Bulgaria Takes Pride In Being First To Help Israel With Carmel Fire--And Of Its Jewish History

Though Bulgaria did not bring planes and helicopters with them to help with the Carmel fire, they did bring a delegation of 92 fire fighters--and they were the first to arrive.

According to former Bulgarian ambassador to Israel Dimiter Tzantchev, who is now Bulgaria's deputy foreign minister, Bulgaria this is consistent with the history of special ties that Bulgaria has with the Jewish people:

He first spoke of the Holocaust and the efforts made by the Bulgarian people and local Orthodox Church to save the country’s 48,000 Jews. Bulgaria was the only country under Nazi occupation that did not deport a single Jew to the death camps, and after the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, nearly the entire community immigrated en masse to Israel.

“Since I’ve been up here, I’ve been approached by a number of older Israelis who were born in Bulgaria and immigrated to Israel after the state was founded. They told me that when they saw Bulgaria was the first country to send people, they said, ‘You cannot imagine how proud we were.’” Looking back further into history, Tzantchev spoke of then-chief rabbi of Sofia Gabriel Almosnino, who offered the help of the Jewish community when the Turks threatened to torch Sofia during the country’s revolt against its Turkish occupiers in 1878.

Tzantchev related how, as rioting and arson spread through Sofia in 1878, the Jewish community formed a militia and a team of firefighters that helped save the city from being set aflame by the retreating Turks.

Looks like that is one debt that Bulgaria has paid back in full.

Hat tip: Eli Tabori

Technorati Tag: Carmel Fire and Bulgaria.