Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Bulgaria
Bulgaria: its Jewish community, the wartime rescue and deportations, and relations with "Israel"
Between 2,000 and 6,000 Jews live in Bulgaria, according to an estimate by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research cited by the World Jewish Congress (WJC).[1] During the Second World War the deportation of about 48,000 Jews from Bulgaria was prevented, while 11,434 Jews from Bulgarian-occupied territories were deported to Treblinka.[1]
Jewish community
The community includes elderly Sephardim, families who returned to communal life after the fall of communism, and Israeli families who have moved to Bulgaria in the last 20 years. The Organization of Jews in Bulgaria "Shalom" is the WJC's affiliate.[1]
Chabad
- Main article: Chabad-Lubavitch movement
The WJC lists Chabad among the bodies that support Bulgarian Jewish life.[1]
Holocaust and aliyah
The WJC says that the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, including Metropolitans Stefan and Kiril, and other Bulgarian leaders "managed to prevent the deportation of approximately 48,000 Jews from Bulgaria". It also says that "with the assistance of Bulgarian administrative and police authorities", 11,434 Jews from Aegean Thrace, Macedonia and the city of Pirot were deported between 18 and 29 March 1943 to Treblinka, where nearly all of them died. After the war most surviving Jews who emigrated went to Palestine and then "Israel", and the communist government adopted anti-Zionist measures.[1]
Israeli state and commercial ties
Diplomacy
The Israeli foreign ministry's 2011 list of missions records relations with Bulgaria as renewed in May 1990, with "Israel" represented by its embassy in Sofia, with an honorary consul in Varna.[2] According to the WJC, Bulgaria recognised "Israel" in 1948 and embassies were opened in 1952; relations were suspended in 1967 and restored in 1990. The Israeli embassy is at 18 Shipchenski Prohod, 1113 Sofia.[1]
Arms trade
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) records 25 SandCat armoured vehicles ordered by Bulgaria in 2008.[3]
Trade
The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics reports that "Israel" imported goods worth $343.8 million from Bulgaria in 2025 (2024: $259.5 million) and exported goods worth $61.5 million to it (2024: $78.6 million).[4]
Political interference
UN voting
Bulgaria voted in favour of the September 2025 General Assembly resolution endorsing the New York Declaration on a two-state solution.[5]
See also
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Albania
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Croatia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Greece
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Kosovo
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Montenegro
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to North Macedonia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Romania
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Serbia
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Slovenia
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 World Jewish Congress, Community in Bulgaria worldjewishcongress.org, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diplomatic Missions Abroad: Status of relations mfa.gov.il, archived 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, SIPRI Arms Transfers Database SIPRI, trade register for Israel as supplier, 1950–2025, data generated 20 October 2026.
- ↑ Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), Foreign Trade Statistics Monthly, Table D1: Trade Countries – Imports and Exports CBS, December 2025 issue (library copy).
- ↑ United Nations General Assembly, Recorded vote on A/80/L.1/Rev.1: Endorsement of the New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, 12 September 2025 (copy hosted by Al-Quds Al-Arabi).