Jewish Bulgaria

COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

A GUIDE TO

Jewish Bulg ri

"A must for everyone interested in Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe"


A Guide to Jewish Bulgaria fills an important
and all-too-frequently neglected niche in Bulgarian
history.

Elizabeth Kostova, North Carolina, USA

In a country that has been populated by
Jews for many centuries and that prides itself on
having saved its Jews from the Holocaust, there is
surprisingly little Jewish heritage beyond the very
obvious. What remains – a disused synagogue here,
an old, neglected cemetery or the ruin of a building
there – is sometimes extremely difficult to find.
Unless you know exactly where to look.
This superbly researched, written and
photographed book is a must for everyone
interested in Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe
in general and Bulgaria in particular.

Samuel Finzi, Berlin

Bulgaria did not turn over its Jews in World War
II but afterwards, when they left for Israel, it did
nothing to preserve their heritage, synagogues and
cemeteries. This informative, well-documented,
and above all very impressive book does much to
rectify this. It is not a requiem for the Bulgarian Jews,
but rather a historical and artistic testimonial to the
remnants of the Bulgarian Jews’ comprehensive
contribution to the country that once was their
motherland.

Dr Baruch Hazan, Tel Aviv

Elegant and eloquent, this book is a fascinating
journey through one of the least known lands in
Europe. Wonderful throughout!

Dr Milena Borden, London


This book is dedicated to those who come to find their roots,
and then return in order to understand them

‫ספר זה מוקדש לאלה הבאים לגלות את שורשיהם ולשוב אליהם על מנת להבינם‬
‫ם ולשוב אליהם על מנת להבינם‬
‫א‬
‫א‬

Gilad
Gilad


Dimana Trankova
Anthony Georgieff

JEWISH
A GUIDE TO

BULGARIA

Front cover: Centennial anniversary of the Sofia Central Synagogue, 9 September 2009;
Back cover: Menorah, Jewish Museum of History, Sofia

Yadad and Torah scroll from the 19th Century, Jewish Museum of History, Sofia (page 5);
Jews carrying Torah scrolls in the Sofia Central Synagogue (page 166)

© Димана Трънкова, 2011
© Антони Георгиев, 2011
© Вагабонд Медиа, 2011
Всички права запазени. Без да се ограничават законно запазените авторски права, нито една част от тази
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друг начин), без предварителното писмено съгласие на издателя.

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материали.

© Dimana Trankova, 2011
© Anthony Georgieff, 2011
© Vagabond Media Ltd, 2011
All Rights Reserved. Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic,
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CONTENTS

Preface
Early History
From the Middle Ages to 1878
Jews in Independent Bulgaria
Second World War Karnobat
Emigration to Eretz Israel Plovdiv
Rescue of Bulgaria's Jews Pazardzhik
Exodus Gotse Delchev
Time of the Commissars Kyustendil
New Beginnings Samokov
Sofia Dupnitsa
Vidin Off the Beaten Track
Ruse Stara Zagora,Yambol, Sliven,
Shumen Kazanlak, Nikopol, Lom, Svishtov,
Silistra Pleven, Haskovo, Kardzhali, Dobrich,
Varna Sboryanovo
Burgas Antisemitism in Bulgaria


Preface

When asked about the sources and attitudes changed. The regal figure of
of their national pride, most educated Bulgaria's King Boris III, a war-time ally
Bulgarians don't have to think too long: of Hitler, emerged. It was because of his
"The salvation of the Bulgarian Jews from cunning policy of procrastination and his
the Holocaust" is usually one of the top manoeuvring that not one Jew was sent to
three answers. Bulgaria, they will assert, certain death, the story went. But it would
stands unique in Europe and the world in soon transpire that things in Bulgaria's
that it did not allow its Jewish citizens to be recent history were not so black-and-white.
transported to extermination in the Nazi The name of Dimitar Peshev, the 1940s
death camps. Christians, Jews, Muslims and deputy speaker of parliament, came to the
Gypsies lived in peace and harmony, they will fore. Ignored and largely forgotten under
add, reinstating the Bulgarians' "proverbial" Communism, Peshev now shone as a valiant
hospitality and tolerance.Your Bulgarian in citizen who not only stood against the
the street will probably omit to mention government's intention to make Bulgaria
the Bulgarian State Railways cattle cars Judenfrei, but was the organiser of a popular
that brought over 11,000 Jews to Treblinka movement to prevent what had seemed like
and Auschwitz from the then Bulgaria- an accomplished deed.
administered territories of Aegean Thrace These theories, of course, conflicted with
and Vardar Macedonia. Any question likely to each other, and Bulgaria's post-Communist
arise will not be about the fact of the rescue, leaders settled for the least controversial
but about who should be credited for it. option. It was the Bulgarian people as a
As leaders and political systems changed whole, they claimed, it was the Bulgarian
in Eastern Europe's post-Communist years, nation as such that rose up and saved
so did the answers to this question. Initially, its Jews. It was a nation of selfless Raoul
the Communist school textbooks claimed Wallenbergs and not a single Maurice Papon.
that it had been the Communist Party and But can virtue, the other side of crime,
its leading functionaries who were personally be collectivised? Is it not individuals who are
to be lauded for the heroic deed. With the to be held responsible for whatever good or
fall of Communism in 1989, perceptions evil happens?

