Stephan promised that he would meet with the King and attempt to influence him. The Church continued to pressure the King and was a major stumbling block in the way of deportation. Rabbi Daniel and his secretary wrote a letter to the King begging him, in the name of Yeshua, not to allow the Jews to be taken out of Bulgaria. He wrote that in a vision Yeshua told him to warn the King about delivering the Jews to the Nazis. After waiting many hours at the palace they were able to deliver the letter to the

King’s secretary. The next day the King was going to Germany for a meeting with Hitler himself. King Boris of Bulgaria stood his ground and did not submit to Nazi pressure to deliver the Jews to the death camps. Rabbi Daniel Tzion remained the Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria until 1949 when he and most of the Bulgarian Jewish community immigrated to Israel where he was immediately accepted as rabbi of the Bulgarian Jews. In 1954 Rabbi Daniel was invited by Rabbi Toledano to be a judge in the Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem. When rumors started to fly that he believed in Yeshua, Rabbi Daniel explained that he accepted Yeshua as the Messiah but did not accept Christianity as the true expression of the teaching and person of the Messiah. Rabbi Toledano said that he could live with this position as long as he would keep it to himself. When Rabbi Daniel said that that such a message could not be kept secret, Toledano was forced to take him to the Rabbinical Court. Four books that Rabbi Daniel had written about Yeshua in Bulgarian were presented as evidence. Rabbi Daniel spoke in his own defense:”I am poor and feeble, persecuted and vulnerable. Yeshua conquered me, and with the New Man he honored me. He

delivered me from the poverty-stricken self into his great love; he cherishes me. Every day the canny devil aspires to grab my faith. I hold on to my courage and chase the devil away. I stand here alone in my faith; the whole world is against me. I give up all the earthly honor for the sake of the Messiah my mate.” Rabbi Daniel was stripped of his title, but the Bulgarian Jews continued to honor him as their rabbi. A Jewish believer had given Rabbi Daniel a building in Jaffa for a synagogue. There Rabbi Daniel did not often speak openly of Yeshua, but many times he told stories and parables from the New Testament. However, each Sabbath after the service, Rabbi Daniel would bring home a group of worshippers and they would study about Yeshua and the New Testament all afternoon until they would go back for the evening prayers. Rabbi Daniel wrote hundreds of songs about Yeshua, the Sabbath and the good life. He also wrote books on the subjects of vegetarianism, health food, and natural living.Rabbi Daniel Tzion died in 1979 at 96 years of age. The Bulgarian community gave him full honors. His bier stood in the center of Jaffa with a military guard and at noon was carried on foot all the way to the Holon cemetery (5 kilometers). He was buried as the chief rabbi of the Bulgarian Jews who saved them from the Nazi Holocaust. Rabbi Daniel’s major contribution to Messianic Judaism was his personal example. He was 100% Jewish and 100% a follower and disciple of Yeshua the Messiah.Adapted from Shulam’s article: www.torahtime.org/studies/ Joseph Shulam is the Director of Netivyah Bible Instruction Ministry in Jerusalem (www.netivyah.org)

Israelis remember:Joseph Shulam, leader of Netivyah congregation, Jerusalem:When Nazi Germany occupied Bulgaria, Rabbi Daniel became the object of persecution and ridicule. He was taken and publicly flogged in front of the Great Synagogue of Sofia. Rabbi Daniel’s only reaction was to call upon God. My own mother and sister were present for at least two of these occasions, and they retold the story many times.

Avi Mizrachi, Pastor, El Roi congregation, Tel-Aviv:Rabbi Daniel was very well respected – and he loved Yeshua. Some people think that he wasn’t bold enough. But Rabbi Daniel came from a different world and a different time. He was an Orthodox Jew – a chief rabbi! He had his synagogue and people came to him. My mother was saved by the Rabbi. He prayed for me and dedicated me to the Lord. Both my sister and I came to faith through Rabbi Daniel.

