INSIDE:
Super-Sized
Kornwise Weekend . . 86
The Scene
Happenings
88
Chamber Festival
Kicks Off Season . . . . 90
OE"
HARRY KIRSBAUM
Sta Writer
Clockwise from
top left: Adam
Horowitz, Mrs.
Tashev and
Nickolay Tashev
in Sofia.
Adam Horowitz,
Arnie Weiner,
Debbie Stern,
and Perry Teicher
in Sofia.
Varna Cemetery
MICHIGAN GROUP JOINS BBYO
PROGRAM THAT VISITS POOR
JEWISH COMMUNITIES
IN BULGARIA.
hat impressed Adam Horowitz most about the
Jews he met in Bulgaria was their joy at coming
together as Jews, even if they didn't know much
about Jewish rituals.
Horowitz, 16, of West Bloomfield, traveled to Bulgaria from
March 29 to April 5. He was part of a B'nai B'rith Youth
Organization Ambassador program of about 30 young people
and BBYO staff from around the United States who helped
restore a spirit of Judaism to a small Bulgarian Jewish population.
"They're just getting back their Jewish lifestyles," Horowitz
said. "They didn't have it during the Communist era before
1991. Their Judaism is based on Zionism. They don't really have
holiday knowledge, they don't speak Hebrew, their houses don't
have mezuzot or anything we consider Judaically important.
"In fact, many of the kids are just finding out they're Jewish
and just learning how to be Jewish, but it's still very important
to them."
Horowitz traveled with Perry Teicher, 16, of West
Bloomfield; Arnie Weiner, Michigan BBYO director and inter-
im International BBYO director; and Debbie Stern, immediate
past-president of the BBYO board. They were the first
Michigan contingent to make the trip.
The BBYO re-established a youth program in Bulgaria a few
years ago with a part-time director and assistant director,
Weiner said. The yearly trips by American BBYO members
help establish a continuing relationship with the relatively poor
Jewish community in Bulgaria that numbers 3,200, according
to a 1995 American Jewish Committee census.
The group davened (prayed) at a Shabbat service at the cen-
tral synagogue in the capital city of Sofia, attended a seder in
Varna on the Black Sea coast, and helped clean up the Varna
Jewish cemetery.
"Restoring a cemetery that was basically overgrown with
weeds made a real impact on me," Teicher said. "Seeing a
Jewish community not in Israel, on the other side of the
world, was amazing."
Spending time with Jewish kids his age in a poor communi-
ty caused him to "reflect on what I have here, and not take it
for granted," he said.
Although the Jews of Bulgaria live in very small apartments
the bathrooms have old-fashioned pull-chain toilets and the
showers are made from pipes that come out of the ceiling —
computers are inexpensive, and many families have them.
Teicher said he will keep in e-mail contact with some of his new
friends, and he plans to meet up with four of them when they
attend a BBYO program in the United States this summer.
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4/13
2001
85