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I raised my son in the spirit of leftist ideas. My wife and I were left- oriented and supported the Communist Party. I continue to be left-oriented today. My daughter-in-law is a Jew from Plovdiv. This was important for our family. Our son is familiar with all the Jewish traditions.
My brother and sister left for Israel, not with the mass aliyah [16] in 1948-49, but earlier. My brother Shelomo graduated from the agriculture school in Sadovo and was ready to be a halutz and left for Palestine in 1942. He got issued a passport and with my help, almost illegally since he hadn't done his military service, left for Palestine. There he settled in a camp and later took part in the Haganah [17] resistance movement [17] against the English rule, which existed until the establishment of the Jewish state. My sister Vizanka also left before the establishment of the Jewish state - in 1946. She graduated from the special school for sewing crafts and consumers' goods in Sofia and was also prepared to live in a kibbutz. In Israel, after 1948, she became a tailor in the Ein Hahoresh kibbutz. There everyone does what he or she can and receives what all the others receive. Vizanka married an Austrian Jew, Michael Gila Zur, in Israel and adopted the name Gila Zur. My brother also married in Israel. My parents left for Israel in 1949. They settled in Haifa and died there in the middle of the 1950s.
I went to Israel for the first time in 1954 to visit my sister and my brother. My stay in Israel was planned for one month, but the ship with which I arrived and which was supposed to bring me back to Bulgaria, was three months late and I stayed longer. Meanwhile, I applied for non-paid leave to keep my position in the institute. I didn't have any problems with the authorities for staying in Israel for three months. I respect Georgi Dimitrov [18] a lot, since he, in contrast to Stalin, allowed the Bulgarian Jews to leave for Israel. At the moment there are very few Jews in Bulgaria and mixed marriages between Bulgarians and Jews happen a lot more often. They are the reason for the strange combination of Bulgarian and Jewish names.
My brother and sister left for Israel, not with the mass aliyah [16] in 1948-49, but earlier. My brother Shelomo graduated from the agriculture school in Sadovo and was ready to be a halutz and left for Palestine in 1942. He got issued a passport and with my help, almost illegally since he hadn't done his military service, left for Palestine. There he settled in a camp and later took part in the Haganah [17] resistance movement [17] against the English rule, which existed until the establishment of the Jewish state. My sister Vizanka also left before the establishment of the Jewish state - in 1946. She graduated from the special school for sewing crafts and consumers' goods in Sofia and was also prepared to live in a kibbutz. In Israel, after 1948, she became a tailor in the Ein Hahoresh kibbutz. There everyone does what he or she can and receives what all the others receive. Vizanka married an Austrian Jew, Michael Gila Zur, in Israel and adopted the name Gila Zur. My brother also married in Israel. My parents left for Israel in 1949. They settled in Haifa and died there in the middle of the 1950s.
I went to Israel for the first time in 1954 to visit my sister and my brother. My stay in Israel was planned for one month, but the ship with which I arrived and which was supposed to bring me back to Bulgaria, was three months late and I stayed longer. Meanwhile, I applied for non-paid leave to keep my position in the institute. I didn't have any problems with the authorities for staying in Israel for three months. I respect Georgi Dimitrov [18] a lot, since he, in contrast to Stalin, allowed the Bulgarian Jews to leave for Israel. At the moment there are very few Jews in Bulgaria and mixed marriages between Bulgarians and Jews happen a lot more often. They are the reason for the strange combination of Bulgarian and Jewish names.
Location
Bulgaria
Interview
haim molhov