This is my passport photo from the 1970s. It was taken in Vidin. At that time I worked as an accountant. I worked as an accountant for 35 years. I worked at two different places - 10 years in the meat processing plant in Vidin and 25 years in a state construction company. I never had any problems at work for being a Jew. I got on with my colleagues well, I did not have arguments with anyone. After 9th September 1944 [The day of the communist takeover in Bulgaria. In September 1944 the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria. On 9th September 1944 the Fatherland Front, a broad left-wing coalition, deposed the government.] I became a member of the Bulgarian Communist Party [BCP]. After 10th November 1989 when the party was disbanded, I became a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party [BSP]. I still believe in the values of the socialist idea.
My parents have different origin. My father David Avram Levi (1898 - 1969) is a Sephardi Jew born in Vidin [port city on the right bank of the Danube in Bulgaria, 220 km. away from Sofia]. My mother Rashel Avram Levi (nee Benjosef, 1899 - 1975) was also born here, but she is half Ashkenazi Jew. That is, her mother, my grandmother Ester, whose family name I do not know, moved from Germany to Bulgaria due to reasons unknown to me. My father was a middleman and my mother - a housewife. I have a sister - Ester David Fintsi (nee Levi), who is five years older than me. She was born in 1925 in Vidin. She lives in Sofia now and she worked as a clerk. She has two daughters: Madlena and Sheli Fintsi, who also live in Sofia.
My husband Mayer Rafael Alhalel and I married in 1948. Our wedding was on 9th July 1948 in Cherven Briag. Before that we lived together for one year in Cherven Briag. After our marriage we continued to live in our home town Vidin, in the oldest Jewish neighborhood in the town - Kale. I have two children - Streya Mayer Puncheva (nee Alhalel) and Sheli Mayer Vladeva (nee Alhalel). The elder one, Streya, was born in 1949. She graduated from the chemical technical school in Vidin. She has been working as a chemist in the local meat processing plant for some years. My younger daughter Sheli was born in 1954 and is a construction engineer. Unfortunately, she does not have children. I have grandchildren from Streya, who also worked in the municipality in Vidin. My granddaughter Yanita lives in a kibbutz now. She has a daughter Viara, who is married, but I do not know her new family name. My grandson Lyubomir, who is director of Bulbank in Sofia, also has children. Their names are Konstantin and Mihaela.
