Leon Avramov Kalaora

This picture of me was taken in 1998 in Sofia, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the famous philosopher Isak Passy, the father of the current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, Solomon Passy. My life as a pensioner in Bulgaria was so to say quite restricted, as in the course of 10 years I took care of my wife Berta, who was bedridden because of an illness. After 1949 she became editor-in-chief of the 'Trud' newspaper which propagated the communist ideas. Berta died in 2004 after a long illness. She spent her last nine years bedridden and I still can't get over her death. Meanwhile I didn't lose my connections with both the Jewish and the Bulgarian communities. One of the main reasons for me to meet with different people was my devotedness to the communist idea - I communicated mostly with my party comrades. I am still a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party. I spend my pension mostly on medications. Yet, I am not complaining. My friends after 1989 are mostly Jews. Like most of them I have received aid from Switzerland, Germany and the Joint. We usually gather in the Jewish home. We eat together. Then we play cards and talk. To tell you the truth, I do not feel well, when I am isolated from the other people. During the totalitarian period my relations with my relatives, that is my brothers, cousins, and friends, have always been strong and unhindered. I am aware of the fact that among Jews in Bulgaria there were ones, who complained from obstructed contacts with their relatives in Israel, but I was never among them. I can only feel sympathy for them, without actually knowing anything specific.