Tag #124681 - Interview #78517 (Leon Yako Anzhel)

I haven’t thought very much about the problem of the creation of the state of Israel and whether it was a completely just and correct cause but I have always had a reserved attitude towards the official policy of Bulgaria towards Israel. On one or two occasions I even made a mistake. On one of them we were in a meeting in ‘Voroshilov’ works against the invasion of Israeli forces in Egypt. I was a party secretary then. The people from two or three shops were together. And I, not deliberately, appealed, ‘The people who agree with the policy of the Jewish state, please vote.’ And they immediately started reprimanding me, ‘Hey, what do you think you are doing?’ Because I was supposed to ask only for votes ‘against,’ not ‘for.’

The second case was here in the neighborhood. I was party secretary then. We had a party meeting once and while we were talking about the Zionists, that they were chauvinists, conquerors, Zionists, there sounded the conclusion ‘That filthy Jewry.’ The hall was full. And I interrupted, ‘The comrade lecturer doesn’t talk about the problems in a correct way. How could he say filthy Jewry? He can criticize the Zionists but to say filthy Jewry, to insult the whole Jewish people like that, I don’t agree.’ And the most interesting thing was that the hall applauded me, which means that the Bulgarians agreed with me. Afterwards I was even praised for finding the courage to say that.