Sephardic Heritage International in DC (SHIN-DC) held a Chanukah concert on Dec. 18 in honor of a little-known Bulgarian who did a gigantic mitzvah, preventing 50,000 Jews from being deported to Nazi death camps during World War II.
“We’re honoring Dimitar Peshev during the Chanukah lighting because his righteous act brought that kind of light into the world by saving the lives of tens of thousands of Bulgarian Jews amidst the devastation of the Holocaust,” Afraim Katzir, the founding director of SHIN-DC, said of the celebration at the Embassy of Bulgaria in Washington, D.C.
Born in Bulgaria in 1894, Peshev, a member of Parliament, initially backed the authoritarian government that ruled the country during World War II and the strategic alliance with Adolf Hitler’s government. Peshev believed this alliance would bring wealth to Bulgaria and its people.
But a plea from Peshev’s Jewish childhood friend made clear the danger that Bulgaria’s Jews faced at the hands of the Germans.
In early 1943, Peshev learned of a furtive Bulgarian government deportation order that would have sent Bulgaria’s Jews to German death camps. He spread a letter of protest signed by students, clergy members and other members of Parliament denouncing the idea of deporting the Jews of Bulgaria.
The deportation order was ultimately rescinded, and Bulgaria’s Jews were sent to labor camps inside the country rather than being turned over to the Nazis. Under political pressure, Peshev was forced to step down as the Parliament’s vice president.
SHIN-DC and the Embassy of Bulgaria have a history of collaboration. “That’s actually where a number of things began for us,” Katzir said, adding that SHIN-DC held its first Ladino concert at the embassy in 2014.
In April, the Embassy of Bulgaria in D.C. hosted Jewish and Bulgarian leaders, including Katzir and U.S. State Department officials, for a memorial plaque unveiling ceremony in Peshev’s honor. The ceremony was held at Dimitar Peshev Plaza outside the embassy, which was renamed in his memory in 2013.
“Shortly after that, SHIN-DC hosted a Ladino concert at the embassy featuring the same person that’s going to be performing on [Dec. 18], 11 years later,” Katzir said. “We’re featuring that same singer, Dr. Judith Cohen. Back then, we also had [singer-songwriter] Flory Jagoda, but she’s since passed away.”
Cohen is an ethnomusicologist and singer known for her work in Sephardic music.
“This is part of an initiative that we now have for Chanukah, which draws from this idea of bringing more light into the world and applying that toward righteous gentiles who saved lives during the Holocaust, and in so doing, helped to bring more light into the world,” Katzir said.
Weeks before his death in 1973, Peshev was honored by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, as a Righteous Among the Nations, which describes non-Jews who protected Jews from persecution during the Holocaust.
The concert also featured a Ladino-style Chanukah candle lighting led by Israeli cantor David Louk, the son of musician Rabbi Haim Louk. At the ensuing reception, attendees ate traditional Sephardic Chanukah sweets, including bimuelos — fried dough fritters — and sfenj — Moroccan doughnuts.
Featured singer Dr. Judith Cohen holds the microphone for Moroccan-Israeli Hazzan David Louk as he lights the fifth Chanukah candle. (Photo credit: Shmulik Almany/SHIN-DC)
Leo Terrell, the chair of the Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, gave remarks: “Antisemitism is not a Jewish issue; it’s an American issue.”
Leo Terrell, the chair of the DOJ’s Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, delivers remarks. (Photo credit: Shmulik Almany/SHIN-DC)
This celebration is especially pertinent to the Jewish community given the Dec. 14 shooting that killed 15 at a Chanukah gathering in Australia.
“On the one hand, we look forward to coming together as a community, hand in hand with representatives of today’s Bulgaria to honor the spirit of the Festival of Lights and to pay tribute to the great Dimitar Peshev’s moral courage and dedication to justice,” Katzir said. “But this Chanukah, we also grieve the recent tragedy in Australia by shining light on the grave reality of antisemitism and the meaning of calls to ‘globalize the intifada.’”
Remembering Peshev’s legacy in the wake of the recent tragedy “highlights how we can all work together to combat antisemitism and to bring more light into the world,” Katzir added.
“Being able to celebrate someone like Dimitar Peshev makes that experience of the miracle of Chanukah more current,” he said. “It’s also important because it shows that part of that fight against antisemitism and this matter of more light into the world, it’s not just a story about the Maccabees from a couple millennia ago.”