Vandals smashed the windows of the Sofia Central Synagogue in Sofia located on Washington Street in the capital of Bulgaria, over Shabbos.

Shalom, a jewish community organization for Jews in Bulgaria said that not only did the attack take place on Shabbos, but also just days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27.

“The incident itself is extremely troublesome, but the complete lack of reaction by passersby on the street is even more worrying,” said Shalom president Associate Professor Alexander Oscar.

“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.”

In response to the attack, the World Jewish Congress issued the following statement:

“The World Jewish Congress stands with our community in Bulgaria in decrying this despicable act of vandalism against a center of Jewish life in Sofia, and is further outraged by the utter lack of attention this desecration was given by passersby. We urge the authorities to take every measure possible to ensure their safety and well-being in the face of a spate of antisemitic incidents of late, and recognize that this cannot be treated as a simple act of criminal vandalism,” said WJC CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer.

“Jews in Bulgaria are proud members of society, and their security must be of utmost importance and concern, as with all citizens of Bulgaria. It is absolutely unacceptable that the community should have to live in fear or trepidation for their lives or their property, simply due to their identity as Jews. We trust that the police and government will treat this incident with the severity it deserves, and do everything in their power to prevent such acts of hatred from happening again, including around-the-clock protection of Jewish communal property,” Singer said.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)