TOMB OF MOSHE DANON

This grave (Grob Moše Danona) is that of the great Sephardic rabbi of Sarajevo Moshe Danon, who died in Stolac on June 11, 1830 at the age of about 70. A place marking the common history of the Jews and Bosnians of Bosnia-Herzegovina, it was the most important Jewish sanctuary in Europe. The rabbi is placed in a stone sarcophagus reminiscent of a medieval "chest" stećak and surrounded by a stone pavement in the shape of a menorah (seven-branched ritual candlestick). A highly respected figure, Moshe Danon was unjustly imprisoned in 1829 in connection with the 1820 murder case of a Jewish convert to Islam. The rabbi was freed by a mob of Sarajevo Muslims who were angry at the very unpopular governor Ruždi Pasha who had made the decision. In accordance with a pledge he had made during his captivity, Moshe Danon set out on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but he died on the way while in Stolac. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried there, in a property that had been kept by the same Bosnian family for two centuries. The site - which also contains two graves of Austro-Hungarian soldiers - became a shrine. It was visited every year in early July during a pilgrimage organized by the Sephardic community of Sarajevo. This tradition ended during the Second World War with the Shoah. But the tomb continues to be honored by Bosnian and foreign Jews as well as by Bosnians (mainly Sufis).