On the eve of the year 5787 since the Creation of the world, we wish for more kindness, justice and light.
Our thoughts are with the person who makes room for another, with the word that is never spoken in vain, with the good that remains without a name.
Because each of our lives touches someone else’s. One gesture lives on in another. One act of kindness finds its way forward. And perhaps, through every act of kindness, the world is preserved.
We welcome the holiday with Jorge Luis Borges’ poem “The Just”:
A man who cultivates his garden, as Voltaire wished.
He who is grateful for the existence of music.
He who takes pleasure in tracing an etymology.
…
He who justifies, or wishes to, a wrong done him.
He who prefers others to be right.
These people, unaware, are saving the world.
Let us not break the invisible threads that connect us!
Shana Tova Umetuka!
May 5787 be a good and sweet year – for everyone.
Dagmar Ostranska from the Czech Republic, a cultural manager with extensive experience in managing international and cultural projects, is joining the international jury of the youth literary and film competition “Whoever Saves One Life, Saves the Entire World”, organized by the Alef Center.
She will be a member of the jury for the 14th edition of the competition, which will evaluate the works of young authors.
Dagmar Ostranska is well known in Bulgaria’s cultural community. From 2017 to 2023, she served as Director of the Czech Centre in Sofia, part of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Bulgaria. During this period, she actively worked to strengthen cultural ties between Bulgaria and the Czech Republic and to promote Czech culture to Bulgarian audiences.
Her professional career is closely connected with cultural institutions, cinema and international projects. She worked at the National Film Archive in Prague, where she headed the Audiovisual Collections Department. She also served as Executive and Marketing Director of the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival.
Since 2023, Dagmar Ostranska has headed the Tourism, Education and Culture Department of the Municipality of Kutná Hora – a city with a rich historical and cultural heritage, included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Over its thirteen editions, the Alef Center’s competition has brought together more than 2,500 young authors from 16 countries – Bulgaria, Israel, Italy, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, France, Germany, Latvia, Spain, Poland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Montenegro and Austria.
Every year, young participants use literature and film to tell stories of human kindness, courage and moral choice.
The works are evaluated by an international jury that includes writer Georgi Bardarov, poet and publicist Rumen Leonidov, Ivana Marxfeldova – an expert in the Political Department of the President of Slovakia, Prof. Felicia Waldman – Director of the Goldstein Goren Center for Hebrew Studies at the University of Bucharest, Dorota Fater – Director of the Polish School at the Embassy of Poland in Sofia, Hungarian historian and writer Dr. Csaba Zsbek, and Vered Elron – former Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of Israel in Bulgaria.
Dagmar Ostranska’s joining the jury further expands the international participation in the competition and supports its mission to preserve historical memory and encourage young people to reflect on the significance of personal choice and responsibility.
For 14 years, the Alef Center, with the support of the Municipality of Burgas, has been creating a space for young people from different countries to discover and tell stories that must not be forgotten. The competition draws attention to the Holocaust and its lessons, but also to the people who chose to help when helping meant risking their own lives.
In autumn 2026, the Alef Center will announce the theme of the 14th edition of the “Whoever Saves One Life, Saves the Whole Universe” competition.
Within the framework of the Ninth edition of the International Documentary Historical Film Festival DOCK 2026, the fate of the Jewish people during World War II is among the central themes. The festival will be held from September 17 to 22, 2026 at the NHK.
The film forum will focus on two shocking titles – “The Eichmann Trial” and “The Angoulême roundup”. Through court chronicles, personal interviews and living testimonies, the two films will turn the cinema into a tribune for historical justice and memory against oblivion.
On September 21 at 3:00 p.m. you will have the opportunity to watch the short film “The Angoulême roundup”. Through the testimonies of descendants and archival footage, this 26-minute documentary gives a face to the shattered lives of the arrest of 442 Jews in Angoulême in 1942. Driven by a minimalist aesthetic and the impressive power of archives, it allows the truth of these stories to be heard.
On September 21st at 7:45 PM, there will be a screening of “The Eichmann Trial”. The dramatic chronicle tells the story of the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem in 1961, which revealed the truth about the Holocaust to the whole world. He was one of the main organizers of the “Final Solution” to destroy the Jews. Eichmann became the first Nazi criminal whose trial was broadcast on television worldwide. The film uses restored court footage and the harrowing testimonies of concentration camp survivors speaking publicly for the first time.
The “Untrodden Path” Chamber Music Festival in the mountain village of Kovachevitsa became the setting for an extraordinary gathering of descendants of those who helped save Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust and descendants of those whose lives were saved.
The occasion was the world premiere of the chamber music cycle Five Pieces for Dimitar Peshev by American composer David Serkin Ludwig. The work was inspired by Dimitar Peshev’s historic letter protesting the deportation of Bulgarian Jews, co-signed by 42 members of the Bulgarian Parliament—a document that remains one of the most significant moral acts in Bulgaria’s history during the Second World War. Dedicated to Peshev’s civic courage, the composition transformed the concert into a reflection on memory, responsibility, and the power of individual choice. The work was performed by Britt Hewitt, Georgi Valchev, Anet Artinyan, and Laura Chekoratova.
