JERUSALEM (Press Release)– Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, addressing the AJC Global Forum, extolled his country’s close relations with Israel, recalled the efforts of his countrymen to save Bulgaria’s Jewish population during World War II, and expressed support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“I feel at home and in the company of dear friends,” Borissov told the AJC Global Forum Tuesday night. “I express my respect for the State of Israel and appreciate its extremely important role regarding the future of the region.”
Bulgaria-Israel relations “are based on clear principles of interaction, on mutual confidence and on shared values. This is the guarantee that our relations go beyond our personal friendship and deepen so that they have a long-term horizon,” Borissov said. “There has never been even one moment over the years when we could not count on each other.”
Borissov, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, praised Israel for assisting Europe. “Had it not been for Israel, Europe and European civilization would have been in bigger jeopardy in the face of rising radicalism and religious fundamentalism in the Middle East,” he said.
The AJC Global Forum is the signature annual event of AJC, the premier Jewish global advocacy organization. More than 2,400 participants, including hundreds of young Jews, from across the United States and 55 other countries are registered for the four-day conference.
Borissov spoke about the efforts of Bulgarian citizens, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and eminent public figures and intellectuals to “save the entire Bulgarian Jewish community of approximately 50,000” during World War II.” This heroic feat was done despite the fact that Bulgaria was allied with Nazi Germany.
Further, the prime minister said that “newly gathered facts confirm that in the years of the Holocaust the Bulgarian consuls in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and other European states issued some 20,000 transit Bulgarian visas to Jews from Western Europe, including children.”
Borissov thanked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu “for his recognition of what the Bulgarians did to save Bulgarian Jewish lives” and announced that two identical monuments – in Sofia and Tel Aviv – will soon be erected “to commemorate this historic fact and express our joint gratitude.”
The prime minister, speaking as head of an EU member state and President of the EU, expressed support for efforts to achieve through negotiations a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“We are convinced that the Jewish people’s relation to Jerusalem is indisputable and are not indifferent to the wish of the Jewish population of Israel and of world Jewry and to the right of Israel, being a sovereign state, to decide which city will be its capital and to insist that it be internationally recognized,” said Borissov.
However, Bulgaria is not following the actions by the U.S., Guatemala, and Paraguay to move their embassies to Jerusalem. “The status of Jerusalem as the sacred site of the three monotheistic religions should be agreed in the course of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that will lead to an accord on final status of the Palestinian territories,” he said.
AJC has been deeply involved with Bulgaria since the late 1980s, after the collapse of the communist regime, advocating for the U.S.-Bulgaria-Israel relationship. Shalom, the umbrella body of Jewish organizations in Bulgaria, is a longstanding AJC international partner. A delegation from Shalom, led by President Alexander Oscar, is in attendance at the AJC Global Forum. Viktor Melamed serves as the director of AJC’s recently established presence in Bulgaria, AJC’s sixth post in Europe. And AJC CEO David Harris, a frequent visitor to Sofia, has been honored by the Bulgarian government.
Bennett address to the Global Conference
In another development at the Global Conference, Minister of Education and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett expressed concern over growing gaps between Israeli and American Jews and, more broadly, the future of diaspora Jewry in general.
“If there is one thing that keeps me up at night, it’s not Iran, it’s the future of the Jewish people in the diaspora,” said Bennett. “If we don’t act soon, we’re going to be losing millions of Jews to assimilation.”
A new AJC poll, released Sunday on the first day of the AJC Global Forum, showed growing gaps between the views of American Jews and Israeli Jews on a number of key issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, President Trump and the moving of the American embassy to Jerusalem, full recognition of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism, and egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.
Asked about these gaps, the minister said: “I think this is one of the greatest challenges of our generation. It’s got to be at the top of our list. There’s an Atlantic-Jewish chasm growing between Israelis and Jews in the United States. The AJC poll reflects that the Israeli population is gradually going more rightward and becoming more traditionally Jewish, whereas American Judaism is more left and liberal. That’s a fact. I don’t know how to whitewash that, but it should not be a reason to fall apart.”
He compared these arguments to a family sitting down at a Passover Seder table and squabbling, but they still remain a family.
Despite these differences, Bennett said he was less afraid of Jews with whom he might disagree than of those who were too apathetic and alienated from Judaism. “If you argue with us, it means you care,” he asserted.
For decades, AJC has been a leading voice seeking to strengthen ties between Israeli and American Jews. Most recently, AJC established the Jewish Religious Equality Commission (J-REC) to advocate for greater religious pluralism, a key factor affecting the ties between the world’s two largest Jewish communities.
Love fest for Israel and the Diaspora
Later in the day, more than 1,000 people from around the world attending the 2018 AJC Global Forum gathered yesterday at Jerusalem’s Davidson Center in a public display of love of Israel, devotion to Jerusalem, and solidarity with diaspora and Israeli Jews seeking religious equality.
Among the speakers were former ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and member of Knesset Rachel Azaria (Kulanu).
The Davidson Center lies adjacent to the Azarat Yisrael, a section of the Western Wall set aside for pluralistic prayer services.
Harriet Schleifer, Chair of AJC’s Board of Governors and the former president of her Conservative synagogue, addressed the issue head-on in her opening remarks. “The controversy over pluralistic prayers at the Western Wall symbolizes unresolved tensions within Israeli society over what kind of state Israel will be,” she said.
Schleifer pointed out that these tensions not only affect Israel, but also play a significant role in Israel’s relations with diaspora Jewry. “American Jews, 85% of whom identify themselves as conservative or reform, often feel alienated by statements emanating from Israel’s Jewish establishment,” Schleifer said. “[Lack of] full equality and pluralism in Israel over time may weaken American Jewish support for Israel.”
MK Azaria, who describes herself as an Orthodox Jew, echoed Schleifer’s concerns from an Israeli point of view. “We recognize that the organization responsible for the tear between the Israeli and American Jewish community is the Rabbinate,” she said. “We have to break the monopoly of the Rabbinate,” she continued, to applause. However, Azaria also added that this could take 10-15 years, given political realities.
Shapiro, who also stressed the need for a greater sense of Jewish unity and mutual understanding, addressed the results of a recent survey conducted by AJC. It shows a wide gap between the views of American and Israeli Jews on a number of issues, including attitudes toward the peace process, views of President Donald Trump, and the role of American Jews in Israel.
“Let those of us living in the diaspora reinvigorate our commitment to Israel in the face of threats, of terror, of unconscionable calls for its destruction. Let those in Israel express with open minds and open hearts that Jews based in communities not in the Jewish homeland are fully part of the Jewish people,” Shapiro said.
Kim Pimley, an AJC officer and also a former president of a Conservative synagogue, concluded with her own call for Jewish unity. “We’re not here to judge each other, but to work together, pull it together and be a light unto the nations,” she said.
The overriding importance of the relationship between American and Israeli Jews has been one of the core themes of this year’s AJC Global Forum. It is the first time in AJC’s 112-year history that the global Jewish advocacy organization’s signature annual event has been held in Jerusalem or anywhere outside the United States. Earlier in the week, AJC leaders met with lawmakers at the Knesset and expressed concern over the growing rift between Diaspora Jews and Israel, especially about younger Jews potentially distancing themselves from Israel.
*
Preceding provided by he American Jewish Committee