The Optimists: The Story of the Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust Will have its NY Premiere on October 10th, 7 PM  at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York City 

This film could be the masterpiece of the year!

By David Prince, Director of National Radio, Consulate General of Israel in New York

Photo: H. E. Ms. Elena Poptodorova

The screening is sponsored by: Consulate General of Israel in New York, Consulate General of Bulgaria in New York, American Society for Yad Vashem, American Jewish Committee, American Sephardic Federation , Center for Jewish History , and in collaboration with The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.  The screening will be followed by an award presentation  by the American Jewish Committee to a representative of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in behalf of the two Righteous Among the Nations from Bulgaria The Metropolitan Bishops Stephan and Kiril For the first time members of the Bulgarian Church are recognized for their role in stopping the deportations of the Bulgarian Jews to the death camps. A discussion with special guests: Bulgarian Ambassador to the US  H. E. Ms. Elena Poptodorova, Film Producer Jacky Comforty, and Honorary Bulgarian Consul in New York Victoria Schonfeld. A reception will conclude the event. The Optimists: tells the inspiring story of how 50,000 Jews in Bulgaria survived the Holocaust because their Bulgarian neighbors and friends helped defend them.  Many individuals, each in his or her own way, took action to foil the Bulgarian Government’s plans to hand over the Bulgarian Jews to the Nazis.

Photo: Metropolitan Bishop Kiril.

Their stories are an especially compelling lesson for today’s world.  The Optimists is directed by award-winning filmmaker, Jacky Comforty, whose family was among those who survived, and who worked 12 years to produce this story. The film informs and inspires audiences of all ages and backgrounds and lends itself to exciting post-screening discussions.  Audiences come away with a heightened sensitivity to personal responsibility, religious and ethnic tolerance, and to human and democratic values.  The Optimists has been publicly shown in more than fifty cities around the world. An is Co-Winner, The Peace Prize, Berlin International Film Festival; First Prize for "Documenting the Jewish Experience," Jerusalem International Film Festival; CINE Golden Eagle; Best Documentary, Hope and Dreams Film Festival.  The Optimists will start its theatrical run on October 21st at the Quad Cinema. During the first week director Jacky Comforty will be available for Q and A after selected screenings. To schedule a special screening for groups e-mail comforty@comforty.com  or call 866-690-6992. The Optimists is a presentation of Comforty Media Concepts and The Chambon Foundation. Directed by Jacky Comforty, Produced and written by Jacky and Lisa Comforty.  Distributed by Castle Hill Productions

In March, 1943, 8,500 prominent Jews in Bulgaria were to be the first from that country to be deported to the death camp at Treblinka. Bulgaria was allied with Germany.  Yet another European Jewish community -- this one inheritors of the distinctive culture of the Jews of medieval Spain -- seemed destined for quick annihilation. In that same month, the Bulgarian government had deported the 11,500 Jews of Bulgarian- occupied Thrace and Macedonia to the Nazis . And yet, after waiting several hours at deportation centers, these targeted Bulgarian Jews were simply told to go home. Ultimately, despite Nazi pressures, the entire 50,000-member Jewish community of Bulgaria was spared the Holocaust. Theirs was the only Jewish community to survive intact in Nazi Europe.

Photo: Jacky Comforty's paternal grandfather and his family just before they were to be deported to concentration camps: Rachelle, Mimi, Aaron, and Rachamim Comforty. At home in Plovidv, Bulgaria. Not in picture: Bitush, Jacky's father, who was interned in a forced labor camp.  Note Jewish star on Rachamim.  March, 1943.

Filmmaker Jacky Comforty is the son of Bulgarian Jews; his paternal grandparents and extended family were among those rounded up for the train ride to Treblinka. He has long been determined to tell the story of the Bulgarian Jews, and to do so before those who lived it have passed away. Sweeping changes in Eastern Europe finally made possible exhaustive, ground-breaking research in Bulgaria. Mr. Comforty, along with his wife and co-producer, Lisa Vogel Comforty, spent four months in 1990 filming in Bulgaria, Israel, and Spain. Their film is based on materials collected there. Their collection includes 200 hours of interviews and on-location documenting of communities, social events, landscapes, and other scenes; 5,000 photographs of pre-war and war-time Bulgarian Jewish life; and hours of rare archival film footage, sound recordings, documents, and artifacts.

Photo: Jewish wedding party, circa early 1920's.   Jacky Comfortyís grandfather, Rachamim Comforty, is the third on the right. Rachelle Beracha Comforty is seated at the far end.

Before the Comfortys began their original research, few others had interviewed Bulgarian Jews or otherwise documented their experience and heritage. Few photographs of Bulgarian Jewry were formally collected. The Comforty Collection, as it is known at the United States Holocaust Museum, contains about 5,000 photographs of Bulgarian Jewish life from the turn of the century through World War II. The Comfortys discovered about 2,000 photos upon the death of Jacky Comforty’s grandmother, Rachel Comforty, who had hidden them in shoe boxes in her Jaffa apartment over the course of forty years. Rachel had carried most of these photographs with her when she emigrated from Bulgaria to Israel in 1949.  She had carefully kept them throughout World War II in Bulgaria, carried them with her on a rickety boat to Israel, and then kept them with her  in the tents she lived in in refugee camps when she first arrived in Israel. The photos required intensive preservation efforts. Much of the Comfortys’ work over the past several years has consisted of cleaning, properly storing, identifying, organizing, and digitally archiving the photos, preparing them for museum archiving and exhibition. The even greater miracle, of course, is that Bulgarian Jewry escaped the fate suffered by all other Jewish communities in Nazi-allied and occupied Europe. But fifty-eight years have passed since this chapter in Holocaust history and the reasons the Jews were saved, and the very fact itself, remain obscure.

