Rivlin heads to Bulgaria for WWII memorial dedication
Rivlin will have subsequent working meetings with Prime Minister Boiko Borisov and Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva.
By GREER FAY CASHMANPresident Reuven Rivlin(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
President Reuven Rivlin left Israel on a state visit to Bulgaria on Wednesday night, to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and Bulgaria, and to inaugurate a monument to commemorate the protection of the Jews of Bulgaria by the Bulgarian people during World War II.Bulgaria claims to have saved its Jews from deportation to labor and death camps, but records in Washington’s Holocaust Museum and in Yad Vashem tell a somewhat different story.Rivlin will be officially welcomed on Thursday morning in St. Alexander Nevsky Square by Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev, after which he will inspect a military honor guard and watch a military parade.The two presidents will then hold a working meeting at the official residence of the Bulgarian president.Rivlin will have subsequent working meetings with Prime Minister Boiko Borisov and Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva.In the late afternoon, the two presidents will dedicate the monument after which Rivlin will meet with members of the Jewish community, before attending a state dinner hosted in his honor by Plevneliev.