Daniel Zion

Daniel Zion was born in 1883 in Thessaloniki

Daniel Zion was born in Thessaloniki in 1883. His father Solomon headed the Beit Yosef rabbinical seminary in the city. He was ordained as a rabbi there in 1900 and later studied law and philosophy in Berlin.

In 1915 he moved to Sofia as a cantor and ritual slaughterer, and in 1916 became rabbi of a synagogue in the Yuchbunar quarter. He served on the city's rabbinical court and in 1931 became president of the rabbinical court of Bulgaria. His ties with Peter Dunov's Universal White Brotherhood made some community leaders suspicious of him.

In May 1943, with Chief Rabbi Asher Hananel, he worked to stop the deportation of the Jews of Sofia. On 24 May 1943 he spoke at a synagogue and joined a street demonstration. He was then arrested and sent to the Somovit camp.

After the war he served as Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria from 1945 to 1949. In 1949 he immigrated to Israel and settled in Jaffa. In 1950 a panel of rabbis removed him from the Jaffa rabbinical court over his belief that Jesus was the Messiah.

He said he was not a convert and opposed Jewish assimilation. He continued to serve as a rabbi for Bulgarian Jews until 1973. He died in Jaffa in 1979.