When unwavering faith meets moral leadership. Recent events, such as Sunday’s horrific terror attack on Jewish people peacefully assembling in support of Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas, the tragic murder a couple of weeks ago of two Israeli Embassy staffers who were engaged to be married and the ongoing intimidation of Jewish students on college campuses, reveal a growing antisemitism throughout the world. These events beg the question of whether a Holocaust could happen again and demonstrate why the largely untold story of Bulgarian Orthodox Church Metropolitan Fr. Stefan and Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria Daniel Zion who, during World War II, successfully prevented the deportation of over 50,000 Bulgarian Jews to Nazi concentration camps is so relevant right now.

Legacy of Hope: Hidden Heroes from Generation to Generation, written by Avi Mizrachi and researched by his daughter D’vora Boaz (who share a personal connection to the true story), provides a welcome reminder of the miracles that can happen when people have the courage to apply personal moral clarity when the world seems to have lost its way. They spoke with me from Israel.

JWK: Your book came out in December of 2023 but seems even more relevant today considering all the antisemitic events that occurred in the wake of the terrible massacre of Jews that occurred on October 7th of that year. Legacy of Hope tells the story of two religious men of different faiths who repeatedly put their lives on the line to save the Jewish population of Bulgaria. Can you take the story from there?

Avi Mizrachi: I was born and raised in Israel in a Jewish family. My parents survived the Holocaust but they never talked about it. I never asked them any questions. When my children went to school they had a project in the kibbutz where they asked questions about the history of their grandparents. So, they started asking questions about my parents. I didn’t know anything because they never talked about it. So, I took my kids’ questions to my parents – their grandparents – and just started asking questions. “Where were you born?” “What did you do during the Holocaust?” “What happened?” “How did you survive?”

Suddenly, my parents gently opened up and began answering those questions which I didn’t know (the answers to) myself. I realized there’s a treasure there.

You know, six-million Jews were killed, murdered by the Nazis, during the Second World War from 1939 to 1945. Somehow, my parents survived, not only them but over 50,000 Jews that were in Bulgaria that were supposed to go on trains to Auschwitz to be murdered. Somehow, it didn’t happen. The more we started asking questions, the more we got amazing stories that (raised) our curiosity (and realized) this is a treasure. We had to find out what happened.

That’s how this journey started ten years ago when I took my whole family, (including) all my kids to visit a synagogue in Bulgaria (where) we started finding out all kinds of things about my parents and my grandparents. 

JWK: So, tell me about the two religious men who joined forces to rescue all these people?

D’vora Boaz: What’s really amazing is that you have Rabbi Daniel Zion, the chief rabbi of all Bulgaria, and working with him is Metropolitan Fr. Stefan who is like a bishop, you would say. He is the head of the Orthodox Church in Bulgaria. What’s amazing is that both of these men were believers in Yeshua, in Jesus, before World War II. They had a real good friendship. That is a key factor because of what happens in World War II.

During World War II we have a Messianic rabbi who is a chief rabbi who will do whatever he can to save his people – even risking his life in order to get to the King (of Bulgaria), to talk to government officials, to get to the police station, to get to anyone that would hear (him) pleading for the lives of his people – but, the fact is, he didn’t do it on his own. He did it hand-in-hand with the Orthodox priest Fr. Stefan.  What happened was, because of this relationship which they formed together, he knew that it was now time to stand up. It was now or never.

What he did was he sat with all the metropolitans. They have around eight metropolitans that are heads of the Church of all of Bulgaria – meaning that in every major city there a metropolis. He sat with them and I can tell you, I researched it and went into the archives and read the protocols that are listed in 1939, 1940, ’41, ’42, ’43, all the way to ’45. You can see that all the metropolitans together said that it was time for the Church to (take a) stand when the Jewish people are in greatest need. When their lives were at stake, the Church had to rise. Christians had to stand so that maybe, through their actions, they would see their Messiah. They will see Yeshua through their actions. It was not a time just for words but also for actions.

They were willing to risk their own lives in order to save the Jewish population. That’s really a remarkable story because the Jewish population was less than one-percent of the entire population of Bulgaria. It was because the Christians rose – and the metropolitans rose – and said it was the time to stand. I can give you so many example of what they did – but it’s really remarkable the way they stood. 

JWK: What was it like for the two of you to work together, your father writing the book and you researching it? Did it bring you close together?

D’vora: That’s for sure.

Avi: I have four daughters. They’re all following Jesus, for sure. They’re all married to godly men. We have, all together, ten grandchildren. We are very close. We do Shabbat together. So, we’re very close. Basically, I asked (D’vora) to do the research of the archives. She got permission because she did a master’s degree at a university (that allowed her) to go to the archives to research all this…Upon the research that she did, I wrote the nice story of my family connected to facts in the archives that she dug up. Basically, the point we came up with is look what God did! A Jewish leader who had a personal relationship with Jesus together with a priest who also loved God, loved Jesus, loved Israel, stood against evil and won.

JWK: How has this story that affected your own family affected your own personal faith?

