“Ethnographic Rarity“: The Jews of Montenegro in Socialist Yugoslavia

Abstract

The article provides the first overview of the largely hidden and invisible Jewish presence in Montenegro during the socialist period (1945-1991). The author analyzes the relevant demograp­hic data and the wider political, social and cultural context of Jewish life in Yugoslavia and Montenegro. Several representati­ve individual destinies and life trajectories of people of Jewish origin who settled in Montenegro after the Second World War are discussed. Mixed (intercultural) Jewish-Montenegrin fami­lies became a rule rather than an exception in the second half of the 20th century. The article also sums up the Operation Velvetta from 1948, a secret military mission which allowed the transfer of Spitfire fighter planes from Czechoslovakia through Monte­negro (airfield Kapino Polje near Nikšić) to Israel during its war for independence. The last section discusses the life trajectory of Danilo Kiš (1935-1989), Yugoslav writer of Jewish-Monte­negrin origin, and his elaborations of Jewish identity