A synagogue in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, was attacked Saturday by an unknown vandal who threw stones at the synagogue and smashed the building’s windows.
The assailant broke the windows of the Great Prayer Hall of the Sofia Central Synagogue on the capital’s Washington Street. The Bulgarian Jewish community was shocked by the attack and is now working with the local authorities to locate the assailant and to improve the safety of the community and its facilities.
‘Shalom,’ the organization of the Jewish community in Bulgaria, noted that the attack took place on the Shabbat and several days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.
“The incident itself is extremely troublesome, but the complete lack of reaction by passersby on the street is even more worrying,” Shalom president Associate Professor Alexander Oscar said, the Sofia Globe reported.
“The safety of the community is at the moment the most important and we will work together with the police and the relevant institutions in the country to guarantee it. It was unacceptable that in Bulgaria, the language of hatred already had physical manifestations with direct attacks on Jewish communal property,” he said.