Volunteers from various ethnic backgrounds in Sofia joined together Sunday to clean up swastikas and other symbols of hate from the walls of buildings in the Bulgarian capital city.
The campaign titled “let’s clean away hate” aims “to facilitate the integration of ethnic and religious communities in Bulgaria, to present successful models of multicultural dialogue, to overcome prejudice and ignorance of the fear of the ‘other’ and to raise public awareness of the manifestations of hatred, xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism”, the Sofia Globe reported.
Sunday’s cleanup, which was the second in recent weeks, was attended by Israeli ambassador Shaul Kamisa-Raz, Sofia mayor Yordanka Fandukova, and the head of Sofia city council’s education committee, Malina Edreva.
The campaign was organized by the Etnopalitra Foundation, in partnership with the Shalom Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria, American Joint Bulgaria, the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the Federation of Zionists in Bulgaria and others.