Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov praised Bulgarian Jewry and the state of Israel during a meeting with representatives of their country’s organized Jewish community this weekend.
Both Sofia Cohen, the Head of the Central Israelite Spiritual Council, and Alek Oskar, President of the Shalom Organization of Jews in Bulgaria, gave a joint presentation on the contributions of Bulgarian Jews at the GERB Youth Summer University, a program affiliated with the Youth Section of the ruling GERB (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria) party.
The presentation titled "Why I am proud to be a Bulgarian Jew" focused on the thousand-year-old Jewish legacy on the Balkans, the friendly co-existence between Bulgarians and Jews, the Jewish contribution to the National Liberation Movement from Ottoman Rule, the Jews who fought for Bulgaria in the Balkan Wars and WWI, the modernization of the Bulgarian industry between the two world wars and, of course, the numerous representatives from the Jewish community in the country's intelligentsia.
PM Borissov gave a warm welcome to the guests from the Jewish community and held up Israel as one of Bulgaria's closest allies. GERB’s parliamentary leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov added that Israel was an example for a country with strict security measures that were the only way to guarantee freedom and safety today. Tsvetanov mentioned the 2012 terror attack at Burgas Airport, in which five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were murdered. The former Minister of the Interior also talked about his role in identifying the Hezbollah perpetrators. The Mayor of Varna, Ivan Portnih, was present at the event as well. So was former Shalom President Mr. Maxim Benvenisti.
During the Second World War, Bulgaria instituted a number of draconian laws against its Jewish community and deported more than 13,000 Jews to their deaths from the territories it occupied. Intense domestic opposition prevented the government from deporting any of the Jews residing in its core provinces, however, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Around 5000 Jews currently live in the country, which was accepted as a liaison country by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in early July.
