Jewish community nationalism in Bosnia arose because no dominant nationality existed to assimilate into.

Evidence

Without a single dominant nationality into which they could assimilate, members of the Sephardic Jewish community in Bosnia-Hercegovina developed a distinct sense of nationality of their own. They saw themselves as distinct from the Ashkenazim, who were culturally different. And as they were not oppressed by a dominant nationality that treated them as outsiders, they were less receptive to Zionism than were the Jews of most Central European countries. So the Bosnian Sephardim followed the general Bosnian pattern, whereby the different religious communities evolved into different nationalities. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 1056

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general sociology of why minority communities adopt or reject Zionism based on their treatment — echoes the Milgrom and social-capital reading of group identity forming where no dominant group pressures it.