In the third edition of the literary competition students from across the country have written on the topic “The art is a stage, which blurs all differences or the contribution of the Bulgarian Jews in the country’s culture”
The third edition of the annual national student literary competition, organized by Jewish-Bulgarian cooperation center “Alef” is already a fact. The topic “The art is a stage, which blurs all differences or the contribution of the Bulgarian Jews in the country’s culture” intrigued 90 high school students from different parts of Bulgaria – Sofia, Ruse, Montana, Vidin, Razgrad, Dupnitsa, Botevgrad, Pleven, Pernik, Tervel, Kardzhali, Kyustendil, Yambol, Tervel, Kubrat, Gotse Delchev, Djebel, Lyaskovets, Veliko Tarnovo, Ajtos, Burgas, etc.
Young people got acquainted with artists of Jewish origin, who left significant mark in the Bulgarian culture. Through the unique virtual library on the website of Center “Alef” that gathered excerpts, reproductions and video and audio materials of iconic works of the artists, the students had the chance to read their messages and get their inspiration. In their essays we meet artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers and actors of cinema and theater, with a worthy place in the annals of the Bulgarian and world culture. Among them are Pancho Vladigerov, Nikolai Kaufman, Valeri Petrov, Dora Gabe, Elias Canetti, Leon Daniel, Grisha Ostrovsky, Veselin Ashkenazi, Greddy Assa, David Peretz, Marko Behar, Jules Pascin…Long series of people dedicated to art with different ethnicity, of which Bulgaria is proud!
The works of the students were assessed by jury, composed of Mihailina Pavlova- editor of the newspaper “Jewish News” and journalist in the Bulgarian National Radio, Rumen Leonidov – poet and publisher and Assen Yordanov – journalist and director of the wedsite Bivol.bg.
The authors of the best works will be awarded prizes at a ceremony in Burgas. It will be held on May 12th / Thursday / 2016 at 18.00 in the Art Gallery “Petko Zadgorski” /Burgas Synagogue / street “Metropolitan Simeon” 24.
The ceremony will be attended by public figures, figures of culture and education, teachers, journalists, representatives of the Jewish community. Welcome to come to the ceremony are all who wish to become part of the event and to experience the festive emotion of the final of the initiative, which has become a traditional challenge for young people across the country and an incentive for future work.
The ceremony will be carried out with the financial support of: OJB-Shalom, Sunny Beach AD and Maritime Port Bourgas and the prize money is provided by the ADL (Anti-Defamation League).
Jewish-Bulgarian cooperation center “Alef” was established to create and promote good examples of integration between Bulgarian and Jews. It aims to show, that Jews are nation with ancient traditions and identity, that are deeply rooted in the Bulgarian society and to counteract any form of xenophobia, terrorism and anti-Semitism. The annual literary competition is aimed at the younger generation. It is one of the forms of continuity and consolidation of values put to the test through different periods of human history.
