Of the roughly 6,000 Jews living in Bulgaria, about 4,000 of them reside in Sofia, the country’s capital city. While Jewish life has been an integral part of this region for thousands of years, it crashed to a halt in the 1940s when the Bulgarian Communist Party came into power. The regime fell in 1990, and in partnership with JDC, Federation has since worked to help support Sofia’s road to self-sufficiency and the revival of its Jewish community.

This work includes supporting local Jewish organizations and programs, such as day schools and summer camps; caring for impoverished, elderly members of the community through critical food and medical assistance, homecare and social programs; and providing aid to vulnerable or at-risk Jewish children, including those with disabilities. 

Learn more about this work and the history of Bulgarian Jewish life here.