8 JewishBulgaria

Details from a parochet curtain, Sofia Central Synagogue

Any reflection on these questions will
evoke other questions. If the Kingdom of
Bulgaria of The Axis is to be credited with
saving about 48,000 Jews from the gas
chambers, why were there so few Jews left
in the People's Republic of Bulgaria of the
Warsaw Pact? If so many Jews had lived
in these lands over the centuries, why are
there so few reminders of them? What
happened to their synagogues, cemeteries,
neighbourhoods and communal properties?
What happened to the individual people who
once had a life here?
This guide aims to help anyone with
an interest in Jewish history in Eastern
Europe and the Balkans arrive at their own
conclusions. It is designed to be a journey
through both territory and time: illuminating
the historical backgrounds while directing
the reader along the paths of topography.
Many of the monuments described in this
book are hard to find and in various stages
of disrepair. Unless a traveller knows where
exactly he is going and what he is seeking,
they can easily be overlooked; but once
discovered, they will open up gateways to a
rich and fascinating, if largely forgotten, part
of Europe's Jewish heritage.
Welcome to Bulgaria – and Shalom!

JewishBulgaria 9


Early History

The first evidence that Jews lived in Yet the question of when exactly the first Vrana Stena, near Kyustendil, indicates the
what is now Bulgaria dates from at least 500 Jews came to Bulgaria is open to speculation. presence of Jews in the hinterland as well.
years before the first Bulgarian state was Some hypotheses contend that the earliest Excavations of a Late Antiquity fort dating
actually founded. Jews in the Balkans moved here after the back to the 3th-5th centuries CE unearthed
Interestingly, the inscription in question, destruction of the First Temple. Other an amulet clearly showing a six-pointed star
found on a tombstone, was in Latin: "Ioses, theories suggest that Jews arrived as a result and the inscription: "Solomon Stamp, Keep
archsynagogus, son of Maximin, erected this of Alexander the Great’s conquests, which Me." What this find indicates is that in those
stone while he was still alive in memory turned the Mediterranean and the Middle times there was a significant demand for
of himself and his wife Kyria..." The actual East into a common area where migration such amulets and so there would have been
tombstone, dating back to the 2nd Century was relatively easy and unimpeded. Jewish smiths to manufacture them.
CE, was discovered during the excavation The Roman conquest of the Balkans Perhaps the most spectacular remains
of the Roman town of Ulpia Oescus, in the played a crucial role in settling Jews of this early Jewish presence in Bulgaria is
vicinity of the present-day village of Gigen, throughout the area. Many were exiled the Antiquity synagogue in Philippopolis,
near the Danube River. there by Emperor Vespasian after the Siege modern-day Plovdiv. Philippopolis was
Ioses had apparently been influenced by of Jerusalem in 70 CE and also after the Bar a major city on the road connecting
the Roman fashion of preparing tombstones Kokhba Revolt of 132-136 CE, while others Constantinople with Central Europe. It had
for posterity during one’s lifetime. His accompanied the legions as traders and emerged as a large cosmopolitan centre, a
tombstone bore no images of ivy leaves or artisans, a standard Roman practice. patchwork of nationalities and religions that
other pagan symbols of eternity, for the man One of these might have been Annanias, outshone other large cities of the colourful
was not only a Jew but an archsynagogus, a whose tombstone, carved in Roman letters, Roman Empire.
rabbi who had charge of several synagogues. was discovered in the modern Bulgarian city The synagogue of the Philippopolis Jews
His presence on the Danubian shores of Vidin, once the Roman fortress Bononia. had a fantastic mosaic floor, with intricate
indicates the existence of a Jewish diaspora, The Jews who came to the Balkans geometrical motifs as well as lions, birds,
which had probably arrived a century earlier in Antiquity were Romaniots, the oldest panthers and menorahs. It was constructed in
along with the Roman legions stationed Jewish settlers in these lands. Some of their the 3rd Century CE, but would be destroyed
there to guard the empire’s northern descendants, arguably, are still living here and rebuilt several times over the next few
borders. Further testimony to the Jewish today. centuries.
diaspora is another Gigen find, a marble slab The Jews did not inhabit only the The trials and tribulations of the
bearing an image of a menorah. Danubian shores. A find in the village of Philippopolis synagogue illustrate how

