The Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 5, 1967 Page: 17 of 115
one hundred fifteen pages : ill. ; page 15 x 10 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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By GABRIEL LEVENSON
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2540 Amherst
JA 4-3492
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WE GUARANTEE YOU WILL PLOTZ WITH LAUGHTER!)
From the Cast of HELLO SOLLYI
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of the JEWISH HERALD-VOICE
1-9-6-7
PAGE 13
We Would Love to see you in person
Sunday, Oct. 15 — Jones Hall
c4 ^Uisit to the ^jews o
3 tj^ulgaria
3 LOCATIONS
Th* Warwick
JA 6-1991
5120 Richmond
NA 2-2180
4019 S Braeswood
MO 7-9297
Mu s.iiy
non 110 n3U7
DAVID MANASTER, ms
• Mickey Katz
• Michael Rosenberg
• Vivian Lloyd
• Jack Hilliard
• Rickie Layne and Velvel
HOUSTON'S BIGGEST HOLIDAY TREAT
-1
All Product* Manufactured
Under Strict U.S. Government
Inspection and Orthodox
NEW YEAR GREETINGS
MOELLER’S BAKERY
HOME OF BETTER BAKERY PRODUCTS
See Us for Birthday Cakes
Tickets at all Foley Stores.
Admission: $3.00, $4.00, $5.00 and $6.00.
under the local Management of Todd-Arlene Productions.
JA 9-0179
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KOSHERZION ?
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—Sofia, Bulgaria
The Sabbath lights are going
out all over this small Balkan na-
tion; they will not be rekindled in
our time.
Thirty elderly Jews gather
every week for Friday evening
worship in the Midrasha of
Sofia’s great Central Synagogue
at 16 Exarch Josif Street. The
cantor holds high an ancient silver
cup and chants the kiddush in the
traditional Sephardic version. His
congregants—the youngest in his
mid-sixties; the oldest, 92—re-
spond as their ancestors have done
since the first Jews settled in the
Balkan Peninsula two centuries
before the Christian era.
Except for occasional appear-
ances at Purim or the High Holy
Days, their children never attend
services; to their children’s chil-
RZION
hangs a large drawing of the syn-
agogue at the time of its dedica-
tion. Against one wall is a book-
case, whose glass doors protect
the parchment-bound books and
documents of Sofia’s once-thriving
Jewish community.
Before World War Two, Mr.
Moscona says, there were 45,000
Jews in Bulgaria, 26,000 in Sofia
alone—supporting their five major
synagogues and ten smaller mid-
rasha. Now there are only 6,000
in the entire country—out of a
total population of eight million;
and 3,000 Jews are in Sofia.
Despite German penetration and
control of the country, the 45,000
Jews survived the war. So deep
were their roots in the country,
and so fierce the Bulgarian deter-
mination to defend them, that even
Himmler’s SS elite forces did not
dare to carry out—in Bulgaria—
the policies of deportation and ex-
Continued on Page 107
Aus
NMTMI- VI
{EST.1K2)
dren, the synagogue is as remote
as is the splendid, gold-domed
Alexander Nevsky Memorial
Church (half a mile away) to the
young Sofians whose grandpar-
ents observed the Russian Ortho-
dox ritual there.
Unused, like the Nevsky
church, the synagogue is now a
national historical monument. But
85 years ago, 1,000 persons fill-
ed every seat at its dedication,
with King Ferdinand himself, his
queen and members of the foreign
diplomatic corps participating in
the ceremonies.
Bulgaria had won its freedom
only 10 years earlier, after five
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centuries of Ottoman rule; and
the new synagogue was designed
in the still-dominant Turkish style.
A huge chandelier hangs from the
interior of the hundred-foot-high
dome. Graceful, fluted columns,
separated by curved Moorish
arches, support the galleries. The
floor is inlaid with an intricately
patterned mosaic tile.
With disuse, decay has set in
at the synagogue. The wrought-
iron gate, topped by the Star of
David, which leads into the court-
yard is rusty. The cobblestones of
the yard are sprouting grass. A
gypsy woman sells tomatoes at a
stand in front of the building;
across the street, busy shoppers,
carrying their mesh bags, hurry
into a long, barn-like building
which houses dozens of vegetable
and fruit stalls.
The Midrasha, a small ante-
room, is now used for services, but
the doors leading into the main
synagogue are fastened with an
old brass padlock. Curator and
gate-keeper is Isac Moscona, pres-
ident of the Central Religious
Council of Israelites in Bulgaria.
He is a man in his mid-sixties,
with the deeply-lined face and
stooped shoulders of a scholar.
He speaks eight languages well,
including Turkish, Spanish and
Hebrew. In his office, across the
entrance hall from the Midrasha,
Jones Hall — Sun., Oct. 15
8 P.M.
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h Rabbinical Supervision.
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White, D. H. The Jewish Herald-Voice (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 62, No. 27, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 5, 1967, newspaper, October 5, 1967; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1527819/m1/17/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .