Bringing in Shabbos in Bulgaria
| August 15, 2012
When we journeyed to Plovdiv Bulgaria last year we conducted a Shabbaton in one of the only two functioning shuls in the entire country. It was the first time in recent memory that the Jews of Plovdiv had a community Shabbos with meals davening and shiurim. Afterward we stopped in a small town called Pazhardik. There smack in the center of town stood a polished looking building that on the inside was gathering dust. Constructed in 1850 this had been the local shul for decades a reminder that at times this town’s population was over 30 percent Jewish.During the Communist era the building was first used as a local history museum and then it was sporadically used as a warehouse. It had not been used for prayer since the 1940s. Looking through rusty metal grates and cobwebbed windows and stymied by a huge lock Ari G. decided that this shul would once again hear the singing of Lecha Dodi and the reading of the Torah. A year later that happened and this is the story.
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