At the beginning of June, “Alef” awards the winners of the literary competition

The value of human life and the price our ancestors were willing to pay to save it during the Holocaust opened doors to the knowledge and imagination of over 300 young people from Bulgaria, Israel, Germany, Romania, Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland , Spain, France and Latvia. The 11th International Student Literary Competition “Who saves one human life saves the whole universe”, organized by the Center for Jewish-Bulgarian Cooperation “Alef”, saw a record number of participants. At a time when wars are being waged in many places around the world and human life is increasingly devalued, the theme of the competition managed to attract the attention of young people to values ​​such as humanism, empathy and philanthropy, to preserving human life.

The young people participated in the competition for prizes in 2 categories – for fiction and for video. Their works were evaluated by an international jury. The nominated authors are already known – 20 young people from Bulgaria and 10 from abroad. The winners will be announced among them. They will be announced at an official award ceremony, which will be held at the NHK Cultural House in Burgas on June 1, 2024 at 6 p.m.

All nominees are invited to participate in the International Youth Literary Festival “Friendship – Meaning and Salvation” in Burgas between May 31 and June 2, 2024, which Alef Center is organizing for the third year in a row. The forum aims to support and help the development of young literary talents, to encourage their civic engagement, to create friendships and mutual understanding between young people from different countries. Young people will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the creations of valuable Bulgarian artists who will share their experience with them. The program of the festival includes lectures by the historian Angel Johnev and the lecturer at the University of Bucharest Felicia Valdman, workshops on creative writing and making video films with the popular writer, screenwriter and geographer Georgi Burdarov, the poet, novelist and publisher Rumen Leonidov and the distinguished director Ivan Nichev, screenings of films dedicated to the Holocaust and a meeting with their creators as well as many other interesting initiatives.

The awarding ceremony of the winners of the literary competition, which will be attended by all nominated authors, is part of the festival. And this year, the organizers have prepared an impressive show that will allow the audience to touch the excitement and emotions of the young participants in the competition. Prize winners /I, II, III/ in the categories “Authors from Bulgaria”, “Authors from abroad” and “Video narrative” will be awarded, and the awarded authors from Bulgaria will also receive the right to apply for an annual scholarship or a one-time financial support according to the Ordinance on the terms and conditions for the protection of gifted children and the Program of measures for the protection of gifted children. The winner of the competition will also broadcast to the audience through online voting. The Audience Award was established and financed by the Ministry of Culture.

Official guests at the ceremony are expected to be representatives of the state and municipal administration, ambassadors and diplomats from the missions of the countries whose students participate in the competition.

The award-winning stories will be published in an independent collection, the seventh in a row published by the “Alef” Center, which the Ministry of Education and Science annually recommends as a teaching aid in the implementation of the “Lesson in Dignity” initiative.

In 11 years since the beginning of the literary competition, there are already more than 2,000 young people, ambassadors of the “Alef” idea for peace and tolerance, from 12 different countries. This gives confidence to the organizers that they have found the right way to the hearts of young people and made them believe in the thousand-year-old message of the Talmud – He who saves one human life saves an entire universe.