This is a photograph of Yako Izidor Yakov taken on the occasion of his bar mitzvah which was held on April 22, 1933 in Ruse, Bulgaria. Yako is standing in a formal pose wearing a suit, white shirt, and hat. A large cloth bow is pinned to the left sleeve of his suit. Yako is standing next to an upholstered chair and resting his right arm on the back of the chair. He is smiling in the photograph. In his oral history, Yako recalls that his bar mitzvah was an exciting day for him. He worked hard to memorise the speech that his literature teacher wrote for him. The speech was difficult to remember, because it contained many foreign words which he did not understand. Yako described the presents he received on his bar mitzvah including his first wristwatch from his father and an ink stand with paper and a paper knife from his uncle.
Yako’s ancestors came from Spain and moved to Turkey at the time of the Ottoman Empire. From there, they moved to Ruse, Bulgaria, which is located on the shores of the Danube River. Yako remembers Ruse at the beginning of the twentieth century when it had three synagogues: a small Ashkenazi synagogue, a large Sephardi synagogue, and a small Sephardi synagogue. The community did not have a rabbi, but they had a chazan (cantor) who was also a shochet (ritual slaughterer). He recalls large holiday celebrations in the synagogue when he was young. Yako explained that: “although they were not the largest ethnic group, the Jews had the strongest presence in every respect: they worked as advisors in the town’s municipality; they also influenced the cultural events in the town.” Yako attended a Jewish primary school, where a teacher from Israel (then Palestine) taught him Hebrew and Tanach. Later on he went to a Bulgarian school and joined the Hashomer HaTzair youth movement.
By the end of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1940s, Yako says that the young people “became atheists under the influence of the leftist ideas of communism. We were involved in illegal activities and escaped from the labor camps to become partisans.” During the war, Yako worked in a series of labour camps and also worked with the partisans. After the war, some of Yako’s family moved to Israel, while he remained in Ruse and served in the Bulgarian Navy, was involved in political life, and was the director of two Bulgarian theatres. Yako married a non-Jewish woman but said that she raised their son: “to feel Jewish, and he feels more Jewish than I do.” His grandchildren are also connected to their Jewish roots, and one of them lives with her family in Israel on a kibbutz. He explained that he didn’t immigrate to Israel because of his communist ideals but that he visited the country in 1988, fulfilling a lifetime dream.
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Jewish Community of Ruse, Bulgaria – The earliest records of the Jewish community in Ruse date back to the late eighteenth century. By the end of the eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century, the Jewish community became more established and began building communal institutions such as synagogues and schools. The city housed two Sephardi and one Ashkenazi synagogues. Along with charitable and educational institutions, the Jews of Ruse founded Zionist organizations for adults and young people including a Maccabi sports clubs, a newspaper, a library, and a drama club. Prior to World War II, there were around 3000 Jews in Ruse. In 1940, the anti-Semitic Law for the Protection of the Nation was passed, limiting the rights of Jews in Bulgaria. Jews were citizens without rights, were forced to wear the yellow star, and were not allowed to own stores or factories. In March 1941, German troops entered Bulgaria, and many Jews were sent to forced labour camps. Despite the German demands to send the Jews of Bulgaria to death camps, this did not happen due to Bulgarian opposition. The war ended in Bulgaria in 1944; Zionist activity resumed, and between 1948 and 1950 almost all of the remaining Jews of Ruse moved to Israel. During the 1990s, the derelict Jewish buildings of Ruse and the Sephardi synagogue was sold to a Protestant organisation that turned it into a church. Today, the small Sephardi community remaining in Ruse uses the former Ashkenazi synagogue as a community centre.
The Jewish Community in Bulgaria - The Jewish community in Bulgaria has a long and rich history. The first Jews arrived after the Roman conquest in about 46 AD, and Josephus himself wrote about Jews living there. More Jews arrived in the seventh century, escaping ill-treatment by the Byzantines. Following the lead of other countries, the Church Council demanded the expulsion of Jews from Bulgaria in 1352, although according to records the decree was not executed meticulously. By the time that the Ottoman Empire had full control of the country, there were several sizeable Jewish communities across Bulgaria. For several centuries, the community was split into Romaniotes, Ashkenazim, and Sephardim, until 1640 when a single rabbi was appointed for all three groups. Once the modern state was formed in 1878, Bulgarian Jews were granted equal rights. Jews were drafted into the Bulgarian Army and fought in the Serbo-Bulgarian War (1885), the Balkan Wars (1912-13), and World War I. The deaths of 211 Jewish soldiers of the Bulgarian Army, among them 28 officers, were recorded during World War I. In July 1940, the Bulgarian authorities introduced anti-Semitic laws, and in March 1941, Bulgaria joined the Axis alliance and took part in the German attack on Yugoslavia and Greece. The first wave of Jewish deportation began in the winter of 1943 from the Bulgarian-occupied areas such as Macedonia, Thrace, and Pirot. These Jewish communities were delivered to the Germans who sent them to their death in Treblinka. In February 1943, the Bulgarian government approached the British with a proposal to send their Jews to Mandatory Palestine, but the plan was declined by British Foreign Minister Eden. The next stage was to deport the Jews from Bulgaria proper, but due to protests launched by opposition politicians, clergy, and intellectuals, Bulgarian Jews were not sent to the death camps but were expelled to the countryside and to labour camps. After the war, Israel formally thanked Bulgaria for defying Nazi commands to deport their Jews. In the years following the Holocaust, most Jews left Bulgaria, the majority immigrating to Israel. It is estimated that the Jewish community of Bulgaria currently comprises between 2000 and 6000 people, most of whom live in Sofia. There are two functioning synagogues, a Jewish elementary and high school, youth movements, and representation of international Jewish organisations.
Bar/Bat Mitzvah – Bar mitzvah for boys or bat mitzvah for girls refers to the ages, 12 and 13 respectively, at which a Jew becomes obligated to fulfil the Jewish commandments and is allowed to participate fully in Jewish ritual and law. Since the Middle Ages, Jewish families have celebrated this milestone with a variety of different ceremonies and celebrations that have developed over time and place. In the past only boys celebrated their coming of age, but these days, in most communities, girls also celebrate. Bar and bat mitzvahs may consist of the celebrant being called up to the Torah for an aliyah, reading the weekly Torah portion or Haftarah, giving a sermon about the Torah reading, or leading the prayer service. Parties are probably the most common way of celebrating this milestone with family and friends. In recent years, participating in a social action project has also become quite common in some communities. In the past only boys celebrated their coming of age, though in recent years almost all communities celebrate also the girls' Bat Mitzvah.
