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I can’t say how large the Jewish community in Sofia was during my childhood but I think there were a lot of people. There were two synagogues in Sofia at that time, and the other prayer houses, which were smaller, were called midrashi [bet midrash]. There was a rabbi, a shochet and a chazzan. The two synagogues were the Central Synagogue [see Great Synagogue] [4] and the Iuchbunar Synagogue [5]. There were two Jewish schools [in Sofia] [6]: the central one and the Iuchbunar one. The central one was on Tsar Kaloyan Street where the Rila Hotel is now, or to be more precise, the shop ‘Sredets’ which is in front of the hotel. I studied at that school, but it was bombed and destroyed during World War II. At seven years of age I was sent to an orphanage, because my father had died and my mother had six daughters and no money. Then she was forced to buy a sewing machine and pay for it by installments. She used to sew some clothes and supported the family in this way. Unfortunately, she couldn’t support us all, so firstly she sent my older sister to an orphanage and a few years later, I was sent too. It was a Jewish orphanage ‘Tsaritsa [Queen] Yoanna’ [Editor’s note: actually the interviewee means ‘Queen Eleonore’ [7] orphanage. There was a school named ‘Tsaritsa Yoanna’ in Sofia]. It was located opposite Slavia football ground near the Russian monument in Sofia.
I have always felt some kind of anti-Semitism around me. I didn’t experience it personally, because I lived mostly in the Jewish neighborhood, but I heard from my elder cousins that they had been called ‘chifuti’ [8] or other insulting words. While I was in the Jewish orphanage we went on vacation: we went camping to Berkovitsa. Other orphanages were there as well. They were close to ours: one of them was ‘Bitolya,’ I don’t remember the other one, but it was also close. Our orphanage was supported by rich Jews and we were a little bit better off than the others. We went to Berkovitsa, and ate better food. The children from the other orphanages came and beat us if we didn’t let them eat our food. And I heard the word ‘chifuti’ and other words, which I didn’t know the meanings of at that time.
Friday was a market day but carts with vegetables and fruit passed through the streets. Since my mother had a lot of work, she waited for someone to pass in order to buy something. She worked at home, and so did my elder sister in order to support us. I remember the people with the carts shouting, ‘Tomatoes blue, purple and juicy!’ [Editor’s note: They are generally referred to as eggplant.] And by the shouting we knew who passed. Then she went out and bought something. There were some merchants whom we knew and who gave us goods on credit. Mostly poor people lived in our neighborhood. They were retailers, craftsmen, etc. My father-in-law was a junk dealer. There were also tailors, cobblers and barbers. There were richer Jews in other residential districts in Sofia, but in our neighborhood they were mostly poor.
I have always felt some kind of anti-Semitism around me. I didn’t experience it personally, because I lived mostly in the Jewish neighborhood, but I heard from my elder cousins that they had been called ‘chifuti’ [8] or other insulting words. While I was in the Jewish orphanage we went on vacation: we went camping to Berkovitsa. Other orphanages were there as well. They were close to ours: one of them was ‘Bitolya,’ I don’t remember the other one, but it was also close. Our orphanage was supported by rich Jews and we were a little bit better off than the others. We went to Berkovitsa, and ate better food. The children from the other orphanages came and beat us if we didn’t let them eat our food. And I heard the word ‘chifuti’ and other words, which I didn’t know the meanings of at that time.
Friday was a market day but carts with vegetables and fruit passed through the streets. Since my mother had a lot of work, she waited for someone to pass in order to buy something. She worked at home, and so did my elder sister in order to support us. I remember the people with the carts shouting, ‘Tomatoes blue, purple and juicy!’ [Editor’s note: They are generally referred to as eggplant.] And by the shouting we knew who passed. Then she went out and bought something. There were some merchants whom we knew and who gave us goods on credit. Mostly poor people lived in our neighborhood. They were retailers, craftsmen, etc. My father-in-law was a junk dealer. There were also tailors, cobblers and barbers. There were richer Jews in other residential districts in Sofia, but in our neighborhood they were mostly poor.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
Adela Nissimova Levi