Between You
. and Me
Boris Smolar's
(Copyright, 1964, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
Bulgarian Notes
Officials in Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, when they speak to you as
an American Jew,. stress with • pride the fact that Bulgaria was the
only Nazi-occupied country where the local non-Jewish population put
up a real fight for the Jews and prevented their deportation to death
camps . . . "There would have been a revolution in our country, if
the Nazis would not have yielded to our demand that our Jews should
be left alone," an official tells me at a pro-Israel dinner . . . He goes
into details to relate the well-known fact how huge crowds in Sofia
set up barricades on the road to the railway station when they learned
that the Nazis rounded up the first group of Jews for deportation to
the Oswiech extermination camp . . .The transportation cars were
already assembled at the station, but the Jews were never put into
them . The Nazis, having met with strong and unexpected resistance
on the barricades, became convinced that the Bulgarians meant what
they said when they threatened revolt against the occupation authori-
ties if the Jews were deported ... After dissolving their first transport,
the Nazis never again attempted to round up the Jews in Sofia or in
any other Bulgarian city . . . As a result, the number of Jews in Bul-
garia remained after World War II approximately the same as it
was before the war . . . There were about 50,000 Jews in Bulgaria
in 1939 when the war broke out, and their number was no smaller
when the Nazi armies were forced to withdraw from the country . . .
Today, there are only about 6,000 Jews in Bulgaria, the remainder
having all left for Israel when Bulgaria came under the Communist
regime . . . The Communist authorities made no difficulties for the
more than 40,000 Jews to emigrate in large numbers to Israel . . .
No difficulties are being made even today for any Jew who wishes
to move to Israel, but the remaining Jews are either too old to
emigrate, or they are followers of the Communist regime . . . On the
other hand. Bulgarian Jews residing now in Israel who want to visit
their relatives in Bulgaria are freely admitted into the country and
face no obstacles when they return to Israel . . . They can even buy
two-way tickets in Israel at El Al Airlines which now maintains
direct flights from Israel to Bulgaria and back.
Rapid Decline
The effect of the severe drop of the Jewish population in Bulgaria
from less than 50,000 to about 6,000 is visible when one visits the
Great Synagogue in Sofia . . . This synagogue, which was said to be
the most beautiful in all of Europe before the war, stands in the very
center of the city ... Its dome . . . and the Magen David on its top—
dominates the sky in the entire neighborhood of the "Balkin Hotel," the
most luxurious hotel in the city . . . The Magen David, shining
proudly on the dome, can be seen blocks away from the Exarch Jossif
street—the street , where the synagogue is situated . . . Thus, one does
not even need to ask how to get to the synagogue; he can find his way
by walking in the direction of the Star of David . . . He cannot miss
the synagogue also by simply walking along the Exarch Jossif street
without following any special signs or instructions . . . The synagogue
building is so big and so imposing that it stands out prominently in
the block on which it is located . . . One cannot help stopping in
front of the synagogue when passing Exarch Jossif 16, even though
the building has lost its majestic look and is very dilapidated . . . The
pre-war glory of the synagogue has gone with the mass-immigration of
Bulgarian Jews to Israel . . . And inside the huge synagogue there
were, this Sukkot, no more than 19 Jews at the service . . . However,
although Sukkot has long gone, there is still a beautiful Sukkah
standing in the synagogue yard, with its roof still covered with greens,
testifying to the fact that some religious Jews are still left in the
city . . . A black-bordered announcement printed in the Bulgarian
language and posted at the synagogue entrance notifies the com-
munity that the chief rabbi. Dr. Asher Hananel, died recently . . .
This is the° same chief • rabbi who was arrested several months ago
by the Bulgarian authorities on the charge of "speculation"—an im-
mitation of the "line" instituted in the Soviet Union—but who was
released later. after news of his arrest provoked protests from Jewish
organizations in the United States and Israel . . . The rapid decline
of Jewish life in Bulgaria can also be seen during a visit to the
building which was formerly the office of the Jewish Consistory, the
central representative body of Bulgarian Jewry ... Today this building
is occupied by a non-Jewish sports club and the walls outside the
building are all covered with placards carrying Moscow-style Com-
Writer Predicts
Art Exhibition at Detroit Institute
Communist Ties
to Feature Works from Brandeis U.
Sources of the works to be
An exhibition of "New Direc-
Are Weartng Thin tions
in American Art," comprising shown are the Rose Fine Arts
New developments in and around
the Kremlin draw special attention
to "World Communism—The Dis-
integration of a Secular Faith," by
Richard Lowenthal, published by
O x f o r d University Press (417
Fifth, NY ,16).
Iri this thorough analysis of the
Communist positions in Russia,
Red China, the other lands behind
the Iron Curtain, the author, who
is professor of international law
at the Free University of West Ber
lin, makes the interesting observg
tion that "most of the (preseni,
leaders of Conimunist parties . .
seem to lack the stature to retail
their position without the crutches
of Soviet authority." For that rea-
son, he maintains, they are reluc-
tant to experiment with new ideas.
