The editors of the EAJC website are proud to present the address of EAJC General Council Chairman Josef Zissels' address given in Sofia, Bulgaria, on March 10, 2013.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen!
Honorable Members of the Bulgarian Presidential Administration, Parliament, and Government!
Honored Rabbis, Honored Representatives of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and other faiths!

The President of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Vadim Shulman regrets that he was unable to attend these ceremonies in person. On behalf of Mr. Shulman and the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress, I greet you today at this event.

Today we commemorate the events of 70 years ago. We remember the victims of the Holocaust and we honor Bulgarian citizens who saved Jews during World War II. We remember individuals and we remember communities. This magnificent synagogue had once been the center of a vibrant Jewish community living alongside other ethnic and religious groups in multicultural Bulgaria. This Jewish community was rescued from deportation to death camps, and thus escaped the fate of other Jewish community. Bulgarian society refused to blindly participate in Nazi crimes against Jews. Despite pressure from Nazi Germany, Bulgarians did not deport their Jewish citizens.

Contemporary Bulgaria continues to set an example of tolerance, coexistence and interfaith dialog. Today, the Bulgarian Jewish community is a member of the World Jewish Congress, an association of Jewish communities and organizations of over 100 countries. We are witnessing a rebirth of the community after the fall of Communism. The younger generation, enjoying the freedom of religious expression in the new Bulgaria, is beginning to participate more actively, and both Jews and non-Jews are taking part in the discovery and study of the history of the Jewish life in Bulgaria and the relations of the Jewish people with their neighbors.

The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress and its member organizations are committed to tolerance, to fostering dialogue with other religions. The Congress is dedicated to oppose any anti-Semitism, xenophobia, or racism. We find many partners in these efforts among Bulgarian officials, public, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress is both expanding its existing programs and planning new ones on Holocaust remembrance and education in all countries of the region, including Bulgaria.

In Judaism, we remember the dead by both solemn ceremonies and by activism in life, by living the life of the values that G-d commanded us. The symbol of G-d’s commandments in Judaism is the Torah. A Torah Scroll is the symbol of life and the center of any Jewish community. In honor of the Bulgarian Jews rescued 70 years ago, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress donates a Torah Scroll to the Jewish community of Bulgaria to be used in services, to be read on Sabbath, and on Jewish holidays.