U našem gradu, u zgradi stare sefardske sinagoge u Sarajevu, Ulica Mula Mustafe Bašeskije broj 38, veoma aktivno djeluje likovna galerija "Novi hram", koja radi u okviru Jevrejskog kulturno-prosvjetnog i humanitarnog društva »La Benevolencija«. Veoma aktivno, galerija je saradjivala sa drugim nacionalnim kulturnim društvima, s nekoliko ambasada u našoj zemlji i s odredjenim brojem galerija koje dj
eluju van našeg grada i države, organizujući zajedničke izložbe ili ustupajući galerijski prostor za prezentaciju stvaralaštava drugih društava ili umjetnika iz drugih država, s ciljem da se predstave veoma brojnoj likovnoj publici u našem gradu. Our town is a home to the very active Art Gallery Novi Hram, which is situated in the building of the old Sephardic synagogue, in Mula Mustafe Baseskije Street 38, and operated by the Jewish cultural and educational society and charity La Benevolencija. Prior to the recent war in BiH, the Gallery had been operated by the Sarajevo Association of Visual Artists, but as it had stopped working the Gallery has been operated by La Benevolencija since 1997. The Gallery has been working actively for a decade already, organizing events that depict our aspirations and desire to lead a life enriched with cultural events, related to art in the first place, and endeavoring to play a significant role in and contribute to, the cultural milieu of our town. Since there are quite enough galleries in our town which aim to present to the art enthusiasts the already noted and established artists, painters and sculptors, the chairmanship of La Benevolencija has decided to offer some free exhibition space in Novi Hram Gallery to young, emerging artists, who otherwise don’t have an opportunity due to whatsoever reasons to present their work in far larger and far more expensive galleries. During the most important Jewish holidays the exhibition space of the gallery is used by the Jewish Community Sarajevo and La Benevolencija, who organize thematic exhibitions relating to the life of the Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, Sarajevo. One of those exhibitions have presented to the audience in Sarajevo documents on creation and journey of Sarajevo Hagaddah, the master piece of Sephardic Jewish culture in this part of the world. On the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the existence of the Ashkenazic synagogue in Sarajevo, we hosted an exhibition of documents, plans and photographs depicting the synagogue’s history, including the architectural project, register books, memos, statutes from the Austro-Hungarian rule, prayer books, photo albums and photos of prominent Ashkenazic rabbis, chairman of the Ashkenazic Jewish community, as well as other people who have in different ways left their mark on the history of the synagogue. After this, we had held a very successful exhibition where art enthusiasts were able to see a large and varied selection of visual art and sculpture by Jewish artists from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Gallery events were completed with a successful exhibition on life of Jews in Vienna in earlier times and partly today. Ambitiously named Jewish Vienna, this exhibition was one of the most visited in Novi Hram Gallery, which indicates our visitors’ curiosity, who are eager and willing to learn about different customs and way of life. The Gallery has been actively working together with other national cultural associations, a few embassies in our country as well as a certain number of galleries outside our town and country, and organizing joint exhibitions or offering its exhibition space for presentation of work of other associations or artists from other countries. It is important to note that during the ten years of the post-war period the gallery hosted 165 diverse exhibitions that were visited by more than 36,000 people, thus justifying its existence as well as its goal to enable young, emerging artists to get their work before a broader audience.
