Bulgarian Patriarch Neophyte and the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox church issued an address on the 80^th anniversary of the rescue of the Bulgarian Jews.

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“The role of the Bulgarian Orthodox church in this endeavor has never been forgotten and has always been accentuated, especially by the Jewish community,” the message reads. The Orthodox church states further that they grieve for the more than 11,000 Jews from neighbouring territories who met their death in the flames of the Holocaust. “We grieve for them,” the message reads. “We are sorry that the Exarchy lacked the strength and the capability to take care of the Jews in those dioceses torn away from its body 30 years previously in the same way that it did for the Jews in Bulgaria. We sincerely regret it!”