Tag #124061 - Interview #98839 (Aron Nissim Alkalai)

The population in Dupnitsa was around 16 000 people and the Jewish community was around 1 800, I think. There was a synagogue, which was built in 1599. The Jewish municipality had its own building and bank. There was a chazzan and a shochet in the synagogue. As far as I remember the name of the chazzan was Haim. I do not remember the name of the shochet. He was in a separate building. The chazzan went to slaughterhouses to look at the meat and said which meat was kosher and stamped it so that the Jews would know which meat to buy. I know an interesting story in a slaughterhouse. Once the chazzan went to the slaughterhouse and the people offered him an anesthetized and nice-looking lamb. But when the chazzan saw him, he told them that that animal was not for our people. The Bulgarians who worked there were shocked. They thought that they had chosen a very nice animal. After they slaughtered it and opened its skull, it turned out that the animal was not well and that the chazzan was right.