At a reception in the Heights Room before the February 16 screening of The Optimists: The Story of the Rescue of the Bulgarian Jews from the Holocaust, Israel-born filmmaker Jacky Comforty (left), spoke with Meir Shlomo, Israel’s consul general to New England; Barry Hoffman, Pakistan’s honorary consul general in Boston; and Christine Montilio, of Sherin & Lodgen LLP. Comforty’s documentary tells the story of Bulgaria’s Christian and Muslim communities that intervened to secure the safety of 50,000 Jews who had been marked for extermination in Nazi death camps.
Later in the Robsham Theater, an audience of some 550 attended the New England premiere of The Optimists, which was sponsored by Boston College’s Middle Eastern and Islamic studies program, political science department, and Jewish studies program. Remarks by Comforty; Nikolay Milkov, Bulgaria’s consul general in New York; and Lawrence Lowenthal, executive director of the American Jewish Committee, Boston, following the screening. In addition to Israel, Bulgaria, and Pakistan, representatives from the diplomatic corps of France, Japan, Romania, and Cyprus were in attendance. Read more about The Optimists on the film’s website.