Bulgarian Jews: Communist Era (1945-89)


Figure 1.-- Communist authorities did limit the public expression of religion. Children educated in Judaism had to be taught secretly by their parents inside the home. Here are two Jewish boys reading Torah and preparing for prayer in 1966.

At the end of World War II, the Red Army occupied Bulgaria and proceeded to impose a Communist People's Republic. This began with the Fatherland Front. Jewish communal life came under the control of the Communists and their sympathizers. The Fatherland Front set up a Central Jewish Committee under the Front's Commission for National Minorities. The Communists supervised the Central Jewish Consistory. Bulgaria became slavishly obdient sattelite state which was organized along Soviet lines. This included an athiest campaign. Bulgarian Jews which largely supported Zionism after the War, wantedf to emmigrate to Palesine, but were preventd by British immigration quotas and the Bulgarian Communists which were anti-Zionist. When the British left, Israel declared its independence (1948). Exit from Bulgaria was made possible by a change in Soviet policy. Most Bulgarian Jews left for Israel at this time. The Bulgarin Jewish population before the War was about 50,000 people and because the Bulgarian people resisted the NAZIS, most survived the War. The emigration to Israel reduced the popularion to only avout 5,000 Jews during by the 1950s. The Israeli government reports nearly 44,000 emigrees from Bulgaria through 2006. They indicate that this is the . 3,961 people from Bulgaria have emigrated to Israel between 1948 and 2006, which is the fourth largest number of jews from all European countries(behind the Soviet Union, Romania, and Poland). Communist authorities did limit the public expression of religion. Children educated in Judaism had to be taught secretly by their parents inside the home.






HBC





Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main Bulgarian Jewish page]
[Return to the Main Jewish Diaspora pages]
[Return to the Main Jewish pages]
[Return to the Main Bulgarian page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]





Created: 2:46 AM 2/6/2013
Last updated: 2:46 AM 2/6/2013