A prominent member of the Jewish community of Bosnia and Herzegovina and diplomat prof. David (Aron) Kamhi passed away Friday at the age of 85.

Kamhi was born on October 8, 1936, in Sarajevo. After graduating from the First Gymnasium, the High School of Music and the Music Academy in Sarajevo, he spent several years at the Moscow State Conservatory “P. I. Tchaikovsky ”, and at the Music Academy “Santa Cecilia” in Rome.

From 1993 to 1995 he was a member of the Council of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Foreign Affairs, and an advisor at the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Madrid from 1995 to 1996.

He gave numerous concerts in BiH and Europe. He was a professor of violin, viola and methodology at the Music Academy of the University of Sarajevo, and for twenty years the president of the Association of Musical Artists of BiH.

“Professor Kamhi was passionate about researching the culture and traditions of Bosnian Jews, and his research into the Judeo-Spanish language of the Bosnian Sephardim certainly occupies a special place,” the BiH Jewish Community said in a statement.