The composer’s own family history adds a profound symbolic dimension to the work. David Serkin Ludwig is the great-grandson of the legendary German violinist and conductor Adolf Busch, who openly opposed the Nazi regime and refused to perform in Germany after Adolf Hitler came to power. In this way, the composer’s family legacy naturally intertwines with the story of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews.
Among the special guests were descendants of diplomat Nikola Vanchev and Vera Ichkova, one of the Righteous Among the Nations. The event was attended by Alberta Alkalay, Chair of the Alef Centre for Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation, and Israeli sculptor of Bulgarian origin Kaya Dekelbaum.
Between 1941 and 1944, diplomat Nikola Vanchev served in the Consular and Economic Directorate of the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Together with Nikola Petsev, Lyuben Zlatarov, and Henry Levenson, he organized the issuance of more than 1,000 transit visas for Jewish foreign nationals. Thanks to these efforts, hundreds of families—including many children—were able to travel through Bulgaria to Turkey and from there to Palestine, escaping the Holocaust.
A particularly moving moment came when renowned Israeli sculptor Kaya Dekelbaum presented her installation The Spirit as a gift to the Bulgarian people in gratitude for the rescue of Bulgarian Jews. The donation became a powerful symbol of remembrance, humanity, and gratitude.
Prior to the premiere, Professor Rumyana Hristidi of St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia led an in-depth discussion on the dramatic events that took place more than eighty years ago. The conversation focused not only on the historical facts but also on the moral dimensions of the choices made by Bulgarian society during the war.
The gala concert opened with a heartfelt address by Yavor Koynakov, Director of the State Cultural Institute at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria. In his remarks, he paid tribute to the legacy of Dimitar Peshev and his fellow parliamentarians, describing their actions as an act of civic heroism that transcends political expediency and ideological interpretations.
The world premiere of a work dedicated to Dimitar Peshev, together with the meeting of descendants of rescuers and survivors, transformed the evening into a powerful testament to the enduring legacy of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews. History came alive not only through music but also through the personal stories that remind us that moral courage leaves a mark far beyond its own time.
The square next to Hissar Kapiya in the Old Town of Plovdiv will bear the name “Passi” in memory of three prominent representatives of the Passi family – lawyer Solomon Passi (1888–1958), his son Prof. Isaac Solomon Passi (1928–2010) and Isaac Nisim Passi, who died in the Nazi death camp Sobibor.
The decision was adopted by the Plovdiv Municipal Council after public discussion.
A special place among the three Passis is occupied by lawyer Solomon Passi – a prominent lawyer, municipal councilor from the Democratic Party, vice-consul of Spain in Plovdiv and a man of undisputed public authority. Thanks to his professional courage and moral stance, dozens of innocent people found protection in some of the most difficult years after September 9, 1944.
Among them was Metropolitan Kiril of Plovdiv – one of the brightest personalities who contributed to the rescue of Bulgarian Jews during the Holocaust and was awarded the title of “Righteous Among the Nations”. When an investigation was initiated against the bishop by the new authorities, his defense was personally undertaken by lawyer Solomon Passy. With his brilliant legal argumentation and convincing public pleading, he contributed to the termination of the investigation and the release of Metropolitan Kiril. Thus, lawyer Passy defended not only a spiritual leader, but also a man whose work in saving thousands of Bulgarian Jews remains one of the brightest pages in the history of Bulgaria.
Numerous personal stories also testify to the merits of Solomon Passy in saving human lives. Over the years, his heirs have received letters of gratitude from relatives of people saved thanks to his intervention – invaluable testimonies of his humanity, high morality and selfless dedication to justice.
His son, Prof. Isaac Solomon Passy, also left a bright mark on Bulgarian science and culture. Having graduated in law, he became a doctor of science at the age of 43, and later a professor of aesthetics. During the decades of the Cold War, he was among the most significant Bulgarian intellectuals who defended and popularized Western philosophy, literature and culture despite the ideological restrictions of the time.
Isaac Nisim Passy’s fate was tragic. Born in Plovdiv in 1910, he graduated in accounting in France, after which he lived in Palestine and France. After the German occupation, he was arrested as a Jew and on January 20, 1943, he was sent to the Drancy transit camp near Paris. Later that year, he was deported to the Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland, where he was murdered.
The naming of Passy Square is a well-deserved recognition of three outstanding Plovdiv residents whose lives and work are part of the history of Bulgaria, the memory of the Holocaust, and the spiritual heritage of Plovdiv. It is also a sign of respect for the people who, with their valor, professionalism, and morality, defended human dignity and justice even in the most difficult times.