all,” Granatstein said, given the fact the area has so many other pressing needs.
“The reason, I think, is that the Bosnians are very protective of their culture and history, and cemeteries, regardless of religion, are part of that. Considering that the war was fought over religion, I think that is pretty incredible.”
For Granatstein, this project is about more than getting an abandoned cemetery back to a decent state.
“The message is that Muslims and Jews can get along. It shows people here that not all Muslims are fundamentalists, and people there that the stereotypes of Jews are not true,” he said.
Granatstein was very conscious of being a Jew in this troubled Muslim corner of the world when he arrived. His job was to be out in the field getting to know people and their concerns.
At first, he was careful not to “advertise” his religion, but he soon realized a great deal of goodwill existed, and as the project gained publicity “people stopped me on my patrols and said, ‘Hey, you’re the Jewish guy working on the cemetery.’”
He knew he was representing what a Jew, as well as a Canadian, was to these people.
“I was the first Jew 90 per cent of them had ever met and likely ever will meet. I think I gave a good impression of our faith.”
The Bosnian Jewish community, which numbered about 14,000 before World War II, was almost wiped out by 1941 through deportations and killings carried out under the pro-Nazi Croatian Ustace government, with – according to some sources – the collaboration of local Muslims.
In 1991, at the start of the Yugoslav civil war, most of the remaining Bosnian Jews were airlifted by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to Israel.
An article in The CJN in February about the project attracted wide media attention in Bosnia and beyond, said Granatstein. An official ceremony with the mayor launching the reconstruction was held, which was covered by newspapers, television and radio.
Granatstein, a reservist with the 712 Communication Squadron, received a commendation from the Canadian Armed Forces and a promotion from lieutenant to captain for his work on the cemetery and for another project to collect school supplies in Canada for Bosnian children.
He managed to amass 40 boxes of supplies from his former high school, Lower Canada College, as well as Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom’s Torah School and a cadet squadron in Ottawa.
Making the connection between Jewish and Muslim kids was particularly gratifying for Granatstein. The temple students sent letters with the packages that were enthusiastically received by their Bosnian counterparts, he said.
Granatstein is currently working at the army’s Montreal headquarters at Longue-Pointe but plans to return to law school at the Université de Montréal in the fall. Bosnia was his first overseas mission since joining the reserves four years ago.
Since returning, he has had a few requests to speak in the community, and on a recent Shabbat morning, he spoke from the pulpit at Shaare Zion Congregation.
“When I look back, I almost can’t believe I was where I was, doing what I was doing. It was a big responsibility and privilege, helping people, representing my country and my faith. I was doing exactly what I wanted to do.”
Executive director Barry Rishikof said the MHMC is pleased to promote Granatstein’s work, and regards it as an important act of memorial. Tickets are $180 each. Call 345-2605.
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