FORMER SYNAGOGUE

An upright stone next to the Post Office indicates where Kardzhali's synagogue used to stand.

The first Jews arrived in Kardzhali, in the eastern Rhodope, in the 1890s. The town ended up in Bulgaria after the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913. New arrivals from places that remained outside of Bulgaria, including Odrin (now Edirne in Turkey), Gyumyurdzhina and Ksanti (now Komotini and Xanthi in Greece) were quick to make their new homes in town. They were joined by Jews from the Bulgarian hinterland: Stara Zagora, Chirpan, Plovdiv and Haskovo. The community was small but active. It erected its synagogue in 1924. That synagogue was gutted by fire set up by Bulgarian nationalists when the antisemitic legislation was enforced. It was demolished for good in the 1950s.