Building the Future We Want in Jewish Bulgaria

Maxim Delchev was just a child when communism fell and Jewish life began to flourish in Bulgaria. From there, he joined a generation of young Jewish leaders who helped build the community from the ground up. The former director of education for Shalom, the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria, Delchev is now its CEO — a role he serves with passion and expertise. 

In this reflection, Delchev recounts his leadership journey, his dreams for Jewish Bulgaria, as well as the foundational role JDC has played in the life of his community. 

The Fall of Communism

All of us here in Bulgaria make the choice to be Jewish. By that I mean that after communism ended until the present day, people who identify as Jewish consciously choose to embrace their identity openly.

I’m one of those people — and it’s a “choice” I’ve never regretted making. 

In the 1990s, there wasn’t much of a support structure here in Bulgaria. One of the bad things about the fall of communism — and something we don’t generally acknowledge — is that the organizations we depended on, like youth camps, also fell with it. However hard it was to be Jewish before the 1990s, there was still a sense of belonging, a sense of being part of something big. 

And then, there was nothing. We suffered from hyperinflation, and my parents would come home from work nervous, not knowing if they’d have jobs the next day. 

What had we been living for if everything we’d known — indeed, our entire world — could vanish overnight? What was our purpose now? 

We soon found our answer. As bad as the country’s financial situation was, there was a window of freedom to experiment, play, and discover ourselves as Jews. In 1990, we started building the community. There was only one issue — we didn’t have the money, space, or organizational know-how to create a sustainable Jewish life. 

The Beginnings of Jewish Life

That’s why JDC couldn’t have come at a better time. 

They worked directly with us, listening and guiding us on how to create a durable structure that could weather any challenge. Just as importantly, they cultivated leaders and professionals who’ve made Jewish Bulgaria the vibrant place it is today.

I consider myself one of those fortunate leaders, and JDC’s investment in my Jewish life began early on, at camp. 

I can’t overestimate how profound my camp experience was. Suddenly, I was going to a place where people cared about my well-being, where my voice was heard, and where I had the freedom to be fully, proudly Jewish. I now knew what my life would be about — the joy of being Jewish. 

But the camp lasted only 12 days — and I wanted more. At the end of the session, I asked, “How can I take this experience and spread it across the rest of the year” 

My entire career has been the process of answering that question. That’s what drew me to teaching. When I became the director of education for Shalom, I got to share that same sense of curiosity and excitement I’d felt when I was young. Over time, I witnessed the community grow into a multifaceted, multigenerational space for Jews from all walks of life. 

People now have more agency over their Jewish traditions and heritage. There’s a greater sense of ownership, with Jewish families bringing these practices into their homes. And the very people who grew up in this community — people like me — are now spearheading its future.  

Yesod: A Place for Jewish Communal Professionals

Today, I’m proud to serve as the newest CEO of the Jewish community of Bulgaria. 

More than a year and a half into my tenure, I still feel like a Jewish educator, just in a more complex classroom. If you visit us  — and I hope someday you do — you’ll see that Shalom runs a diverse array of programs: social welfare, education, young leadership, combating antisemitism, and more. Altogether, there are around 170 employees, including teachers, teachers, administrators, and security guards. 

It’s a huge enterprise. My job is to unite everyone around a common mission — strengthening Jewish life in Bulgaria, right here, right now. 

I can’t do this work alone. And just as they were in the 1990s, JDC has been instrumental in our success today. One way they do this is through a program called Yesod, the partnership between JDC and Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe that promotes training, coaching, and professional development for Jewish communal professionals.

For people of my mother’s generation, working for the Jewish community was never thought of as a serious job. How could it be, when they didn’t have the resources to make it their life’s work? Jewish professionals don’t just appear spontaneously — they need to be trained, mentored, and exposed to a broader global network. 

Yesod does all of that and more. By developing the capacities of leaders like myself, Yesod fortifies the services and programs on offer at a place like Shalom — and across Europe. 

I saw this firsthand when I attended a recent Yesod seminar for senior Jewish professionals in Vienna, Austria. This gathering was an opportunity for European leaders to come together, learn from each other, and in these difficult times, chart a more hopeful path forward. 

Jewish Europe is diverse, and the seminar reflected that. Professionals hailed from Malmo, Budapest, Leeds, and so many other parts of the continent. 

But no matter our hometowns, we faced common challenges and asked similar questions, among them: How are our communities — some of them quite small —  staying resilient in the face of major demographic shifts, like emigration? In what ways are we experiencing antisemitism in the wake of October 7? And what are we doing to combat it? 

Those last two questions resonate for me intensely. I’d only been CEO a few months when news reached us about the Hamas attacks on Simchat Torah. 

There was that initial period I think all Jews went through —  we were shocked, devastated, and unsure of what to do or how to respond. Then, we united. 

We focused on Israel in the first days, weeks, and months. We paid close attention to the needs there and found ways to help our Israeli brethren. Then, months later, we also looked inward. We found ways to discuss and address our very real fears of rising antisemitism. 

A New Chapter in Bulgarian Jewish Life

It’s easy for Jewish leaders to act on gut feelings. We might convince ourselves there’s a lot of antisemitism, but do we know that for a fact? Or, we may think that our youth want more programs focused on Jewish education, but have we asked them? How do we really know? 

We need data. And that’s one valuable lesson I’ve taken from Yesod and applied here in Bulgaria — how to rigorously collect and analyze data, and then act on those insights. 

This approach has paid enormous dividends. 

Right now, what Jewish Bulgaria needs is more space — literally. If we wanted to launch a new program or service, we’d have to construct a whole new building. So, that’s precisely what we’re doing.

Our new community center will be a home for everything we want to do — and anything else we can imagine together. It will house our school, kindergarten, Shabbat celebrations, Seders, clubs, classes, and other vibrant programming. This new building is also a chance for us to step back and ask, “What kind of community do we want to create? How can we represent everyone?”

This project didn’t happen based on a hunch. It came about by listening to the community’s needs — by gathering data, using the very sort of techniques I learned at Yesod. 

Exciting as Jewish Bulgaria is, I want it to be predictable, too. I want people to know they can rely on us — for Jewish life and education, for life-saving programs — no matter what.

After all, I’ve been able to rely on JDC. With their mentorship, there’s nothing we cannot dream.

Maxim Delchev is the CEO of Shalom, the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria.

Previous JDC Blog PostFrom Ukraine to Poland, Giving Back (and Finding Peace) …

Next JDC Blog Post“Reclaiming What Was Lost”: One Jewish Grandmother? …