From: vassil@mary-ann.cs.wisc.edu (Vassil Peytchev)
Subject: Re: About the Bulgarian Jews and the Bulgarian people
Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison -- Computer Sciences Dept.
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 21:51:13 GMT


>In article <154s7gINNcto@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> sutin@helios.ucsc.edu (Brian Sutin) writes:
[...]
>>
>>Oh?  So a Jew cannot be a Bulgarian?  I hope that is not what you are
>>implying.  Can a Bulgarian only be Christian or Moslem?  Is a Jew who
>>speaks Bulgarian (most Jews in Bulgaria do, you know) not a Bulgarian?
>>
>>The first step is to say things like "Jews and Bulgarians"; then when
>>times get bad, the Gentiles can say, "What are these Jews doing here?
>>They aren't Bulgarians!  Let's treat them like the second class citizens
>>they really are!"
>>

Attention! Severe case of misunderstanding! Could you please provide a 
definition of a Jew before you start writing things strongly resembling
b**ls**t!

As I see it, Jew is:
	1. A person, who belongs to the Jewish nationality, regardless of
religion. 
	2. A person, whose religion is Judaism, regardless of nationality.
	3. (Maybe) A citizen of Izrael.

In Bulgaria we usually use the first definition, while Brian seems to use the
second. Also I don't think that `being from Bulgaria' and `being Bulgarian'
are the same thing.

In article <1992Jul29.090546.13853@wisipc.weizmann.ac.il> lihouba@iris.weizmann.ac.il (Christo Houbaviy) responds:
>I don't really get the point Brian. Although I haven't read the book I believe
>that the phrase 'Jews and Bulgarians' can be used instead of 'Bulgarian Jews and
>Bulgarians' (or even instead of 'Bulgarian Jews and Non-Jewish Bulgarians)
>without implying any antisemitic mood. It is just the shortest way to
>talk about the two ethnic groups in a book that deals with that matter.
>Secondly Bulgarians really can be only Christian. Non - christian bulgarian
>citizens are not Bulgarians they belong to other ethnic groups. 

Wrong. Pomaks are Muslims and ethnic Bulgarians.

>I don't see any
>thing wrong with that and there is no racial discrimination in that statement.
>Thirdly Bulgarian Jews consider themselves Jewish not Bulgarians (as do Jews in
>other countries). (Though they are sometimes referred to as Bulgarians here in
>Israel - just for shorthand).
>As to what would happen when things go bad - I can only tell you that during
>the anti-Turk campaign performed by the former communist goverment the argument
>was quite the opposite - they claimed that the Turkish popullation was
>Bulgarian and therefore those people should change their names and religon.

And I had the following experience two and a half months ago: Several friends,
among them a Bulgarian Turk, Ediz, and I were spending some time at a college 
in Pennsilvania. As we were speaking Bulgarian, another person asked `So, are 
you all Bulgarians?' Ediz replied, `No, we are all Bulgarian citizens'.

>>Brian Sutin				sutin@helios.ucsc.edu
>>Lick Observatory, UCSC			Santa Cruz, CA 95064

>Christo Houbaviy			lihouba@weizmann
>The Weizmann Institute of Science	lihouba@weizmann.weizmann.ac.il
>Rehovot, Israel

Regards,

Vassil
---
Vassil Peytchev
vassil@cs.wisc.edu

Newsgroups: soc.culture.bulgaria