Eshua Almalech during his first visit in Israel

Eshua Almalech during his first visit in Israel

I visited Israel for the first time in 1957 together with some friends. I am the second from left, holding the son of the woman next to me, Reni Assa, wife of a friend of mine. I decided not to leave for Israel, but I believe that everybody has the right to make his or her own choice where to live. I have always kept in touch with my relatives - through letters, visits. I have visited them many times since my first visit in 1957. When I was for the first time in Israel I saw how beautiful the country was. I lived there in my parents' apartment in Tel Aviv . I was very happy to meet my relatives and friends then. They believed that I had decided to live in Israel. But soon they understood that I would have never stayed in Israel forever. I love Israel, always think of all of them and I am deeply interested in the Israeli problems, but I can't live without Bulgaria, its nature and my colleagues. With the exception of my father and my stepmother all my relatives and friends moved to Israel in 1948. Of course, there were ones who moved there earlier in order to build the future Israeli state in Palestine. All of them had the good features of the Bulgarian people as well, and despite the difficulties in the first years, they worked hard and lived well in Israel and they managed to educate their children. Most of them are no longer alive. Their life is a part of the history of Israel, though they never forgot Bulgaria. Even before the democratic changes in Bulgaria, many of them used to visit Bulgaria every summer in order to meet their Bulgarian friends, being concerned about the life in Bulgaria, their native country.
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