10 JewishBulgaria

The Roman town Ulpia Oescus, near the modern village of
Gigen, is where the earliest Jewish artefact in the Bulgarian
lands was unearthed

easily the fate of the Jews changed under change. The Middle Ages dawned, and new
the Romans. Unlike Christianity, Judaism peoples had arrived in the Balkans. After 681
had the status of Religio licita, a "tolerated the Jews found themselves living in a new
religion." In the 4th Century, however, state set up by Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians.
when Christianity was gaining momentum
as an official religion, the pressures being
put on Jews intensified, yet official attitudes
could change like the breeze. Emperor
Theodosius I (379-395), who actually made
Christianity the state religion of the Roman
Empire, officially ordered the governor of
Moesia, in present-day northern Bulgaria,
not to persecute Jews and demolish their
synagogues.
The Philippopolis synagogue is proof of
these changing attitudes. When Theodosius
died, his sons Arcadius (395-408) and
Honorius (393-423) ruled the eastern
and the western parts of the empire
respectively. Anti-Jewish sentiment was on
the rise. During their reign, the Philippopolis
synagogue was destroyed for the first time,
either as a result of antisemitism, or when
the Huns conquered and ravaged the city
in 447.
The synagogue would be rebuilt and then
destroyed yet again a century later. At that
time, however, the whole political picture
of Europe and the Balkans was beginning to

JewishBulgaria 11


Exodus

"Not a single person will be able
to say that 40,000 Jews will leave Bulgaria
for good," stated a member of the Jewish
Fatherland Front, a by-blow of the ruling
leftist Fatherland Front, in 1946; and he
added: "We Communists do not want to
help set up a Jewish state in Palestine. The
Fatherland Front wants to create a life for
the Jews in Bulgaria."
Real life turned out to be quite different
just two years later. Bulgaria-proper emerged that would characterise life in Bulgaria for the In the meantime, the fight to set up
from the Second World War with as many next 45 years: the introduction of laws whose the State of Israel intensified. While the
Jews as it had had at its outset. In 1948-1951, lawmakers had no intention of enforcing. Communists supported the Jewish efforts
32,099 Jews left for Palestine. They had been Over 70 percent of the country’s Jews had in the British Mandate, they continued to
preceded by about 7,000 who had left during little or no means of subsistence. Communist oppose all manifestations of Zionism at
or immediately after the war. In this way apparatchiks sometimes refused food home. Zionist feelings, however, turned
Bulgaria parted with over three quarters of coupons to Jews and the Jewish community out to be a lot stronger than anyone
its Jewry. was plagued by fears that there might be a expected: in 1946 the United Zionist
The mass emigration of Bulgarian Jews return to the antisemitic policies of the past. Organisation had as many as 14,000 active
was the result of many and complex reasons. These fears were not assuaged by the new members. In the following years this
The war-time antisemitic legislation was rulers’ attitude towards other Bulgarian number would rise.
repealed in full shortly after the 9 September ethnic minorities, especially the Muslims. Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s Stalinist leader,
1944 Communist coup, and the Fatherland Bulgaria was rapidly becoming a model had returned to Bulgaria from Moscow in
Front, which took over, adopted various Soviet state. Whilst the Communists had 1946. Echoing Soviet attitudes, he told Jewish
measures designed to bring about the vowed to return all Jewish properties to leaders that emigration to Palestine would
restitution of Jewish properties confiscated their erstwhile owners, a law nationalising "in principle" be allowed. The real change
by the pro-Nazi government. But the "large" town properties was adopted in 1947. came after the Soviet Union consolidated its
Fatherland Front was actually in no hurry to Rich Jews again found themselves turned out stance towards emigration to Palestine, and
implement the measures, creating a situation of their factories, banks and residences. especially after Andrei Gromyko supported

34 JewishBulgaria

A group passport for Jews leaving for British Palestine in 1946

Pioneer Railway Station in Sofia whence many Jews left on
their great aliyah trip (previous page)

