Jovan Mandil ( sr-Cyrl, Јован Мандил; 1873–1916) was a Serbian Jewish lawyer and publicist active in the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Mandil was born in the town of

Šabac Šabac (Serbian Cyrillic: Шабац, ) is a city and the administrative centre of the Mačva District in western Serbia. The traditional centre of the fertile Mačva region, Šabac is located on the right banks of the river Sava. , the city p ...

in 1873. He was the son of Benjamin Mandil. In 1912, the Royal Serbian Government dispatched him to Monastir (modern-day Bitola; sr, Bitolj, italics=yes), in southern

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

, where the region's most populous

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...

community was centered. He arrived in the town immediately after its capture by the

Royal Serbian Army The Army of the Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Војска Краљевине Србије, Vojska Kraljevine Srbije), known in English language, English as the Royal Serbian Army, was the army of the Kingdom of Serbia that existed between 1882 a ...

. Mandil soon established a law office. He also delivered lectures at the town's Academy of Commerce. He promoted the Serbian cause among local Jews, who had suddenly found themselves cut off from

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area, and the capi ...

, their traditional religious, cultural and economic centre. Mandil communicated with members of the local Jewish community in their traditional tongue,

Judeo-Spanish Judaeo-Spanish or Judeo-Spanish (autonym , Hebrew script: , Cyrillic: ), also known as Ladino, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish. Originally spoken in Spain, and then after the Edict of Expulsion spreading through the Ottoman Empir ...

(also known as Ladino).Lebel 2007, p. 188 Mandil also established the town's first Serbian-language newspaper, ''Bitoljske novine'' (''The Bitolj News''). He appointed himself as the newspaper's editor-in-chief and wrote most of its articles. In 1916, Mandil was among the founders of the newspaper ''Velika Srbija'' (''Greater Serbia''), the official organ of the Serbian government-in-exile. The newspaper was published in Thessaloniki, and appeared in print between 1916 and 1918. Mandil died in the Greek port city of Volos in 1916.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mandil, Jovan 1873 births 1916 deaths Serbian journalists Serbian newspaper editors Serbian people of Jewish descent People from the Kingdom of Serbia Serbian writers