Synagogue

The Jewish community of Gotse Delchev, then Nevrokop, built itself a synagogue in 1939. That red-brick building still stands near the modern bus station. As it is surrounded by small shops, it is easy to overlook unless you keep your eyes open for the distinct Judaic dome with a Star of David on top of it. 

The story of the Nevrokop synagogue is that bitter-sweet parable of how Jewish fate swung between good fortune and disaster throughout the centuries of Jewish presence in the Bulgarian lands. In the late 1940s-early 1950s the synagogue was sold to the Baruh family, the only Jews living in town. Although it was declared a monument of culture, it was turned into living quarters. Its hall was converted into two residential floors, the upper floor being an apartment while the lower floor was used as a warehouse. 

It remains so to this day. The lower level of what used to be the synagogue's hall of prayer, including the Aron HaKodesh, is full of cardboard boxes. Walk up the staircase into the apartment quarters and you will be able to see a starry sky still remaining on the inner side of the dome. It has been heavily damaged by damp and mould. The space under the dome is used as an attic. The former synagogue was delisted as a monument of culture in 2008. 

At the onset of the Second World War Belgrade, the capital of what used to be Yugoslavia, was the home of about 12,000 Jews, of which 80 percent were Sephardi and the rest were Ashkenazi. when the Germans invaded in the Second World War. Jewish properties were stolen. The Ashkenazi synagogue, Sukkat Shalom (built in 1929), was turned into a... brothel. The 1907 Moorish style Sephardi synagogue, Bet Yisrael, was converted into a warehouse for purloined Jewish properties. By 1942 the Jewish community of Belgrade was in effect liquidated. 

After the war whatever remained of the Jewish community after the war was quick to revive itself. The Ashkenazi synagogue was restored and continues to be a place of worship. 

Not far from the border with Turkey, Yambol used to be a thriving Jewish centre. Now there are only a few Jewish families left. The town had a large synagogue which ceased being a house of prayer when most of the town's Jews left in the 1940s. For many years it was cordoned off with a barbed-wire fence, right in the middle of town, because it was used as a munitions de pot by the Warsaw Pact military. It was reconstructed as the city art gallery in the late 1970s, and it continues to operate as such under the name Georges Papazoff Art Gallery. No indication of its Jewish past survives. 

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The Ashkenazi synagogue of Varna, called the "Small Synagogue," was a brilliant example of the German Jügendstil. It was constructed in 1908-1910. After most of Varna's Jews emigrated to Israel in the late 1940s-early 1950s, the Ashkenazi synagogue fell into such disrepair and dilapidation that it had to be demolished around the mid-2000s. The site was sold to a private company which erected a business centre in its place. In a rare instance of sensitive modern urban architecture, the façade of the former synagogue was reconstructed from scratch, down to the minutest detail, a huge Star of David beaming down from the concrete-and-glass structure.

The former Sephardi Synagogue was probably what was referred to as the "Great Synagogue of Ruse" in reports from the 1860s. 

Abandoned and in danger of collapse, the former synagogue was sold to the US-backed Church of God of Prophecy in the 1990s. It is now one of the few examples in Europe of a Jewish house of prayer turned into a Christian church. 

Most of the interior has been preserved, but the huge wood-carved Star of David in its dome has been veiled with an opaque plastic sheet. Obviously, the room is full of Christian symbols and literature. Signs in English and Bulgarian refer to the "heroic" deed of converting a "Jewish synagogue" into a "Christian temple." 

The Ruse Church of God of Prophecy is open and can be visited. 

Ruse's former Ashkenazi synagogue was built in 1927. During the years of Communism it was used as a sports hall for wrestling and then as an office for the state lotto, called "Toto" in Bulgaria. It was renovated and is now a Jewish community centre with a small room for prayers.

The most spectacular possession of the former Ashkenazi synagogue are two huge plaques of black marble with golden letters listing the names of local Jews who fell in the 1912-1918 wars. 

The two plaques had originally been placed in Ruse's larger and older Sephardi synagogue.

The Zion Synagogue stands where another synagogue may have been erected as early as 1711. It is difficult to spot as it is in a courtyard surrounded by modern buildings. The synagogue is unremarkable on the outside, but once you enter you will be struck by its intricately-carved wooden Aron HaKodesh, as well as by its frescoes, restored in the 2000s with donations from the US Commission for the Preservation of American Heritage Abroad. In its yard there is a midrash and a plaque celebrating the Jews who fell in the Communist resistance of 1941-1944. The synagogue usually holds services on the Sabbath and religious holidays. 

Right in the centre of Pazardzhik, in an easy-to-find passage off a main street, there are two surprisingly well-preserved synagogues dating back to the Bulgarian Revival Period. 

The older of the two, known as the Great Synagogue, was erected in 1850 by a Bulgarian master builder. The synagogue contains some fine examples of the ornaments in vogue at the time, including a marvellous wood-carved ceiling and fine frescos. It is five metres tall and it has as many as 30 windows. Characteristic of many 19th-century Balkan synagogues of the Ottoman era, there are four wooden pillars in the centre of the building, probably once used to support a canopy over the bimah. 

The Small Synagogue was built in 1872 on the spot of a former synagogue that had burnt down. 

During the Communist years the Great Synagogue was used by the local History Museum. The two Pazardzhik synagogues are in good shape structurally, but have not been used for worship for many years. They are kept locked, and one is rented out to a local restaurant. 

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. 

The former synagogue in Dobrich, in northeastern Bulgaria, is nothing remarkable on the outside, and since the 1950s has been used as a choir rehearsal hall. There is a sign in English indicating the building's history. Yet Dobrich's former synagogue has somehow avoided the fate of many other synagogues throughout Bulgaria that were turned into warehouses, sports halls or galleries: it was never partitioned. Its elegant balcony still remains, though no one dares to climb up to it any longer as the structure is in urgent need of repair. The empty chairs used by dozens of Jewish women are still there but they have not been sat upon for service in over 60 years.