He reaches the conclusion that
"those Communist parties that can
only exist as derivative totalitar-
ian parties will gradually wither
away with the decline of Soviet
authority." He adds to his predic-
tion that:
"parties rooted in the revolu-
tionary tensions of their own
country . . . may suffer a demo-
cratic tranformation . . . that
only Communist parties in coun-
tries with a genuine potential
for totalitarian revolution, or in
the regions bordering the Com-
munist empires, will survive as
effective anti-democratic forces
.. The potentially independent
totalitarian parties of the future
are, of course, concentrated in
the underdeveloped regions
where today Chinese ideological
influence is greatest. But the
founder members of the Com-
intern, the Communist parties of
industrial Europe that came into
being through the transforma-
tion, under Bolshevik influence,
of small democratic revolitionary
groups, may yet end by reverting
either to sectarian insignificance
or to democratic independence."
Lowenthal's resume of Commu-
nist positions is valuable from the
point of view of his total coverage
of events in many lands—of the
evolution of Titoism in Yugoslavia,
of the rapporchements in various
areas, of the ideological crises that
emerged in East European coun-
tries, of the Sino-Chinese situa-
tion, the various other alliances.
More especially, the Lowenthal
review is important .because of the
detailed account it offers of the
Stalinist movement •before
Khrushchev and the events that led
up to the elimination of Stalin.
While it was too early to pre-
dict the Khrushchev downfall,
Lowenthal's facts help in reaching
an understanding of basic facts in
the USSR.
Of interest also is the following
reference to Kremlin ties to the
Middle East:
"As the parties now backing
An Ancient Community
Moscow in Western Europe and
The government official escorting us throughout the city kept on
North America, in the Arab
maintains that religion is not -being suppressed in Bulgaria . . . And
world and tropical . Africa, and
to prove his point he brought us to one of the largest churches in
partly still in Asia and Latin
the city and later to another • . . But when I asked him to take me
America, learn to judge issues in
to the synagogue, he displayed a good deal of reluctance . . . He told
terms of their own drive to
me that the government financed the restoration of the Great Syna-
Power and acquire confidence in
gogue in Sofia after the Nazis retreated from the country . • . How-
their
own judgement, the tie to
ever, he was not happy when I insisted again and again on visiting the
Moscow is bound to wear in-
synagogue and finally said I must find the way myself . . .When I
creasingly thin."
asked him why all Jewish schools were closed, including the vocational
From other points of view,
ORT school, his reply was that government schools are wide open to
Jewish children and that there is no need for special Jewish schools "World Communism' by Richard
. . . He cited the fact that numerous Jews occupy important positions Lowenthal is of immense value for
in government institutions, and reminded me smilingly that Bulgaria an understanding the current
once had a Jewess as a queen . .. This was in the 14th Century when events.
a Bulgarian-born Jewish girl named Sarah married Czar Ivan Alex-
19th Century Pathologist
ander and became known s Queen Theodora ... She is being mentioned
in Bulgarian history and literature without hiding the fact that she was
Moritz Heinrich Romberg, a Jew-
of Jewish origin . Bulgarian history also indicates that Jewish com- ish physician who lived in Ger-
munities existed in .Bulgaria as early as- the 2nd Century, but the many in the early part of the 19th
number of Jews in the country was very small until the second half century, was the founder of the
of the 14th Century when Jews were banished from Hungary and science of pathological physiology
found asylum in Bulgaria . . . Their number increased further at the and neurology.
end of that century, when Bulgaria was conquered by the Turks . . .
Jewish School Teachers
By the time Bulgaria was liberated from Turkish rule, the Jewish
Jewish schools of all types in
communities there, composed primarily of Sephardic Jews, were quite
the United States last year had
prosperous ... With the fall of the Turkish rule, the Jews of Bulgaria
a total of more than 27,000
were granted full civil and political rights and . enjoyed full equality
teaching positions, more than
with the Christian population . • . The Nazi occupation of Bulgaria
half of them in 'Sunday schools.
changed a lot of things for the Jews, but the Christian population
proved itself strongly pro-Jewish not only by actively resisting Nazi
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
deportation of Jews to gas chambers, but also by preparing places for
Friday, October 30, 1964-41
Jews should they have to go into hiding.
Institute and Rose Art Museum at
Brandeis. The exhibit, being shown
throughout the country, also con-
tains several works on loan from
private institutions and collectors.
Mrs. Walter Fields is chairman of
Brandeis Day. Assisting her are
Mesdames Lawrence Weiner, Aub-
rey Goldman and Herbert Burdick.
over 60 works drawn largely from
Brandeis University's Rose Art
Museum, will be held Nov. 10 to
Dec. 6 at the Detroit Institute of
Arts.
The traveling art show is in com-
memoration of the birthday of the
late Supreme Court Justice Louis
D. Brandeis, for whom the univer-
sity was named.
On Nov. 13, the 109 th anniver-
sary of Brandeis' birth, the Detroit
Chapter of the Brandeis National
Women's Committee will observe
Brandeis Day with a special guided
lecture tour beginning 11 a.m. in
the museum's great hall. It will
be conducted by Mrs. Leonard
Kasle, a director of the Detroit
chapter and well known in art
circles. The public is invited, ac-
cording to Mrs. Eugene Sims. presi-
dent.
Harold Weissman, assistant
sports editor of the defunct
N.Y. Mirror, has joined a pay
television company on the west
coast.
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