אצבעון עם כיתוב בולגרית עבור יהודי סופיה - ייתכן שנוצר עבור בית ספר למקצועות, 1890-1910 לערך

אצבעון עם כיתוב בולגרית עבור יהודי סופיה - ייתכן שנוצר עבור בית ספר למקצועות, 1890-1910 לערך
Bulgarian Jewish technical school thimble (ND), circa. 1890s-1910s: brass thimble inscribed in Cyrillic letters: "зтб еврейчета софия" (with Star of David device after legend), translated (from Bulgarian, not Russian) as " To the Hebrews of Sofia". Although the Jewish community of Bulgaria is an ancient one and historiography records many institutions existing to serve the Bulgarian Jewish community, their details are scant. The oldest technical-related Jewish institution would have been the Russian-based "ORT" school network ("The Society for Trades and Agricultural Labour"), founded in 1880 - but it only opened in Bulgaria in 1926; otherwise, there was the "Miladinov Brothers" school in Yuchbunar which opened in 1891. The Zionist-affiliated Alliance Schools of the period there taught in only Hebrew - which does not correspond to the Cyrillic used on this thimble. As such it may be a forerunner of either of the first two mentioned institutions above; its traditional design suggests it pre-dates WWI. Rare; in VF-EF with a few minor dents and with traces of original(?) red paint around the letters; 2.35g; not maker marked.