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Frankly speaking, I didn’t like the changes that took place after 10th November 1989 [16]. The reason is that the people in Bulgaria got significantly poorer; there is nothing left from the economy and social security of the past, which we remember from the totalitarian period; and that is why people as a whole feel bad. Firstly, because they came suddenly and lasted for too long. Of course, it is wrong to deny everything that is new, but we cannot simply bury all that was created in the totalitarian period in Bulgaria. People, despite their humble income, lived then much more calmly. I know a lot of people of my age who want the socialism back in power. This is a very understandable wish, given the increased level of crime in the country after 1989. My family is nostalgic about the time when we could afford to go to the sea-side or to the mountains every year, when we regularly bought books, newspapers, magazines. To put it in simple words: we lived very well then, without having big salaries. I will not even mention the medicines. Now we don't know how to save money to buy the medicines we need.
I have been to Israel three times (1974, 1982 and 1994) together with my husband and want to underline that the life there, even not so calm, is much better. I remember that when I first went there my father Yosif Faivel Fridman had already died. As I have already mentioned my elder brother, Ruben, took care of my mother in Israel, although my younger brother Shraga lived with his family nearer her, in the same street in Yagur actually. In 1974 Israel seemed to me a beautiful and calm country for the time. Later I began to worry because of the disorders there. Now I travel much less frequently due to my illness which makes me relatively sluggish. I go to visit our family friends (who are predominantly Jewish) more rarely, but I am well informed of everything that is going on in the Bulgarian Jewish community. It is because of my husband Mois Saltiel who was the chairman of the Jewish Library Club in Sofia for more than 10 years, and has been the chairman of the ‘Golden Age’ club at the Jewish Organization in Bulgaria ‘Shalom’ [17] for more than two years. The activity of the club consists of weekly gatherings on Saturday afternoons, when the old members of our community gather. The club organizes a multitude of meetings with artists of Jewish origin, more or less nearing the golden age, such as the actor Itzhak Fintzi, theater director professor Grisha Ostrovski, the writer Victor Baruh, etc. It is the arrangement and holding of these meetings, as well as the organized attendance to cinema and theater performances that my husband takes care of.
I have been to Israel three times (1974, 1982 and 1994) together with my husband and want to underline that the life there, even not so calm, is much better. I remember that when I first went there my father Yosif Faivel Fridman had already died. As I have already mentioned my elder brother, Ruben, took care of my mother in Israel, although my younger brother Shraga lived with his family nearer her, in the same street in Yagur actually. In 1974 Israel seemed to me a beautiful and calm country for the time. Later I began to worry because of the disorders there. Now I travel much less frequently due to my illness which makes me relatively sluggish. I go to visit our family friends (who are predominantly Jewish) more rarely, but I am well informed of everything that is going on in the Bulgarian Jewish community. It is because of my husband Mois Saltiel who was the chairman of the Jewish Library Club in Sofia for more than 10 years, and has been the chairman of the ‘Golden Age’ club at the Jewish Organization in Bulgaria ‘Shalom’ [17] for more than two years. The activity of the club consists of weekly gatherings on Saturday afternoons, when the old members of our community gather. The club organizes a multitude of meetings with artists of Jewish origin, more or less nearing the golden age, such as the actor Itzhak Fintzi, theater director professor Grisha Ostrovski, the writer Victor Baruh, etc. It is the arrangement and holding of these meetings, as well as the organized attendance to cinema and theater performances that my husband takes care of.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Juliet Saltiel