Cemetery

Few Jews live in Lom now but the town has a Jewish cemetery with about 100 granite and marble tombstones. Most are from the 20th century, and some have beautifully inscribed epitaphs in Hebrew. Many of the older headstones have been vandalised and parts of the site are used as a dumping ground. 

The Jewish plot in Kyustendil's cemetery has been repeatedly vandalised. The police have not identified any culprits.

A part of Kazanlak's Jewish cemetery survives but most of it was demolished to make room for the Kazanlak bypass. About a dozen graves remain, most in an appalling condition. At the entrance of the now unfenced and unguarded cemetery stands a lonely Christian effigy of a weeping woman. The inscription on it has been obliterated by the elements, but according to local hearsay the woman buried here was excommunicated by the Orthodox Church. The reasons for this have been lost through the years, but the poor lady was banned from the Christian section of the cemetery and, instead, her body was laid to rest with the Jews. 

Kazanlak's Jewish cemetery also used to be the last resting place of 22 Bulgarians sentenced to death by the Communist-dominated People's Court in 1945. They were shot dead with a single shot in the back of their heads, KGB style, and then buried in a common grave on the outskirts of the Jewish cemetery. That grave was rediscovered as late as 1992. The bones were exhumed and reburied in the Christian section in 1994. 

A monument marking the location of Kardzhali's former Jewish cemetery was placed in 2018. It is across the street from the town's court house, at the entrance of the Prostor Park. The cemetery was shut down and demolished in the 1970s.

In Gotse Delchev's town cemetery there is a small, unfenced and unprotected Jewish section. 

The Jewish cemetery of Dupnitsa is known to have existed since the 16th century. The last burial took place there in 1979. Its granite and sandstone tombstones are overgrown and neglected and, though parts of the site have been encroached on by housing, the cemetery still survives. There have been City Council plans to remove it to make way for a commercial building, or a park with a memorial, but so far nothing has been done. Every elderly citizen of Dupnitsa knows where the Jewish cemetery is, but some younger folk are surprised to hear that they have been walking to school... through the cemetery of what was proportionately Bulgaria's largest Jewish community. 

On 5-7 September 1916, during the First World War, the Bulgarians with Ottoman and German support fought Romanian, Russian and Serb armies for control over Dobrich. The push was successful. The Bulgaria-led forces continued farther northeast. 

What remained were the dead. Interments in Dobrich of the fallen from both sides started as soon as the battle ended. Until 1918, a total of 3,500 soldiers from 6 armies, 10 ethnicities and 5 confessions were buried in it.

Jews were among these.

Through the decades, the military cemetery was redesigned several times. Today, it is a museum. 

Burgas has a small Jewish plot in the local cemetery, crammed between the Armenian Christian Apostolic and the Turkish sections. It is unfenced and unguarded but in good condition. It contains just a few dozen Jewish tombstones, all mid- to late-20th century. Its main problem seems to be encroachment by the adjacent Muslim section. 

The now abandoned Jewish cemetery of Silistra is situated next to the old Christian one, a few yards from the actual border with Romania. It has scores of marble and granite gravestones inscribed in Bulgarian, Hebrew and Romanian, mostly dating to the 20th century. It is completely overgrown with vegetation and the only time of the year when access to it is possible is in early spring, after the snow has gone but the grass and bushes haven't started growing. 

In 1898, the Sofia Central Cemetery was opened in the village of Orlandovtsti, now a part of metropolitan Sofia. The Jewish cemetery was moved there, into a special Jewish Sector in the northern reaches of the cemetery. The Orlandovtsi cemetery (on 14 Zavodska St and 11 Kamenodelska St) is still in use to this day. Many of the tombstones, especial- ly those of the richer Jews, are pure works of art, amongst the best in Bulgaria. They bear inscriptions in Hebrew and Bulgarian, but many also have lines in German, French, Italian and Ladino. 

The Jewish Sector is adjacent to the Muslim and Catholic sectors, and is easy to find. Make sure you enter the gates of the cemetery from the entrance next to the last stop of trams Nos. 2 and 3.