© Bulgarian State Archive Library

the establishment of the State of Israel at
the United Nations.
On 28 July 1948, with the blessing of
El Al Shot Down Over Bulgaria
the government which officially endorsed Well known for its excellent security, the investigation, which concluded that the Israeli
Jewish emigration to Palestine "in order Israeli national airline, El Al, has had only one aircraft had violated Bulgarian airspace,
to join the fight against imperialism," the incident in its history when one of its aircraft but also that the Bulgarian response was
was shot down. This happened over Bulgaria disproportionate.
Consistory in Bulgaria issued a directive at the height of the Cold War. Bulgaria refused to allow a six-member
encouraging emigration. Those who In the early morning of 27 July 1955 El Al Israeli team of investigators to look into the
wanted to leave were issued with aliyah Flight 402, a Lockheed L-409 Constellation, case. It did not allow even its own prosecutors
certificates, and given exit visas – often took off from London bound for Tel Aviv. It to interrogate the pilots. Three Israeli experts
carried 58 people onboard. It was supposed would later be permitted near the site of the
the result of per capita payments provided to fly over Yugoslavia and Greece, because crash, but almost all the debris had already
by the American Joint Distribution Communist Bulgaria did not allow non- been cleared away. The Israelis concluded that
Committee. Warsaw Pact aircraft in its skies. the plane had deviated from its course owing
Emigration continued throughout West of the Yugoslav-Bulgarian border, to high winds.
however, the aircraft changed course and In 1957 Israel sued Bulgaria at the
the Communist period, even though the
entered Bulgarian airspace near Tran. International Court in The Hague. The
administrative obstacles put in its way Two Soviet-manufactured MiG-15s were court ordered Israel and Bulgaria to settle
increased. immediately sent from Sofia to tail the El Al the dispute themselves. Bulgaria paid
The 1989-1990 collapse of the aircraft through western Bulgaria. out $500,000 to the families of the dead
The MiG pilots would later contend that passengers, a fraction of the $6,850,000
Communist system and the ensuing
the Israeli aircraft was not clearly marked as originally demanded.
economic chaos prompted a new wave of a passenger plane and that they had used all The reasons for the shooting-down
emigration to Israel. About 5,000 Bulgarian means of warning it, including firing tracer continue to be unclear. Some suggest that the
Jews, many of whom were the offspring bullets. But the Israeli plane continued on El Al pilots made a navigational error through
of mixed marriages or were themselves southwards towards Greece. Shortly before fatigue, others surmise that the aircraft was
it was due to leave Bulgarian territory, radio downed because it was carrying a contraband
in such unions, took advantage of the orders to shoot it down were transmitted. shipment of silver. Yet others claim the plane
Law of Return. At the same time, some Flight 402 ended in a fireball near the was shot down because a Mossad agent being
Israelis of Bulgarian origin, who had left in Bulgarian town of Petrich. All onboard died. sought by the Soviets had boarded the plane
1949-1951, had their Bulgarian citizenship The Bulgarian Communist Government in Vienna, and Bulgaria merely acted on Soviet
did not concede what had happened until orders.
restored, and began spending an increasing a day later. It did appoint a commission of
amount of time in Bulgaria.

JewishBulgaria 35


36 JewishBulgaria


Time of the
Commissars

The Communist-engineered and Impoverished and humiliated by the
Soviet-backed coup on 9 September 1944 Defence of the Nation Act and fearful
marked the beginning of a 45-year system of new repressions, the Jews were beset
in which, theoretically, there was no private by infighting. On the one hand were the
property, everyone enjoyed equal rights, Zionists who wanted to resettle in Palestine.
and you got whatever you needed. In fact, it On the other were the Communists who
was a system where the currency was not wanted to create a "new life" for the Jews
convertible, travel was not allowed, people inside Bulgaria.
might end up in a labour camp for telling As early as October 1944 the Zionists,
jokes or listening to Western music, and any who by far outnumbered the Communists,
indication of religiousness was suppressed. started to prepare for their departure to
On 9 September 1944, however, few what would become the State of Israel. They
suspected what was in store for them. were opposed, verbally and otherwise, by the
Formally, a leftist coalition called the Communists who said they considered the
Fatherland Front had assumed power, urge to leave to be the product of "enemy
and the Allied Control Commission was propaganda." The Zionists were billed
supposed to ensure the the first post- "traitors" and even "fascists." The Jewish
war election was democratic. But the Communists had their own branch of the
Communists were already paving the way Fatherland Front, a status no other minority
for the sovietisation of Bulgaria. In 1946, in Bulgaria enjoyed.
while the Red Army was still in the country, In 1946 the Communists and the Zionists
a rigged referendum abolished the monarchy formed a joint council to run the Consistory.
and instituted a "people’s republic." In 1947- The Zionists were supposed to have a
1948 private property was nationalised. larger representation because of their sheer
Purges of "enemies with a party ticket" number, but in reality the whole enterprise Communist Bulgaria was friends with most of the Arab world
ensued. Concentration camps for opponents was controlled by the Fatherland Front. (top); A mural depicting "labour and artistic freedom" in 1950s
of the new regime were set up and Stalin’s The official line of the Bulgarian Bulgaria, at the former Jewish school in Kyustendil (above)

cronies in Sofia were busy turning Bulgaria Communist Party was promulgated in United in death? A Jewish Communist gravestone in Kyustendil
into a model "New Order" state. 1948 and was endorsed by the leader (previous page)

JewishBulgaria 37


on one of its walls. Friedrich Grünanger, a to the drawing board. Then it decided it
reputable Viennese architect of the time, was wanted a synagogue for 1,100 rather than
contracted to go ahead with the project. the originally planned 700 people. Work on
Grünanger was instructed to erect a building the building began as late as 1905.
similar to the great Sephardic synagogue in The synagogue was shut down in 1943-
Vienna (now demolished). 1944, in keeping with the wartime Defence
The project did not go very smoothly. of the Nation Act, as most Sofia Jews were
The Consistory sent the initial project back deported to the provinces. During the Allied

