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Museum announces profits from book on medieval Haggadah will go to Palestine
The rare manuscript, authored in the 14th Century, is on display in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
August 4, 2025 13:47
The rare manuscript, authored in the 14th Century, is on display in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina
August 4, 2025 13:47The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina has announced that the profits from the sale of a new book about the Sarajevo Haggadah, a passover service manuscript authored in the 14th Century, will be donated to pro-Palestinian charities.
The Sephardic haggadah, which is believed to have been written in northern Spain in around 1350 CE, has been owned by the museum since 1894.
Historians believe that it was smuggled out of Spain by members of the Jewish community expelled from the country in the 1490s. It then resurfaced in Italy briefly before being sold to the museum.
During the Second World War, then-chief librarian Derviš Korkut hid it from the Nazi occupation, concealing it in a mosque in the town of Bjelasnica.
It also survived the Bosnian War in 1992 and the flooding of the museums lower floors, reportedly being found in the building’s safe.
The museum is now set to publish a book about the document, titled Sarajevo Haggadah, which will chronicle its history from its evacuation in Spain up to the modern day.
However, it has drawn criticism for saying it will donate all proceeds of the book, as well as ticket sales to view the Haggadah, to pro-Palestinian causes.
On its website, it said that the money would “provide support to the people of Palestine who suffer systematic, calculated and cold-blooded terror, directly by the state of Israel, and indirectly by all those who support and/or justify it in its shameless actions”.
The statement, accompanied by a large image of a Palestinian flag, added: “The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina announces the decision to donate the income from the sale of the publication Sarajevo Haggadah – Art and History, as well as the income from tickets to see the Sarajevo Haggadah, for helping Palestine.
"At a time when we cannot justify ourselves with a lack of information, every averting our eyes, every feigned neutrality in the face of everyday examples of killing, starvation and forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, primarily women and children, is an expression of acceptance and complicity in the genocide that we are all witnessing in real time.
“As an institution that deals with the protection of cultural-historical and natural heritage, we are obliged to warn that in the shadow of this tragedy, the targeted erasure of the cultural and religious identity, primarily of the Muslims and Christians of Palestine, is taking place, through the demolition, taking over or making it impossible to use religious buildings and historical locations, as well as land and cultivated areas, which should be common, universal and protected heritage of civilisation.”
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