Michael Bar-Zohar, Prof. of History, Emory U., Atlanta:Bulgaria was Nazi Germany’s ally. King Boris III was a personal friend of Hitler’s. The Fascist Party was in power and the country swarmed with German troops. Nevertheless, when Adolf Eichmann’s deputy came to Bulgaria to deport the Jews, this small Balkan nation refused to let them go. The young secretary of the Commissar for Jewish Questions, Liliana Panitza, discovered the secret agreement between her employer and the German envoy. She hurried to inform Bulgarian leaders, Jewish and non-Jewish, of the forthcoming deportation. The news triggered an unprecedented effort led by the Eastern Orthodox Church, intellectual and professional groups, and the king himself... In open defiance of the Reich, Bulgaria refused to hand over its 50,000 Jews. An angry Hitler summoned King Boris to Germany, where he was pressured to revise his decision. He refused. The king was flown back to Bulgaria, to die a few days later from a mysterious illness. Bulgaria’s unofficial version is that he was poisoned by Hitler. I am a Bulgarian-born Israeli. I remember the nights of anguish in March 1943 when we waited for the police to pick us up and escort us to the deportation trains...

from “Beyond Hitler’s Grasp”

Poor and Feeble, Persecuted and Vulnerable

How I accepted the Lord Yeshua the Messiah by Rabbi Daniel Tzion*

Sofia Synagogue

May 2 is Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Day) in Israel. A siren sounds at 10 o’clock in the morning and everyone stands to re-member the 6 million Jewish victims. All places of entertainment are closed. Flags are flown at half-mast. Radio and tele-vision stations broadcast special music, programs and documentaries. One story, however, is not so well known in Israel or abroad. That is the remarkable story of the chief rabbi of Sofia and his role in saving the Jews of Bulgaria during World War II. Although an ally of Germany, Bulgaria resisted all pressure to send her Jews to the camps in Poland and as a re-sult not one Bulgarian Jew was lost to the Holocaust! Till today scholars research and probe for reasons for this improbable stance of one small country against Hit-ler’s “final solution.” A tolerant society and a vigorous religious and intellectual tradition are among the reasons given, but none really satisfy. Joseph Shulam, from a Jewish Bulgarian family, recounts the story of one believer in Yeshua and the part he played in saving the Jews of Bulgaria

The Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria in Sofia, Rabbi Daniel Tzion, through reading the New Testament and some extraordinary experiences came to faith in Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah. He became a friend of the Bulgarian Orthodox patriarch, Metropolite Stephan, who encouraged the rabbi to forget about Christianity and just concentrate on Yeshua. Though he began to believe in Yeshua, Rabbi Daniel never converted to Christianity and he maintained a Torah observant lifestyle. Rabbi Daniel’s faith became a well-known “secret” in Sofia. He started to collect a small, select group of Jews to study the New Testament each Saturday afternoon in his home. On July 12th, 1941, King Boris III signed a law ordering every Jew to pay a “Contribution Tax”. In the same month a second law was passed that limited the financial resources of the Jews prohibiting them from working as pharmacists, engineers, architects, lawyers, etc. On September 30th, 1942, a special commission for Jewish affairs was appointed and headed by Alexander Balev, a well-known anti-Semite. Everyone knew that these developments were in preparation for the deportation and extermination of the Jews.In 1943 the government of Bulgaria under German pressure made a decision to deport the Jews. On May 23rd, Rabbi Daniel gathered all the Jews of Sofia in the central synagogue and said publicly, “It is better for us to die here than in Poland.” When they left the synagogue the police attacked them and arrested about 250 men. But the people continued to march to the Holy Synod and demanded to see the Bulgarian Orthodox patriarch who was respected by the Jewish community. Metropolite

No not I, only you are Yeshua in me!Only you bring me before the God of my fathers.Only you can heal me from my evil illness.No not I , no not I, only you are Yeshua in me!Only you teach me to love all creation.Only you teach me to love even the enemy.No not I, no not I, only you are Yeshua in me!For this reason I will stay in your love.Forever will I be within your will.No not I, no not I, only you are Yeshua in me!

--Rabbi Daniel Tzion

I was educated in an atmosphere where the mention of the name Yeshua the Messiah was an unclean and forbidden expression. . . it came about that I met some believing Christians and I was very impressed with their honest faith, righteousness of their hearts and especially their knowledge of the scriptures. I heard from them many quotations from the New Covenant (N.T.) and they were full of the same substance as the Tanach. . . As I read . . . I saw many lofty morals, and it seemed wonderful to me. . .