How and why did humanistic values triumph over destructive ones in Bulgaria? 

The Bulgarian Jewish experience provides a model for peaceful coexistence of disparate peoples. During World War II, individuals made a difference, as did organized efforts by many groups. However, Bulgarian Jews, Christians and Moslems have lived together harmoniously in Bulgaria for millennia. The subject offers valuable insight into what conditions encourage the protection of human rights, civil liberties, and tolerant relations between people of different religions and cultures. It is not simply a Jewish story. It is a universal one, powerful in its ability to instruct and inspire all audiences. The Comfortys’ goal is to bring this story to public attention. Their purpose is to heighten appreciation of the potential for human good reflected in this chapter of Holocaust history and to explore how that potential came to be fulfilled. Both current and future generations are, and will always be, in need of such examples. The Bulgarian experience should not be allowed to drift into obscurity and it is in danger of doing so, as those who remain to testify about it age and pass away. It should remain, along with other instances of rescue, at the forefront of understanding about the Holocaust. The Optimists helps to build awareness about a time and place in which the relentless evil of the Holocaust was, in large measure, vanquished by common decency and uncommon courage. "The Optimists" is a presentation of Comforty Media Concepts and  the Chambon Foundation, a  non-profit  educational foundation established by filmmaker Pierre Sauvage. The Chambon Foundation, is named in honor of the French village of Le Chambon; in the area of Le Chambon, 5,000 Jews were sheltered during the Holocaust by 5,000 Christians. This story that was the subject of Sauvage's highly acclaimed documentary "Weapons of the Spirit" The Chambon Foundation is dedicated to documentary exploration of the Holocaust and to communicating "the necessary lessons of hope intertwined with the Holocaust's unavoidable lessons of despair." Grants and other types of funding have been provided in part by the Maurice Amado Foundation, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Illinois Humanities Council, and the Israeli Ministries of Industry and Trade and Foreign Affairs, and private donors. The Optimists, 82 minutes long, is available for showing in theaters nation wide.

Photo: King Boris III and Hitler. Excerpt from archival footage used in The Optimists.

From the moment the Nazis came to power, the Bulgarian regime allied itself with Germany. In 1934, King Boris III assumed dictatorial power in Bulgaria. Bulgaria’s alliance with Germany grew ever stronger. Germany was its main partner in trade. Bulgaria sold agricultural products and bought, in return, machinery and weapons. But it imported more than equipment. Nazi ideology and propaganda, anti-Semitism, and a national arrogance were imported as well. Young Bulgarians joined youth movements in imitation of Hitler youth groups. Bulgarian children learned to give the Nazi salute.___________________________________________________  

The Center for Jewish History emerged from a vision of a unique central resource for the cultural and historical legacy of the Jewish people.  Its mission is to preserve and illuminate the history, culture, and language of the Jewish people. The Office of Cultural Affairs in the U.S.A. at the Consulate General of Israel in NY coordinates Israeli cultural programming throughout North America and is a primary liaison with the Foreign Ministry in Israel. The American Jewish Committee has worked since 1906 to safeguard and strengthen Jews and Jewish life worldwide by promoting democratic and pluralistic societies that respect the dignity of all peoples.  With thirty-three U.S. chapters and twenty international posts, the AJC is an international think tank and advocacy organization that anticipates and acts on trends and problems, particularly in key areas of concern: confronting hatred, anti-Semitism, and terror; supporting Israel’s quest for security and peace; advancing intergroup understanding; enhancing Jewish peoplehood; and combating human rights abuses.

  The Optimists in concert, Sofia, 1940. Niko Nissimov, first from Right.

Photo: Metropolitan Bishop Stephan.

The American Sephardi Federation was founded in 1973 to support, revitalize and strengthen American Sephardic communities.  It joined forces in 2002 with Sephardic House, founded in 1978, to create a united Sephardic organization that can more effectively fulfill its mission to promote and preserve the spiritual, historical, cultural and social traditions of all Sephardic communities and assure their place as an integral part of Jewish heritage and American history.

Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, is the Jewish people’s memorial to the murdered Six Million and symbolizes the ongoing confrontation with the rupture engendered by the Holocaust. Containing the world’s largest repository of information on the Holocaust, Yad Vashem is a leader in Shoah education, commemoration, research and documentation.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF), with branches in New York, Buenos Aires, Jerusalem and Caracas, is a public non-profit organization, whose goals are to promote peace among nations and people, as well as to develop educational projects based on concepts of solidarity, dialogue and understanding. IRWF aims to promote this message and render homage to the actions and Heroes of the Holocaust, who like Raoul Wallenberg, risked their lives to save persecuted people during World War II. Castle Hill Productions is a multi-faced corporation, which distributes, produces and represents motion pictures and producers.  Founded in 1978, it has office located in New York and Florida.  Castle Hill Productions is entering its 25th year of business and now owns a library of over 400 motion pictures, making it one of the largest independent film companies in the world distributing first run, classic, and reissue movies to theaters and television worldwide.   Comforty Media Concepts is an award-winning educational media production company that specializes in development and distribution of multimedia about social issues, history, art, science, and ethics.  Comforty's programs are used and shown around the world. They are informative, insightful, and authentic, they build sensitivity and inspire learning and thinking.

 

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