About the Author

Jamila Andjela Kolonomos was born in 1922 and raised in the Jewish community of Monastir (Bitola). At the age of 19, she became a member of the Yugoslavian Resistance shortly after the Bulgarian occupation of Yugoslav Macedonia in 1941. She escaped the roundup and deportation of Monastir’s Jewish Community, and with several Jewish companions, joined the Partisan army in April 1943, eventually rising to the rank of Commissar of several battalions before becoming a Deputy Commissar of a Macedonian brigade and the 42nd Yugoslav Division.

After the war, Kolonomos was cited many times for merit and bravery, and was a leading official in many political, benevolent and social associations, including the Alliance of Yugoslav Resistance, the Union for the Protection of Childhood of Macedonia and the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Women of Macedonia, as well as a deputy in the Macedonian Assembly. In 1962, Kolonomos was named Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Romance Philology at Sts. Cyril and Methodius University, in Skopje. She is the author of numerous articles and works of history, Judeo-Spanish (the language of the Sephardim), and of the Yugoslav-Macedonian Resistance.

Monastir Without Jews will be available beginning March 11, 2008.

Monastir Without Jews was published in 2008