"Overcoming prejudices and fear from the different..." Post Office, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria.

In Sofia, some young people spent last Sunday scrubbing racist symbols from the capital's ubiquitous graffiti, according to local media. The mayor and the Israeli Ambassador called for "overcoming prejudices and fear from the different, and increasing the sensitivity of society in cases of hatred, xenophobia, racism, and anti-Semitism."  The statement mirrored a dispatch 100 years ago this month in the International Herald Tribune, quoted below.

Neither message, 1912 or 2012, seems to have reached provincial Blagoevgrad, a university town where graffiti Swastikas have persisted at least since January on the Main Post Office around the corner from City Hall. They are seen daily by scores of passersby as well as children walking to Dimitar Blagoev Primary School across the street.

Dr. Ehrenpreis, Grand Rabbi of Bulgaria, a man of great learning, who was educated in Vienna, together with Tsar Ferdinand, has issued a pastoral letter to members of the Jewish community in the Turkish provinces freed by Bulgaria. His letter is as follows: “God has given victory to the Bulgarian army on the battlefield. You now live under the sovereignty of the kingdom of Bulgaria as free citizens. At this important historical moment, the leading members of the Jewish community in the kingdom and myself congratulate you from the depths of our hearts on your becoming citizens of Bulgaria, and enjoying like ourselves the virtues of a noble, tolerant and just nation under the septre of a beloved sovereign, who defends equally all the sons of his country irrespective of their religion. 

CREDITS: Photos, Post Office, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, March 22, 2012. Sofia Launches 'Clean Hatred' Campaign, Sofia News Agency, Nov. 25, 2012.   Rabbi Rejoices at Victory, International Herald Tribune.