The Bulgarian nation, poor but hopeful, suffering from the aftermath of the World War in which it fought on the losing side, compelled to bear a tremendous burden of war reparations, hereby extends an invitation to the poor, persecuted, suffering Jews of Roumania and Poland to come to Bulgaria and help us build up a prosperous country, Mr. Stoyan Omarchevsky, former Bulgarian Minister of Education and for the past sixteen years a member of the Bulgarian Parliament, said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here to-day.
Mr. Omarchevsky, who is a member of the Bulgarian Pro-Palestine Committee and an intimate friend of the Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria, Dr. Israel Hananel, and of the President of the Bulgarian Zionist Association, Colonel Tadger, has just arrived in this country on the invitation of the Carnegie Endowment Fund to study American educational methods and will remain here a few months. During his stay in New York, he will confer with leading members of the American Jewish Committee.
We are free from the disease of antisemitism that is now raging almost everywhere in Europe, Mr. Omarchevsky said. We give our fifty thousand Jews full freedom and equality; we are proud of the system of Hebrew schools which our Government is financing and we are ready to welcome more Jews whose enterprise we know would help us, an agricultural country, to establish industries, particularly a domestic clothing industry, for which the Jews have shown great aptitude in other countries.
We attach, however, no strings to this invitation of ours to East European Jews – let them come to Bulgaria and engage in whatever lawful pursuit they may desire. We guarantee them protection, religious liberty and the right of cultural self-expression.
We have a textile industry, Mr. Omarchevsky added, yet Bulgaria imports most of its clothing from abroad. Jewish capital and Jewish labour could very easily and very profitably establish a home clothing industry for our population.
Bulgaria has always been hospitable to refugees from persecution, Mr. Omarchevsky said. During the years immediately following the war about 300,000 Russian and other refugees came to Bulgaria. Although we are passing through a terrible economic crisis at present, because of the fall in the price of wheat, on which our farmers depend to a great extent, immigrants could probably find a way to make a living in Bulgaria quicker than in other countries.
Most of the Jews in Bulgaria to-day, he declared, are well-to-do, highly educated and participate in the affairs of Government and in the professions. There was an antisemitic movement started in 1924 by students, he admitted, but it had no importance at all. The Bulgarians are a gentle, tolerant, intelligent people, who treat minority groups in such a way that they have no complaints. In this respect, Mr. Omarchevsky quoted Professor Russell of Columbia University, who declared after a study of the Bulgarian school system a few years ago that minority groups in Bulgaria have greater freedom of education than in any other country.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