For more than 20 years the Lord worked in me and showed me several signs and miracles to strengthen the belief in my heart. Two instances I will tell you so that you will have an idea . . . First of all I should tell you that after I had been reading the New Covenant for some time I heard a voice speaking to me from within my heart giving me good advice and encouragement. . . One day I went to see a Christian man. . . He explained that the voice I heard was none other than Jesus the Messiah. . . I thought about his words and I agreed with them. . . All of a sudden a voice spoke to me, “Come tomorrow morning to this place and stand facing the sun and I will give you a sign. . .” I was shown an image of Yeshua crucified in the sun. . . Great joy filled me but at the same time some trepidation. .. The second sign was on a rainy morning outside of town. . . doubt crept into my heart if it really was Yeshua. . . “I will give you a second sign. Do you see the rain? Go to that place and pray a short prayer and ask that the rain will stop and in so doing the rain will stop.” I ran to the place and I prayed as told. Immediately the rain stopped and the sun shone then the rain started again. . . I started to weep from joy. My faith was strong and firm. . .

Even though I had seen so many signs, my faith was still caught in my heart and I did not have the courage to go out and tell the world until the Lord freed me from my role as chief rabbi of Bulgaria and I arrived in the Land of Israel. . .Yeshua the Messiah as described in the New Covenant served me as a kind of mirror to show me all my disparities and ugliness. This pushed and compelled me to confess before the Lord, to ask forgiveness and compassion and to be cleansed and purified by the blood of Yeshua. . . There were many persecutions and a record number of attacks against me. Things happened that even I cannot speak of. I, in all my innocence, kept going. Blessed be the Lord who gave me the strength to stand against all those who persecuted me. I was happier than any man. . . I pray to the Lord who has helped me so far, and will help me in the future bring honor to His name in order to disseminate His name and the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah in all the world. Amen. May His will be done. Amen! and Amen! * provided by Dr, Gershon Nerel, from TAL, vol. 2, 1962: , translation Shira Pileggi

Stephan promised that he would meet with the King and attempt to influence him. The Church continued to pressure the King and was a major stumbling block in the way of deportation. Rabbi Daniel and his secretary wrote a letter to the King begging him, in the name of Yeshua, not to allow the Jews to be taken out of Bulgaria. He wrote that in a vision Yeshua told him to warn the King about delivering the Jews to the Nazis. After waiting many hours at the palace they were able to deliver the letter to the

King’s secretary. The next day the King was going to Germany for a meeting with Hitler himself. King Boris of Bulgaria stood his ground and did not submit to Nazi pressure to deliver the Jews to the death camps. Rabbi Daniel Tzion remained the Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria until 1949 when he and most of the Bulgarian Jewish community immigrated to Israel where he was immediately accepted as rabbi of the Bulgarian Jews. In 1954 Rabbi Daniel was invited by Rabbi Toledano to be a judge in the Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem. When rumors started to fly that he believed in Yeshua, Rabbi Daniel explained that he accepted Yeshua as the Messiah but did not accept Christianity as the true expression of the teaching and person of the Messiah. Rabbi Toledano said that he could live with this position as long as he would keep it to himself. When Rabbi Daniel said that that such a message could not be kept secret, Toledano was forced to take him to the Rabbinical Court. Four books that Rabbi Daniel had written about Yeshua in Bulgarian were presented as evidence. Rabbi Daniel spoke in his own defense:”I am poor and feeble, persecuted and vulnerable. Yeshua conquered me, and with the New Man he honored me. He

