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	Thursday, November 20, 2008 22 Cheshvan, 5769

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Centuries-old Jewish holy book reprinted in Bosnia

Updated: 19/May/2006 13:59

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A centuries-old Jewish holy book that survived the Spanish inquisition, the Nazi Holocaust and Bosnia's 1992-1995 war has been reprinted in limited editions, a Sarajevo publisher said Thursday.

The Sarajevo Haggadah was made into 613 copies on hand-made paper that recreates the appearance of the 14th century original by 95 percent, the head of the Rabic publishing house, Goran Mikulic, told Agence France Presse.

The number of copies was chosen to symbolise the number of commandments, or mitzvot, that Jews are obliged to observe.

"The edition was printed in Italy and almost everything was done by hand," Mikulic said.

The original handwritten manuscript on bleached calfskin illuminated in copper and gold is the world's oldest Sephardic Haggadah, containing the text recited by Jews on the Passover holiday.

Jews expelled from Spain

It originated in Barcelona in the early 14th century and was brought to Sarajevo two centuries later by Jews expelled from Spain by the Roman Catholic inquisition.

During WWII, it was hidden from Nazis under floorboards in the house of a Muslim family in Sarajevo, from where it later returned to the National Museum.

During Bosnia's 1992-1995 war, when the museum came under attack from Bosnian Serb forces who kept Sarajevo under a three-and-a-half-year-long siege, the manuscript survived in an underground bank vault.

International experts, financed through a special campaign facilitated by the United Nations and Bosnia's Jewish community, restored the book in 2001.

In December 2002, it went on display at the museum.

The limited edition will sell for 1,150 euros a copy and the publishing house has already received 100 orders from abroad.

Around 400 Jews are living in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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