52 JewishBulgaria


bombings of Sofia a bomb fell on the roof. concert hall. Construction work on the
It failed to explode, but the walls of the building’s interior started in the 1980s,
synagogue collapsed under its weight. The but was never completed. For much of
library as well as the community’s archives that period the synagogue’s interior was
were destroyed for good. enmeshed in scaffolding and ladders.
The most serious changes to the The synagogue was given back to
synagogue were yet to come. The new the Jewish community after the fall of
regime of the Soviet-backed Communists Communism. In 2008, major renovations
declared itself officially atheist and started began. They were paid for by the Bulgarian
to actively discourage religious practices. In Culture Ministry, as well as by private donors
1950s then Chief Rabbi Asher Hananel was in Israel and the United States. The works
tried for "malfeasance in office" and sent to ended in time for the 9 September 2009
Robert Djerassi (left), Maxim Benvenisti, chairman of Shalom
prison. The synagogue was thus rendered Centennial Anniversary of the Sofia Central (second left), and Israeli ambassador to Bulgaria Noah Gal
rabbi-less, a situation that would continue up Synagogue. Gendler (fourth left) welcome Israeli President Shimon Peres,
2010 (above, left)
until 1994. Nowadays Sabbath and other prayers
The regime had no intention of leaving are usually held in the small hall of the Rabbi Bechor Kachlon (left) and Bulgarian President Georgi
the synagogue empty, however. The building synagogue. The great hall is used for major Parvanov light Hanukah candles, 2010 (top); Hundreds of old
Jewish book are stored at the synagogue's depository (above)
had excellent acoustics, and the government holidays, state visits and occasionally
decided, in the 1960s, to convert it into a concerts. Great Hall of Sofia Central Synagogue (previous page)

JewishBulgaria 53


54 JewishBulgaria

Sofia synagogue’s Vienna-manufactured chandelier weighs
2,200 kilograms

JewishBulgaria 55


56 JewishBulgaria


Sofia Cemetery

Anyone approaching Sofia from the modern Vazrazhdane Square, in fact, stands
West during the 16-19th centuries would get on a part of the erstwhile graveyard. Roughly
a very interesting initial view of what would speaking, the whole area between Aleksandar
become Bulgaria’s vibrant capital: a huge Stamboliyski Boulevard, Hristo Botev
Jewish cemetery melancholically lined with Boulevard and Positano Street once used to
semi-recumbent Sephardic tombstones. be a Jewish necropolis.
The landscape started to change in 1888, In 1898, the Sofia Central Cemetery was
when the new capital of the new country opened in the village of Orlandovsti, now
started to experience an influx of migrants a part of metropolitan Sofia. The Jewish
from the provinces. The outlying areas to cemetery was moved there, into a special
the south-west of the city, where the Jewish Jewish Sector in the northern reaches of
cemetery was, were gradually converted into the cemetery. The Orlandovtsi cemetery
residential quarters. Some of the tombstones (on Zavodska Street, served by trams Nos.
could be seen scattered around as late as 2 and 3, and bus No. 2) is still in use to this
the first decades of the 20th Century, when day. Many of the tombstones, especially
a poor Jewish neighbourhood existed in this those of the richer Jews, are pure works
part of Sofia. Curiously, the living and the of art, amongst the best in Bulgaria. They
dead coexisted happily: next to the remnants bear inscriptions in Hebrew and Bulgarian,
of the cemetery there was a stadium where but many also have lines in German, French,
the Jewish football team Akoakh (1919-1940) Italian and Ladino.
used to train. The Jewish Sector is adjacent to the
Today nothing indicates where that Jewish Muslim and Catholic sectors, and is easy to
cemetery used to be. Since the 1930s the find. Make sure you enter the gates of the
former Jewish Geren neighbourhood has cemetery from the entrance next to the last
been a part of the Vazrazhdane area. The stop of trams Nos. 2 and 3.

Sofia’s cemetery’s Jewish chapel is the only functioning
cemetery ritual house in Bulgaria

JewishBulgaria 57


Bulgaria’s largest Jewish cemetery has
hundreds of exquisite headstones

58 JewishBulgaria


JewishBulgaria 61


Population: 55,000

Long distance phone code: 094

Regional Shalom Organisation:
2/3 Bdin Street; shalom.vidin@shalom.bg

Things to see: Stamboul Kapı Gate;
Baba Vida Fortress; Osman Pazvantoglu
Mosque and Library; St Dimitar Cathedral

Things to do: Walk along the Danube
waterfront; Mingle with the locals in the
central square; Explore the charm of the
streets and alleys in the old town; Pass
through the Stamboul Gate at night

Museums: Baba Vida Fortress; History
Museum (13 Tsar Simeon Veliki Street);
National Museum of Natural History
(1 Tsar Osvoboditel Boulevard)

Galleries: Nikola Petrov Art Gallery
(2 Bdintsi Square)

