The Sofia Synagogue




Today we went to see the Synagogue of Sofia (http://www.sofiasynagogue.com/), =which was quite interesting. The synagogue was built in 1909, and they will be celebrating 100 years in Sept. The Jewish community in the States donated money for the renovation of the synagogue, so you can see that it's being worked on and restored.

There is a beautiful chandelier, which weighs 2 tons! The decorations on the walls are of Spanish and Arabic influence. Since the original Jewish population arrived in Bulgaria from Spain, this is the influence that is seen. The Jewish population in all of Bulgaria today is 6000, of which 2000 live in Sofia. Before WW2, the Jewish population of Bulgaria was 52,000 - we have learned that the Bulgarian king at the time, although he sided with the Nazis, refused to turn over the Jews of Bulgaria to the Nazis. Most of the Jews left Bulgaria after the war and moved to Israel.

Comments

  1. CharlieNovember 1, 2011 at 6:53 PM

    In school im learning about jews and synagogues and i love RE and i love learning about the jews and this a perfect example for my homework and this building is a beautiful building.

    ReplyDelete

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