Avi: First of all, I’m alive today because my parents survived in Bulgaria. Both of them were born in Bulgaria. (After) they emigrated in 1948 – when Israel declared independence – I remember my parents used to take me to the synagogue where this rabbi put his hands on my head and pray for me. The story that is so beautiful is my mother in the early fifties when she gave birth to my sister it was a recession time…There was a recession for years. It was very difficult. She gave birth to my sister and she went through a deep depression and thought about committing suicide. So, my mother went to the synagogue waiting for (the rabbi) to finish the morning prayers. After the morning prayers, he started talking to her in Spanish because we are Sephardic Jews. (He asked) “What’s wrong? Why are you so sad?” She said “I don’t want to live anymore.” He said “Don’t say that!” He went inside and got the New Testament in Bulgarian and gave it to her…He prayed for her and said “Read this book and come back tomorrow.” That’s exactly what happened. She read it (and) she gave her life to Jesus…That changed my mother’s life. Later on, my sister became a believer. Then I became a believer. Then my father became a believer. So, my whole family became believers because of this testimony…and stood for the Gospel.  

JWK: So, your whole family are all Messianic Jews?

D’vora: Yes. The whole family.

JWK: You all are.

D’vora: The real story is of how God used this rabbi and this priest not only to save us physically during World War II but then He used this rabbi to bring our whole family to salvation.

JWK: To be clear, a Messianic Jew is a Jewish person who believes in Jesus.

D’vora: Yes.

JWK: Why do you think this story is especially relevant now?

Avi: Because I believe we’re nearing the End Times. I believe that Jesus is coming back very soon…The veil is being lifted up. More and more Jews are coming to salvation in Israel and all over the world.

(At this point children start talking in the background.)

D’vora: (laughs) I’m sorry. That’s my children.

JWK: (laughs) The story continues. Another generation is coming along. That’s good!

Avi: I believe that God will expose more and more of the evil that is going on in this world – especially due to antisemitism…We see what’s happening in the world. There is a rise of antisemitism. We ask ourselves why? I believe (its) because the King of Kings is coming back to Jerusalem…to reign. Before that we’re going to see a lot of turmoil. We’ll see darkness coming over sea but the Light of Jesus is gonna shine on the believers, the Jews and the non-Jews that are strong believers, followers and true disciples of Jesus. We’re not gonna compromise with this new world order. We’re gonna say “Yeshua is the Way, the Truth and the Light.” We’re gonna stand for righteousness, we’re gonna stand for the Kingdom of God and we’re gonna see miracles.

D’vora: If it’s okay, I would like to add to that (that) so many people before October 7th (including) Christians said “I don’t know what I would have done during the Holocaust. Would I have been like Corrie ten Boom or so many Christians that we know and love who risked their lives to save the Jewish people?”

I can tell you that so many people here in Israel that I’ve talked to that are not (Christians) have asked me “Where are the Christians? Where is the Church? Why don’t we hear their voice?” I feel like this is exactly what happened in the Holocaust. There were only a few who stood up and were willing to risk their lives in order to save lives and to stand for what is right. Many decided to stay silent. Their silence led to Jewish people being murdered. So, I think a lot of people, especially in Israel, feel like that whatever you’re doing now after October 7th regarding Israel and regarding the Jewish people is probably how you would have acted during the Holocaust. I think this is why this is such an important story – because it shows how Christians can stand for righteousness, stand on the Word of God and just stand for saving life.

I’ll just give you one example of a city called Plovdiv during World War II in Bulgaria. It was the first attempt to deport the Jews of Bulgaria to the (death) camps in March of 1943. They gathered the Jews in a school by the train tracks where the trains were waiting to take them to the camps. The Christians in that city saw what was happening. So, they ran to the bishop of that city and they woke him up. He ran to the school. The police tried to stop him, saying “No, this is only for Jewish people. You do not want their fate.” Then he told them “Try and stop me.”

He jumped over the fence. He wasn’t a young man. He went into where the Jewish people were. He looked at them. I also heard this from personal testimonies of people that heard it. They said “This priest came to us and he said ‘Wherever you go, I will go. Whatever happens to you will happen to me. If you die, I die.'” Basically, I think, quoting Ruth.

Then he looked at the train tracks. He yelled as loud as he could so that the guards would hear it. He said “I will not let this train move – but, if it does move with the Jewish people on it, I will lay on the tracks and stop the train with my own body if necessary!”

Every time I tell this story I’m in tears because I’m seeing what this brave and courageous Christian leader did that ended up saving (thousands of) Jews of that city. Looking at what’s happening today with the Christians, I just hope that the Christian community is encouraged by this story and that they would (stand up for) the Jewish people no matter the cost.

JWK: By the way, how many children do you have?

D’vora: I have two kids. 

JWK: That’s nice. So, we’re seeing another generation of Jewish people saved by the Bulgarians. Hopefully, they’ll be several more.

D’vora: That’s four generations…We’re alive because of them.

End Note: Avi and D’Vora are currently working on a documentary based on their book. They would also love to see God open the door on a scripted feature film to bring attention to the story. Avi adds that he hopes the book and whatever flows from it encourages people to know that, in times of darkness, there is always hope in Jesus.

John W. Kennedy is a writer, producer and media development consultant specializing in television and movie projects that uphold positive timeless values, including trust in God.