74 JewishBulgaria


VIDIN

JewishBulgaria 75

A Jewish monument of gratitude adorns Vidin’s central square
(below)

Vidin’s synagogue, once the largest in Bulgaria, has been in a
state of complete dilapidation in the course of decades (right
and opposite page)

Situated in the northwestern by Ashkenazis fleeing persecution in Hungary. Vidin’s Jews were faced with a major
corner of Bulgaria on a picturesque bend Rabbi Salomon Ashkenazi, who was born in threat in 1807. Maverick Osman Pazvantoglu,
of the Danube,Vidin is now an economically Neustadt, founded one of the first rabbinical the local Ottoman governor who had
depressed town in the poorest area of schools in the Bulgarian lands in Vidin. quarrelled with the High Porte and
Europe. Few young people want to stay. The Sephardic Jews came in the 15th Century. subsequently rejected the sultan’s supremacy
locals hope that a new bridge across the By the end of the 17th Century there were in the Vidin area, fell sick. His death seemed
river connecting it to Romania will improve at least five synagogues, one of which was inevitable, and rumours that he had been
the overall situation. Less than a century ago, Romaniot. poisoned by his Jewish physician started
however,Vidin was a bustling port city where The Jewish merchants in Vidin did circulating amongst the local Ottomans.
a sizeable Jewish community prospered. business throughout the Ottoman Empire The Turks decided to murder all the Jews
The first Jews are thought to have arrived and beyond. In 1658, for example, the main in retaliation for what they saw as an act
in Antiquity, when the Roman fort of Bononia Vidin synagogue received a gift of a silver of high treason. But Pazvantoglu was not
was what Vidin was known for. The Invasion tablet from the Jews inhabiting one of quite dead yet. He learned of the plan, and
of the Barbarians put an end to Bononia. the Danubian islands upriver. When the personally sent orders to do nothing against
Jews would return several hundred years Dubrovnik merchants lost their privileges in the Jews. A massive celebratory party was
later, when Vidin again emerged as an aureate 1688 because of their support for the anti- held, and from that time on the local Jews
Mediaeval city. At the forefront were Jews Ottoman Chiprovtsi Uprising, their Jewish would celebrate a kind of Vidin Purim called
from Italy and Byzantium, who arrived as early peers were quick to seize the new business Purim de los borrachones, or Purim of the
as the 13th Century.They would be followed opportunity. Drunken.

76 JewishBulgaria


The Russo-Ottoman war of 1877-
1878 severely affected the local Jewry. The
synagogues were damaged or destroyed
in the fighting, and the Jews lost their main
trading partner, the Vidin Ottoman garrison.
After Bulgaria became independent in 1878,
the population of Vidin amounted to about
15,000 people, of whom 1,400 were Jews.
The Jews of Vidin, however, did not want
to leave. In the first years of independent
Bulgaria the Jewish neighbourhood, in the
Kale area, saw the erection of a spacious
community house. The grand Vidin
synagogue was constructed in 1894. Located
at the intersection of today’s Baba Vida and
Jules Pascin streets, the Vidin Synagogue
outshone all other synagogues in Bulgaria.
Its architecture was inspired by the Great
Synagogue of Budapest. Its ornaments were
crafted out of wood from Transylvania and
Hungary, and its chandeliers were imported
from Vienna.

JewishBulgaria 77


78 JewishBulgaria

There are plans to refurbish the former Vidin synagogue
into a Jules Pascin museum

Jules Pascin, a portrait by Albert Weisgerber, 1906

The Prince of Montparnasse
From Vidin
"I went over and sat with Pascin and two
models who were sisters. Pascin was a very
good painter and he was drunk; steadily,
purposefully drunk and making good sense."
The author of this is, of course, Ernest
Hemingway, who liked Jules Pascin so much
that he described him in a chapter in his
Moveable Feast (1964). Pascin, born in Vidin in
1885, originally bore the name Julius Mordecai
Pincas, but would later be known as the Prince
of Montparnasse. His father, a Sephardic Jew,
was a grain merchant. The family moved to
Bucharest in 1892. Pascin studied in Vienna
and by 1905 was already a part of the Parisian
Boheme. His new name, Pascin, was a partial
anagram of Pincas. He spent most of his life
in Paris, producing exquisite artwork and
drinking in the Montparnasse cafés. Jules Pascin
committed suicide in 1930. The Vidin house
where he was born has not been preserved.

