Tenth International Youth Literary Competition "Whoever Saves a Single Life" Award Ceremony Held in Burgas

Bistra Roushkova

VP Iotova (right) and BTA Director General Valchev (centre) with the winners at the award ceremony (BTA Photo)

Burgas, on the Black Sea,

21.06.2023 10:36

(BTA)

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Rescue of Bulgarian Jews

The Centre for Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation Alef held the award ceremony for the Tenth International Youth Literary Competition "Whoever saves a single life, saves an entire universe" on Tuesday evening in Burgas. The ceremony wrapped up the International Youth Conference entitled "The Salvation of Bulgarian Jews - possibilities for a behavioral role model for today's youth" in the port city.

A total of 1,700 young people from 12 countries have participated in the competition in the ten years since its inception, and this year there were 170 participants from nine countries, the founder of Alef and organizer of the event, Alberta Alkalay, said.

Tsveta Dilovska, a student from Botevgrad, won the First Prize in the Bulgarian Author category for her short story "The Gates of Salvation". The award was presented to her by the Mayor of Burgas Dimitar Nikolov. In addition to a cash prize, she will receive the opportunity to participate in a four-day international seminar in Israel this August at the expense of the organizers.

Lora Bocheva, a student at the Vienna Music School, won the First Prize in the Foreign Author category. She received her prize at the hands of Vice President Iliana Iotova under whose patronage the event was held. Messages of repentance and purification are conveyed through the young people participating in the contest, Iotova said. She described the contest as a unique event which, besides paying tribute to the past, also gives young people a glimpse of the future.

The second prizes went to Andrea Andreeva from Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgarian Author category) and Nathan Nietek from Poland (Foreign Author category, name may be misspelt).

Militsa Ivanova from Varna, as well as Nofar Sela from Israel and Sophia Alexandrescu from Romania received the third prize respectively.

After a vote of 7,500 readers on the Alef website, the Readers' Choice Award went to two short stories that received the same number of votes - exactly 939 votes. The winners are Simeon Dobrev from Burgas - for the story "My Jewish Friend", and Georgi Dichkov from Kardzhali - for the story "The Pain and Memory of the Stars".

In this year's new category for an original video story on the theme "Darkness and Light", an incentive prize was awarded to Sofia Georgieva from Sofia. The prize is monetary and is provided by the Bivol investigative journalism website.

Incentive awards and diplomas went to Elina Ilieva from Burgas, Ana-Maria Borisova, Ana-Maria Vassileva, Gloria Parusheva, Eva-Yoana Stamatova and Victoria Dimitrova..

Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Director General Kiril Valchev presented the incentive award to Elina Ilieva, a one-week internship in agency journalism at the BTA School.

Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) Director General Milen Mitev presented the incentive award to Ana-Maria Borisova, a one-month internship in the Hristo Botev cultural programme.

Vice President Iotova, Burgas Regional Manager Maria Neykova, Burgas Mayor Dimitar Nikolov, MP Denitsa Sacheva, the directors general of BTA and BNR, noted public figures and diplomats from the embassies of Israel and Poland were special guests at the event.
Congratulatory addresses were sent by President Rumen Radev, the Chairman of the National Assembly Rosen Zhelyazkov, the Minister of Education and Science Galin Tsokov, Culture Minister Mihail Gruev, Chairman of the State Archives Agency, and others.
Congratulatory addresses were sent by President Rumen Radev, Chairman of the National Assembly Rosen Zhelyazkov, the Minister of Education and Science Galin Tsokov, from the Ministry of Culture, and others.

/BR/