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Sat, Feb 11 2012
Sofia Synagogue celebrating 100th anniversary
Photo: Valentina Petrova
Photo: Valentina Petrova
Photo: Julia Lazarova
An official ceremony, concert and an art exhibition are part of celebrations of the September 9 2009 centenary of the Central Sofia Synagogue, Shalom, the organisation of the Jewish community in Bulgaria, has announced.
The ceremony on September 9 is expected to be attended by President Georgi Purvanov and other VIPs.
On September 6, at the Jewish house of culture there will be a celebration of the European Day of Jewish Culture.
The following day, an exhibition opens at the National Gallery for Foreign Art entitled From Paskin to Yoan Leviev, a showing of work by Bulgarian artists of Jewish origin.
September 8 sees a concert at Bulgaria Hall by the Sofia Philharmonic.
Maxim Benvenisti, head of Shalom, said that the Synagogue symbolised how Bulgarian Jews were part of society, and the 100th anniversary celebrations were an occasion for a reminder about religious tolerance.
The inauguration of the Synagogue in 1909 was attended by Bulgarian King Ferdinand. The building was declared a monument of culture in 1955.
The Synagogue is the largest in South Eastern Europe and the third-largest on the continent after those in Budapest and Amsterdam.
Designed by Austrian architect Friedrich Gruenanger in a Spanish-Moorish style, Sofia Synagogue echoes the style of the Leopolstaedter Synagogue in Vienna, which was subsequently destroyed during the Nazi era.
The roof reaches to 33m and the building has six towers with the six-pointed star facing towards Jerusalem. The Sofia Synagogue has 1170 seats, a conference hall, library and museum. Restoration of the Synagogue has taken place in recent years with assistance from Israel, private donors and the Bulgarian state.
The ceremony on September 9 is expected to be attended by President Georgi Purvanov and other VIPs.
On September 6, at the Jewish house of culture there will be a celebration of the European Day of Jewish Culture.
The following day, an exhibition opens at the National Gallery for Foreign Art entitled From Paskin to Yoan Leviev, a showing of work by Bulgarian artists of Jewish origin.
September 8 sees a concert at Bulgaria Hall by the Sofia Philharmonic.
Maxim Benvenisti, head of Shalom, said that the Synagogue symbolised how Bulgarian Jews were part of society, and the 100th anniversary celebrations were an occasion for a reminder about religious tolerance.
The inauguration of the Synagogue in 1909 was attended by Bulgarian King Ferdinand. The building was declared a monument of culture in 1955.
The Synagogue is the largest in South Eastern Europe and the third-largest on the continent after those in Budapest and Amsterdam.
Designed by Austrian architect Friedrich Gruenanger in a Spanish-Moorish style, Sofia Synagogue echoes the style of the Leopolstaedter Synagogue in Vienna, which was subsequently destroyed during the Nazi era.
The roof reaches to 33m and the building has six towers with the six-pointed star facing towards Jerusalem. The Sofia Synagogue has 1170 seats, a conference hall, library and museum. Restoration of the Synagogue has taken place in recent years with assistance from Israel, private donors and the Bulgarian state.
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The Sofia Echo
With this centenary, Shalom and the Jews of conscience in Bulgaria show dedicate themselces to two additional tasks: building ties with the Muslim community in Bulgaria, our natural brothers and sisters, and standing together with Bulgaria's underclass, the Roma. The Roma were gassed together with East European Jewry at Chelmno, Birkenau, Treblinka, and are still persecuted today. We need a Jewish-Roma Alliance in Bulgaria, and a Muslim-Jewish Alliance across this nation.
Jews of conscience should be struggling for real tolerance inside Bulgaria and a genuine multicultural, multireligious society, under the banner of a rainbow Bulgaria, България [...]
Read the full comment многоцветнa, mutual aid + solidarity.
I'm proud to be a Bulgarian Jew.
The synagogue was closed when we visited in 1995. --Happy to see now.
Congratulations.