JewishBulgaria 79

Vidin’s Jewish cemetery is among the most mercilessly
vandalised in Bulgaria

The synagogue fell into disrepair after The cemetery is indeed a gruesome
almost all of Vidin’s Jews left for Israel in sight. While under Communism it was just
the late 1940s. In 1950 the Communist ignored, in the turbulent years of Bulgaria’s
authorities turned it into a warehouse. In transition to democracy it was actively
1964 it was declared a monument of culture, vandalised. Many of the porcelain portraits of
but plans to convert it into a concert hall the deceased have been crushed with stones,
never materialised. and many graves have been dug up and left
Today the Vidin Synagogue is a sorry gaping to the sombre northern Bulgarian
sight. It still stands there with its domes and skies. With its broken effigies, overturned
turrets on the bank of the Danube, but it tombstones, scattered human and animal
is nothing but a skeleton. Its roof has caved bones and graves that look as if their
in, its windows have been broken, its paint occupants have just risen from the ground,
has peeled off, and its prayer hall has been the huge cemetery evokes an eerie feeling of
overwhelmed by weeds and even trees. Doomsday revisited. Trees grow from inside
The only remains of its former grandeur the holes that were once tombs, and local
are some intricately crafted wrought-iron Gypsies can still be seen digging in the hope
ornaments and a few wooden Stars of David of finding a golden tooth here or a bit of
in the windows. The building is ringed with metal there.
a wire fence, but the fence door is usually The Vidin Cemetery is perhaps the
unlocked and unprotected. Enter at your best (or worst) example of the general
own peril because the structure may collapse dilapidation of Bulgaria’s Jewish heritage. It
at any time. stands as a monument not so much to the
Another Jewish site in Vidin is the Jewish individual people who were buried there, but
Cemetery, located at what the locals refer as a memento to a whole culture, once rich
to as Nula Redut, just off the road leading to and vibrant, that has irrevocably disappeared
Vidin Ferry Port. The last burial took place from the Bulgarian lands.
there in 1965.

80 JewishBulgaria


JewishBulgaria 81

Portraits of deceased Vidin Jews still adorn
what remains of their tombs

82 JewishBulgaria


JewishBulgaria 83


144 JewishBulgaria

In a pitiful condition, Samokov’s former synagogue (previous
page) still retains some of its decorations: a wood-carved
ceiling (right, top), a sign (right, middle), and a fresco (right,
bottom)

Samokov is now a quiet town at
the foot of the Rila Mountains, known mainly
for its potatoes and its proximity to Borovets,
a major ski resort. No Jews live here.
The town looked completely different
150 years ago, however. It was, in fact, an
industrial town, one of the first in Bulgaria,
and the centre of a lucrative mining
enterprise. The Iskar River was lined with
many tall chimneys belching out smoke. Iron
ore was smelted in many foundries, and the
very name of the town comes from the
heavy water-driven hammers that pounded
the metal into ingots. Trade was carried
on with places as varied as Walachia and
Stamboul and over 120 Jewish families lived
in the large Jewish neighbourhood.
The Sephardis came to Samokov at the
end of the 17th Century, probably from
Salonika. A century later they had been spreading roughly across today’s Vasil
joined by Jews from as far away as Vidin and Zahariev Street (formerly Moyseeva Street),
as nearby as Dupnitsa. Hristo Maksimov Street and Targovska
Business picked up after 1802, when Street.
the local authorities permitted Jews to buy Foreign travellers in the Balkans were
and own plots of land as well as houses in impressed by the Jewish neighbourhood of
the centre of town. In 1813, the Ottomans Samokov. Behind whitewashed brick walls
allowed the local Jews to set up their own there were large houses with intricate
neighbourhood, and in the following years it ornamentation and wood-carved ceilings.
grew into Dolna Mahala, or Lower Quarter, The furniture was European, and many of

JewishBulgaria 145


A huge wood-carved Star of David adorns the central hall of
the Arie House (above); The Jews in Samokov were often the
importers of European culture (right)

Oriental in exterior design, the Arie house in Samokov was
distinctly Western European inside (opposite page, left and
middle); The Aries had a special short-cut entry into the
synagogue next door (opposite page, right)

146 JewishBulgaria


them had both running water and in-house A couple of decades later, however, the railway pass through Ihtiman instead of
water closets. hustle-and-bustle of industrial Samokov had through Samokov.
In 1857-1860 the local Jews built a new, evaporated as fast as the Iskar mist. The town was impoverished and many
modern synagogue. It was a large building, One of the side effects of Bulgaria’s locals emigrated to Sofia. The Jews were no
at 330 square metres, and was 8 metres tall, independence from the Ottoman Empire exception. While in 1887 and 1919 there
with 38 windows. Accounts of who built was the loss of lucrative markets. The were 962 and 1,000 Jews respectively in
it vary. According to some archives, it was producers of iron and textiles lost their Samokov, in 1943 there were 374. They all
erected by Edirne workers commissioned contracts with the Ottoman army. The made the aliyah to Israel in the late 1940s.
by the wealthy Arie family. Another theory young Bulgarian state, pressed for cash, Under Communism most of the Jewish
is that the synagogue was built by local would rather import cheap materials for neighbourhood, including the old synagogue
craftsmen. It appears that the same builders its own army uniforms than buy the high- and many Jewish merchant houses, was
also worked on the impressive Bayrakli quality but expensive woollen cloth from demolished to make way for new housing
Mosque, in the middle of the town. Samokov. The villagers around Samokov projects.
Soon after the completion of the ceased going to its market, and preferred Yet the New Synagogue (at the
synagogue, one of the first secular Jewish to travel the 60 kilometres to Sofia. One intersection of Prince Alexandr Dondukov
schools in the Bulgarian lands was founded in of the last blows to the local economy was and Neofit Bozveli streets) survived. In 1965
Samokov, in 1874. the decision to have the Sofia-Stamboul it was a listed as a cultural monument and

