Marking the Day of Mosques, Muslim youth in the northeastern town of Tuzla cleaned up the local Jewish cemetery on Sunday, ‘Jewish Heritage Europe’ cited a local news portal.
According to ‘Tuzlanski.ba,’ young members of the local jamaats (praying communities), led by their Imams, took to cleaning the Jewish cemetery after their noon prayer.
The cemetery, which covers 2,760 square metres, was established end of the 19th century and was last year declared one of Bosnia’s national monuments. It is one of three such cemeteries in the country.
Some of the graves there show dates ranging from 1868 to 2017, which means that it is still active, although very few Jews live in the city, according to the Institute for the Protection and Use of the Cultural, Historical and Natural Heritage of Tuzla Canton.
The Institute determined two years ago that the cemetery is covered by vegetation and that some of the gravestones were in danger of falling over.
“Tombstones are hardly visible due to the fact that the cemetery is not maintained, so it became overgrown with grass. With the moving of the soil, the tombstones are tilted,” the inspection said.
The Institute at the time expressed hope that the new status of the cemetery, as one of Bosnia’s protected national monuments, will “serve as an additional motive and obligation to implement measures of protection and prevent the further decline of this valuable monument complex, one of the examples of coexistence and multiculturalism in Tuzla and Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
