Sixty years ago this month, Bulgarian citizens took the first heroic steps to prevent the deportation of 50,000 Bulgarian Jews to Nazi death camps. It also was 60 years ago, however, that Nazi-allied Bulgarian occupiers brutally rounded up and deported nearly all the Jews of Macedonia, as well as Jews from parts of Greece and… More ▸
In a ceremony marked by sorrow, celebration and Jewish solidarity, Jews from Kansas City last week brought a Torah scroll to Bulgaria to take the place of 11 priceless scrolls recently stolen from the Great Synagogue in Sofia. The ceremony in the magnificent domed synagogue took place last Friday and coincided with commemorations marking Holocaust… More ▸
Jews from five countries attended a Sephardi Jewish festival recently held in Bulgaria. More than 150 participants from Turkey, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Yugoslavia attended Esperansa ’98, a four-day festival at the end of July that featured lectures, workshops, concerts, exhibitions and food tasting. “Long into the night, songs and dances filled the terrace,” said… More ▸
Israel has sent a plane carrying emergency medical aid to Bulgaria, in an effort to ease the crisis in Sofia. One ton of supplies was sent this week as a humanitarian response to the shortage of medicines in Bulgarian hospitals. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it would consider sending additional shipments… More ▸
Mordo Ishak Almoznino has survived three wars and four decades of communism. Now, the 90-year old Bulgarian Jew is enduring an economic crisis that is hurtling his country toward chaos. Inflation, which soared to 311 percent last year, is climbing at a clip of nearly 1 percent per day. Average salaries have plummeted to $25… More ▸
The Jewish community this week commemorated the 50th anniversary of the rescue of 50,000 Bulgarian Jews from Nazi death camps, an event that represented at least one bright spot in the dark days of the Holocaust. While the heroism of the Danish community in trying to save its Jewish citizens during World War II is… More ▸
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s visit to Bulgaria is going very well, according to reports from Sofia. It is the first visit by an incumbent Israeli prime minister to that southeastern European country, and it is expected to result in extensive trade, tourism and cultural ties. Shamir, who is accompanied by his Bulgarian-born wife, Shulamit, has… More ▸
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir arrived Tuesday in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, on the first official visit to that Eastern European country by an incumbent Israeli prime minister. Although allied with Germany during World War II, Bulgaria was one of the few European states under Nazi domination that tried to protect its Jewish inhabitants, Shamir… More ▸
President Chaim Herzog is scheduled to leave Tuesday for Hungary and Bulgaria, on the first official visit to those countries by an Israeli chief of state. He will meet with the Hungarian president, prime minister and foreign minister in Budapest, and will visit a transit point used by Jewish emigrants from the Soviet Union en… More ▸
The Jewish community of Bulgaria said Wednesday that vandals who damaged the Jewish section of the old cemetery in the city of Ruse on Monday night appear not to have been motivated by anti-Semitism or nationalism. A statement released by Eddie Schwartz, president of Shalom, the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria, said the community was… More ▸
Opinion
11 former White House Jewish liaisons: Trump doesn’t understand anti-SemitismFirst Person
I talked to the ‘anti-Semitic’ Swiss hotel owner. It’s more complicated than you think.Opinion
11 former White House Jewish liaisons: Trump doesn’t understand anti-SemitismFirst Person
I talked to the ‘anti-Semitic’ Swiss hotel owner. It’s more complicated than you think.