SOFIA, BULGARIA

“After world war two, out of the 50,000 Jewish survivals, 45,000 left to Israel. The 5,000 that stayed were people who truly believed in the communist regime. My grandfather wasn’t Jewish. My grandmother was, she stayed her in Bulgaria even though all her family had left to Israel, because she was in love with my grandfather. I was born in 1978 when Bulgaria was still under communism. I was raised close to my Jewish side, but never knew what it means. I knew that my grandparents are speaking a strange language between them (Ladino), but didn’t know what it was. You have to understand that being Jewish and communist was very complicated back than. It wasn't allowed to practice religion in any way, and this was also in the years that Bulgaria and Israel were enemies.

One day, when I was in high school, I received jeans pants from a relative in Israel. wearing jeans wasn't accepted than, and once my mom realized that the jeans had an American flag on it, I wasn't allowed to wear them. I did wear them, I went out and changed, and it made a lot of trouble to my family.

You may think of communist time as dark and miserable, but I had a wonderful and happy childhood.

November 10, 1989. I remember the day that communism fell in Bulgaria. In the same day I was invited to come to my Sunday school on the next Sunday. It was the first gathering of the Jewish community. I realized that I know half of the people, they were my relatives and friends. I was very surprised by that, because I never seen them in here. Nobody knew what being Jewish means. I remember a man explaining everybody about a certain box that has a note inside, and you put it on your door. It didn’t make any sense.

Until that day, I was part of the “Pioneers movement”, of the communist party. I was the president of my class. At once, the movement was closed, and I was very upset by that. Suddenly, we are not communist anymore, we are a Democracy. Suddenly, we are Jewish. My grandparents had a really hard time. They realized that all they ever fought for, the communism, was over. My parents were happy that we are a democracy. The children were happy. It was a real generational gap.

Once communism was over, there was no order in the streets. The park next to my school became a drug addict park. Half of my class died from over dose. The fall of communism open the door - for good and bad.

Once communism had fell, all lands and businesses owned by the state had to be privatized. My father that worked in a factory as a technician been told that the factory will be closed in 6 month, and the workers can buy it if they wish. Ofcourse no one had a lot of many due to communism. My father went to Israel, he wasn't Jewish, and worked for 6 month in factories and in labour work. We didn’t know where he was. He was a heavy man. When he returned after 6 month, we didn’t recognized him, cause he lost almost 30 kg.

When I was 13, I didn't know what a mezuza means. When my son was 13, he celebrated a Bar Mitzvah in the Synagogue (I was 33). This emphasizes the change that occurred. "