History of the Jews in Sofia

According to local statements, a Macedonian and a Maltese synagogue, founded at dates as yet unascertained, existed in Sofia up to the middle of the nineteenth century.

In 1666, during the incumbency of Abraham Farḥi, the false Messiah Sabbatai Zevi sent a letter from the prison of Abydos, inviting his "brethren of Sofia" to celebrate the Tisha B'Av, the anniversary of his birth, as a day of festivity and rejoicing.

In 1890, the municipality of Sofia granted to the poor of the city some land in Outch-Bounar, one of the suburbs; three hundred Jewish families were benefited by this concession.

Boris Schatz, a Jew of Russian extraction, won a high reputation as a sculptor; one of his works, "Mattathias Maccabeus," was in the gallery of Ferdinand of Bulgaria.

Two Judaeo-Spanish journals ware published at Sofia — "La Verdad" and "El Eco Judaico," the latter being a semimonthly bulletin and the organ of the Central Consistory.

[1] Since 1887, a charitable society for the purpose of aiding poor Jewish youths through apprenticeships to various trades has been in operation, under the control of the Alliance Israélite Universelle.