Ruins of "sumptuous"[3] second-century synagogues have been unearthed in Philipopolis[4] (modern Plovdiv), Nicopolis (Nikopol), Ulpia Oescus[5] (Gigen, Pleven Province), and Stobi[6] (now in North Macedonia).

[3] The earliest written artifact attesting to the presence of a Jewish community in the Roman province of Moesia Inferior is a late 2nd-century CE Latin inscription found at Ulpia Oescus bearing a menorah and mentioning archisynagogos.

A decree of Roman Emperor Theodosius I from 379 regarding the persecution of Jews and destruction of synagogues in Illyria and Thrace is also proof of early Jewish settlement in Bulgaria.

By the completion of the Ottoman conquest of the Bulgarian Empire (1396), there were sizable Jewish communities in Vidin, Nikopol, Silistra, Pleven, Sofia, Yambol, Plovdiv (Philippopolis) and Stara Zagora.

[citation needed] In the 17th century, the ideas of Sabbatai Zevi became popular in Bulgaria, and supporters of his movement, such as Nathan of Gaza and Samuel Primo, were active in Sofia.

[citation needed] Bulgaria, as a potential beneficiary from the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939, had competed with other such nations to curry favour with Nazi Germany by gestures of antisemitic legislation.

Half of the 123 survivors were sent back to Bulgaria, while the remainder were allowed to board the Darien II and continue to Palestine, where they were imprisoned at Atlit by the British Mandate authorities.

Jews were obliged to "wear Davidic badges, to respect curfews, to buy food from particular shops, to avoid public areas and even to stop discussing political and social matters.

Jewish units were separated from the other ethnicities – three quarters of the forced labour battalions were from minorities: Turks, Russians, and residents of the territories occupied by Bulgaria – the rest were drawn from the Bulgarian unemployed.

[26][11] The Jews in forced labour were faced with discriminatory policies which became stricter as time went on; with increasing length of service and decreasing the allowance of food, rest, and days off.

[11] On 14 July 1942 a disciplinary unit was established to impose new punitive strictures: deprivation of mattresses or hot food, a "bread-and-water diet", and the barring of visitors for months at time.

[33][11] On 1 April 1941 the Police Directorate allowed the departure of 302 Jewish refugees, mostly underage, from Central Europe for the express purpose of Bulgaria "freeing itself from the foreign element".

[34][35] The Bulgarian irredentist seizure in 1941 of coveted territory from Greece and Yugoslavia and the formation of the new oblasts of Skopje, Bitola, and Belomora increased Bulgaria's Jewish population to around 60,000.

In October 1941 Bulgarian authorities demanded the registration of 213 Serbian Jews detected by the Gestapo in Bulgarian-administered Skopje; they were arrested on 24 November and 47 of these were taken to Banjica concentration camp in Belgrade, Serbia and killed on 3 December 1941.

[16] The Law was followed by a decree-law (naredbi) on 26 August 1942, which tightened restrictions on Jews, widened the definition of Jewishness, and increased the burdens of proof required to prove non-Jewish status and exemptions (privilegii).

[11] On 22 February 1943, the Bulgarian authorities finalized arrangements with Adolf Eichmann's office for the first wave of planned deportations, targeting total of 20,000 Jews, of which 8,000 in Bulgaria and about 12,000 in the Bulgarian-occupied territories of Thrace, Macedonia.

"[41][42] In the first days of March 1943, Bulgarian military and police carried out the deportation of all 11 343 Jews from the Bulgarian-occupied territories of Macedonia, Thrace and Pirot, transported them by train through Bulgaria via transit camps established for the purpose there, and embarked them on boats bound for Vienna in Nazi Germany.

[43] Also in March 1943 Bulgarian military police, assisted by German soldiers, massacred deported Jews from Komotini and Kavala, who were on board passenger steamship Karageorge, and sank the vessel.

[46] On March 17, 1943, Peshev sent a letter, signed by 42 more members of the Parliament, to the prime-minister Bogdan Filov, in which he wrote that "It is impossible for us to accept that plans have been made to deport these people, even though ill-minded rumours attribute this intention to the Bulgarian government.

A maximum of 30 kg of property per person was allowed;[48] the rest they were forced to leave behind or to sell at "abusively low" prices, and part of it was otherwise pilfered or stolen.

However, in July 2003, a public committee headed by Chief Justice Moshe Bejski decided to remove the memorial because Tsar Boris had consented to the deportation of the Jews from occupied territories of Macedonia, Thrace and Pirot to the Germans.

According to Israeli government statistics, 43,961 people from Bulgaria emigrated to Israel between 1948 and 2006, making Bulgarian Jews the fourth largest group to come from a European country, after the Soviet Union, Romania and Poland.

[52] The various migrations outside of Bulgaria has produced descendants of Bulgarian Jews mainly in Israel, but also in the United States, Canada, Australia, and some Western European and Latin American countries.

Representatives of Bulgaria's Jewish community did not attend an official ceremony in March 2023 celebrating the 80th anniversary of Tsar Boris III's decision to save the country's Jews from the Holocaust.