Hanukkah 3rd Candle = Bulgarian Coworkers

Fortunately, we had a lot of salads left over from the previous day, so we didn’t have as much preparation to do on Sunday. Another batch of 40 latkes were fried, more donuts were picked up from the mall, and we were left with getting everything out before our guests started to arrive around 5:00.

As per Bulgarian custom, many of our guests started to remove their shoes when they came in, but after we told them that they can keep them on, some of them put them back on again!

We had about 25 adults and 2 small children this night. Once everyone arrived, Ellis gave an explanation of the history of the holiday and the different customs. I then told everyone about the traditional holiday and Israeli foods that we had prepared.

My boss, Yuval, came with his wife and 2 young daughters, and they also brought their own Menorahs. We lit them at the same time and sang the blessings together. Afterwards, everyone helped themselves to the food – I think they liked the different salads – this time, everything went!

We enjoyed being able to share our holiday with our new friends and acquaintances, and to be able to show something new to our Bulgarian friends – we’ve learned so much about their customs and holidays since we’ve been here, and were happy to reciprocate the experience.


Iva, Luca, Moshe, Tony, Damian, Ina, Marina, Nedyalko.


Kalin, Petar, Ivelina, Yana, Martin, Milen, Amit, with Noam in the foreground.


Jodie lights the candles with Stoyan, Aleks, Thomas, Ionatan, as Yuval and Amit light their own Hanukkiah with their daughters.


Noam enjoys the pita with her sister in the background.

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