The contribution of Jewish health professionals to the development of health care in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Jews first came to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 16th century after having been exiled from Spain. They were successful in several trades in their new surroundings. Many Jewish families gave more than one doctor or pharmacist. Dr Goldberger and his son Dr Aleksandar Goldberger were skilled surgeons; Dr Isak Samokovlija's daughter Rikica was a paediatrician and a university professor; Dr Sigmund Kaunitz and his sons Oskar and Pavle, conducted the autopsy on the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne, and his wife Sophie. Jews have traditionally regarded health culture as an important issue; their religion includes medical and other precepts for healthy living, from personal and household hygiene to ritual ablutions and bathing. They were the first to make medicinal preparations and to sell them in their shops, known as attar shops. The Museum of Sarajevo now treasures the inventory of one such centuries-old attar shop, belonging to the Papo family. Thanks to their medical skills, Jews even treated the Pashas of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dr Nisim zak treated Sijavos Pasha, and Dr Isak Salom was Omer Pasha Latas's physician. Bosnia and Herzegovina owes a lot to the knowledge and dedication of health-care workers of the Jewish origin. Sarajevo, Mostar, Zenica, Foca, and Trebinje have named streets after these humanists, who founded many institutions, and started new disciplines to address the burning health issues in B&H, and a number of whom laid down their lives to defend B&H.
University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of social medicine and history of medicine, Cekalusa 90, 71000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BH). ajnijaomanic@hotmail.com.
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