YV archives selected by JL
The History of the Jews in Bulgary
Benjamin Arditti was born in Vienna in 1897. He lived in Sofia (except for two years during World War II) from 1916-1949. He was one of the outstanding activists in the Zionist movement in Bulgaria: he served as a member of the Central Committee of the Zionist Union in Bulgaria, 1919-1923; he held five terms of office as the representative to the World Zionist Congress; he served as the chairman of the Zionist Organization in Sofia; he was one of the founders of the Revisionist movement in Bulgaria and its chairman from 1925-1935. Arditti was a member of the illegal Committee for the Rescue of Bulgarian Jewry during World War II, maintaining his Zionist activities and encouragement of aliya to Eretz Israel after 1944. Arditti continued to serve as representative of the Revisionists in the Union of Bulgarian Jews during the years 1947-1949. He made aliya to Israel and joined the leadership of the Herut party and the Organization of Sephardi Jews in Israel in 1949. He also served as the chairman of the Central Committee of the World Sephardi Federation and a member of the Knesset. As early as the 1930s, Benjamin Arditti expressed interest in the history of the Jews of Bulgaria; he wrote two books and many newspaper articles on the subject. He continued these activities in Israel and concentrated on events in the history of the community during the Holocaust. Additionally, he continued to write articles and newspaper stories regarding events in the history of the Jewish people throughout the world, the Zionist movement in Bulgaria and the world and the history of the Sephardi Jews and their situation in Eretz Israel.