Sephardic Jews of Bitola / Monastir
Note that there is another Monastir (Essaouira) in Morocco.
During the Ottoman period, Sephardim are reported to have to come to Bitola via Albania and Salonika.
In 1850, the International society for the evangelization of the Jews reported there were 5,000 Jews living in Monastir. The figure looks a bit high. Monastir was a mainly Turkish city, and a military headquarters.
What is now Northern Macedonia was conquered by Serbia during the Balkan Wars. Jews faced discrimination and there was significant emigration. The remaining Jews of Bitola were almost all murdered during the Second World War, while under Bulgarian occupation.
The Ladino singer Sarah Aroeste has ancestry from Bitola.
Yad Vashem – Monastir (Bitola), Southern Serbia, Yugoslavia (today Macedonia)
Photographs of the Jews of Bitola (Monastir)
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