JewishBulgaria 147


160 JewishBulgaria


Antisemitism in Bulgaria

Unfortunately, Bulgaria has never started by Jews poisoning Christian wells.
eschewed the sort of antisemitism prevalent Another is that the Bulgarian aristocracy
in the rest of Europe in general and Eastern wanted an easy way out of its burgeoning
Europe in particular. That said, over the debts, owed mostly to Jewish merchants and
centuries antisemitic sentiments have rarely tradesmen.
turned violent. Bulgaria has never witnessed Bulgaria was conquered by the Ottomans
Russian or German-style anti-Jewish in 1393-1396. An urban myth was put
pogroms, and even in the darkest years of into circulation that the gates of Tarnovo,
the Defence of the Nation Act, the state’s the Mediaeval Bulgarian capital, had been
enforcement of anti-Jewish regulations was surreptitiously opened for the invaders by
at worst tepid. a Jew, an act of high treason that would
While the earliest acts of antisemitism condemn Bulgaria to 500 years of Ottoman
predate the official Christianisation effected "yoke." The myth lives on to this day.
by King Boris I in 865, the first real anti- The great man of letters of the Bulgarian
Jewish polemic appeared in the writings National Revival, Ivan Vazov (1850-1921),
of early Mediaeval Bulgarian writers.Yoan produced an unusually acrimonious rhyme
Ekzarh, Presbyter Kozma and others now about that "dirty Jew"; and as late as 1930
taught in Bulgarian schools often indulged in Angel Karaliychev, a popular writer of
acrid antisemitic speech. children’s fiction, published a story about this
An instance of violent antisemitism "Jewish treachery."
occurred in the mid-14th Century when In the late 15th Century the number
King Ivan Aleksandar divorced his Bulgarian of Jews in the Bulgarian lands increased
wife and married a Jewess, Sarah. Sarah significantly when the High Porte in
converted to Christianity, but the king still Constantinople welcomed thousands
ordered mass lashings and banishment of a of Sephardic Jews fleeing persecution in
sect thought to be associated with Judaism. Spain and Portugal. The Sephardis were
One possible explanation for this was the exempted from some Ottoman taxes and
plague which was ravaging Europe at the in some places even allowed to mint their
time: popular belief had it that it had been own coins. Antipathy between the Jews and

JewishBulgaria 161


JewishBulgaria 165

A must book for the Jewish traveller in Bulgaria.
I have visited my birth country a dozen times in the
past 40 years. Invariably Jewish tourists ask me "Is
there a handbook in English that will help give me the
background I need to further understand and enjoy my
visit there more fully?"
It is my belief that Ms Trankova and Mr Georgieff
have presented us with a very practical "Guide to
Jewish Bulgaria." Congratulations to the writers. Enjoy
your visit!

Rabbi Haim Asa, Orange County, California, USA

Dimana Trankova is an archaeologist by
education and a journalist by vocation. For five years
she has been the executive editor of HIGHFLIGHTS,
Bulgaria's Airport magazine, and of Go Greece!,
Bulgaria's magazine about Greece. Widely traveled
in Europe and elsewhere, Dimana Trankova is
the co-author and editor of Hidden Treasures of
Bulgaria and East of Constantinople/Travels in
Unknown Turkey.

Anthony Georgieff worked for the BBC/World
Service in London and Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty in Munich and in Prague before starting
a successful career as a freelance writer and
photographer in Copenhagen. In 2004 he started
Vagabond Media, Bulgaria's premier English-
language publisher of magazines and books. His
work has circulated in Denmark, Sweden, Germany,
the UK and the United States. He is the author of
Vienna, a novel.


This book is for anyone with an
interest in Jewish history in Eastern
Europe and the Balkans. It is designed
to be a journey through both territory
and time, illuminating the backgrounds
while guiding the reader through the
topography. Many of the monuments
described are hard to find and in
various stages of disrepair: poignant
reminders of a long-disappeared
culture.
Unless the traveller knows exactly
where he is going and what he is
seeking, these landmarks of history
can easily be overlooked. But once
discovered, they will open up
gateways to a fascinating if largely
forgotten part of Europe's Jewish
heritage.

R. R. P.
ISBN 978-954-92306-3-5
BGN 20.85
$15.99
€10.99
£9.49 9 789549 230635

Jewish Bulgaria

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