Tag #128264 - Interview #96751 (Klara Kohen)

My ancestors came from Spain. They spoke Spanish, which had changed through the years and now is called Ladino. I know neither what they dealt with nor what their material status was. They were religious for sure, as the older generations of Jews were religious and that preserved their identity. Not until the socialist times [1944-1989] did Jewish people start mingling with Bulgarians, with Christians. Before that our ancestors had kept their national identity strictly. They came to Bulgaria in the 16th century during the Turkish rule [see Ottoman Rule in Bulgaria] [1]. They were chased away from Spain and probably they had come in groups by sea and land spreading over Turkey, Bulgaria and the Balkans as a whole [also see Expulsion of the Jews from Spain] [2]. I remember asking my paternal grandmother Rivka Avram Solomonova to tell me about the Turkish times but never did she say anything special about it. I think nevertheless that they had lived well both with Turks and Bulgarians.