delivered me from the poverty-stricken self into his great love; he cherishes me. Every day the canny devil aspires to grab my faith. I hold on to my courage and chase the devil away. I stand here alone in my faith; the whole world is against me. I give up all the earthly honor for the sake of the Messiah my mate.” Rabbi Daniel was stripped of his title, but the Bulgarian Jews continued to honor him as their rabbi. A Jewish believer had given Rabbi Daniel a building in Jaffa for a synagogue. There Rabbi Daniel did not often speak openly of Yeshua, but many times he told stories and parables from the New Testament. However, each Sabbath after the service, Rabbi Daniel would bring home a group of worshippers and they would study about Yeshua and the New Testament all afternoon until they would go back for the evening prayers. Rabbi Daniel wrote hundreds of songs about Yeshua, the Sabbath and the good life. He also wrote books on the subjects of vegetarianism, health food, and natural living.Rabbi Daniel Tzion died in 1979 at 96 years of age. The Bulgarian community gave him full honors. His bier stood in the center of Jaffa with a military guard and at noon was carried on foot all the way to the Holon cemetery (5 kilometers). He was buried as the chief rabbi of the Bulgarian Jews who saved them from the Nazi Holocaust. Rabbi Daniel’s major contribution to Messianic Judaism was his personal example. He was 100% Jewish and 100% a follower and disciple of Yeshua the Messiah.Adapted from Shulam’s article: www.torahtime.org/studies/ Joseph Shulam is the Director of Netivyah Bible Instruction Ministry in Jerusalem (www.netivyah.org)

Israelis remember:Joseph Shulam, leader of Netivyah congregation, Jerusalem:When Nazi Germany occupied Bulgaria, Rabbi Daniel became the object of persecution and ridicule. He was taken and publicly flogged in front of the Great Synagogue of Sofia. Rabbi Daniel’s only reaction was to call upon God. My own mother and sister were present for at least two of these occasions, and they retold the story many times.

Avi Mizrachi, Pastor, El Roi congregation, Tel-Aviv:Rabbi Daniel was very well respected – and he loved Yeshua. Some people think that he wasn’t bold enough. But Rabbi Daniel came from a different world and a different time. He was an Orthodox Jew – a chief rabbi! He had his synagogue and people came to him. My mother was saved by the Rabbi. He prayed for me and dedicated me to the Lord. Both my sister and I came to faith through Rabbi Daniel.

Michael Bar-Zohar, Prof. of History, Emory U., Atlanta:Bulgaria was Nazi Germany’s ally. King Boris III was a personal friend of Hitler’s. The Fascist Party was in power and the country swarmed with German troops. Nevertheless, when Adolf Eichmann’s deputy came to Bulgaria to deport the Jews, this small Balkan nation refused to let them go. The young secretary of the Commissar for Jewish Questions, Liliana Panitza, discovered the secret agreement between her employer and the German envoy. She hurried to inform Bulgarian leaders, Jewish and non-Jewish, of the forthcoming deportation. The news triggered an unprecedented effort led by the Eastern Orthodox Church, intellectual and professional groups, and the king himself... In open defiance of the Reich, Bulgaria refused to hand over its 50,000 Jews. An angry Hitler summoned King Boris to Germany, where he was pressured to revise his decision. He refused. The king was flown back to Bulgaria, to die a few days later from a mysterious illness. Bulgaria’s unofficial version is that he was poisoned by Hitler. I am a Bulgarian-born Israeli. I remember the nights of anguish in March 1943 when we waited for the police to pick us up and escort us to the deportation trains...

from “Beyond Hitler’s Grasp”

Poor and Feeble, Persecuted and Vulnerable

How I accepted the Lord Yeshua the Messiah by Rabbi Daniel Tzion*

Sofia Synagogue

May 2 is Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Day) in Israel. A siren sounds at 10 o’clock in the morning and everyone stands to re-member the 6 million Jewish victims. All places of entertainment are closed. Flags are flown at half-mast. Radio and tele-vision stations broadcast special music, programs and documentaries. One story, however, is not so well known in Israel or abroad. That is the remarkable story of the chief rabbi of Sofia and his role in saving the Jews of Bulgaria during World War II. Although an ally of Germany, Bulgaria resisted all pressure to send her Jews to the camps in Poland and as a re-sult not one Bulgarian Jew was lost to the Holocaust! Till today scholars research and probe for reasons for this improbable stance of one small country against Hit-ler’s “final solution.” A tolerant society and a vigorous religious and intellectual tradition are among the reasons given, but none really satisfy. Joseph Shulam, from a Jewish Bulgarian family, recounts the story of one believer in Yeshua and the part he played in saving the Jews of Bulgaria

The Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria in Sofia, Rabbi Daniel Tzion, through reading the New Testament and some extraordinary experiences came to faith in Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah. He became a friend of the Bulgarian Orthodox patriarch, Metropolite Stephan, who encouraged the rabbi to forget about Christianity and just concentrate on Yeshua. Though he began to believe in Yeshua, Rabbi Daniel never converted to Christianity and he maintained a Torah observant lifestyle. Rabbi Daniel’s faith became a well-known “secret” in Sofia. He started to collect a small, select group of Jews to study the New Testament each Saturday afternoon in his home. On July 12th, 1941, King Boris III signed a law ordering every Jew to pay a “Contribution Tax”. In the same month a second law was passed that limited the financial resources of the Jews prohibiting them from working as pharmacists, engineers, architects, lawyers, etc. On September 30th, 1942, a special commission for Jewish affairs was appointed and headed by Alexander Balev, a well-known anti-Semite. Everyone knew that these developments were in preparation for the deportation and extermination of the Jews.In 1943 the government of Bulgaria under German pressure made a decision to deport the Jews. On May 23rd, Rabbi Daniel gathered all the Jews of Sofia in the central synagogue and said publicly, “It is better for us to die here than in Poland.” When they left the synagogue the police attacked them and arrested about 250 men. But the people continued to march to the Holy Synod and demanded to see the Bulgarian Orthodox patriarch who was respected by the Jewish community. Metropolite

No not I, only you are Yeshua in me!Only you bring me before the God of my fathers.Only you can heal me from my evil illness.No not I , no not I, only you are Yeshua in me!Only you teach me to love all creation.Only you teach me to love even the enemy.No not I, no not I, only you are Yeshua in me!For this reason I will stay in your love.Forever will I be within your will.No not I, no not I, only you are Yeshua in me!

--Rabbi Daniel Tzion

I was educated in an atmosphere where the mention of the name Yeshua the Messiah was an unclean and forbidden expression. . . it came about that I met some believing Christians and I was very impressed with their honest faith, righteousness of their hearts and especially their knowledge of the scriptures. I heard from them many quotations from the New Covenant (N.T.) and they were full of the same substance as the Tanach. . . As I read . . . I saw many lofty morals, and it seemed wonderful to me. . .

For more than 20 years the Lord worked in me and showed me several signs and miracles to strengthen the belief in my heart. Two instances I will tell you so that you will have an idea . . . First of all I should tell you that after I had been reading the New Covenant for some time I heard a voice speaking to me from within my heart giving me good advice and encouragement. . . One day I went to see a Christian man. . . He explained that the voice I heard was none other than Jesus the Messiah. . . I thought about his words and I agreed with them. . . All of a sudden a voice spoke to me, “Come tomorrow morning to this place and stand facing the sun and I will give you a sign. . .” I was shown an image of Yeshua crucified in the sun. . . Great joy filled me but at the same time some trepidation. .. The second sign was on a rainy morning outside of town. . . doubt crept into my heart if it really was Yeshua. . . “I will give you a second sign. Do you see the rain? Go to that place and pray a short prayer and ask that the rain will stop and in so doing the rain will stop.” I ran to the place and I prayed as told. Immediately the rain stopped and the sun shone then the rain started again. . . I started to weep from joy. My faith was strong and firm. . .

Even though I had seen so many signs, my faith was still caught in my heart and I did not have the courage to go out and tell the world until the Lord freed me from my role as chief rabbi of Bulgaria and I arrived in the Land of Israel. . .Yeshua the Messiah as described in the New Covenant served me as a kind of mirror to show me all my disparities and ugliness. This pushed and compelled me to confess before the Lord, to ask forgiveness and compassion and to be cleansed and purified by the blood of Yeshua. . . There were many persecutions and a record number of attacks against me. Things happened that even I cannot speak of. I, in all my innocence, kept going. Blessed be the Lord who gave me the strength to stand against all those who persecuted me. I was happier than any man. . . I pray to the Lord who has helped me so far, and will help me in the future bring honor to His name in order to disseminate His name and the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah in all the world. Amen. May His will be done. Amen! and Amen! * provided by Dr, Gershon Nerel, from TAL, vol. 2, 1962: , translation Shira Pileggi