JUMA-I-BALA:
Turkish city on the Bulgarian frontier, four hours from Dubnitza. The community here dates from the middle of the eighteenth century, and must have been important and wealthy; for when the famous chief Pazvan-Oglu and his band of Kirjalis revolted against Sultan Salim III., the Jews of the city had to pay the bandits a ransom of six thousand silver aspers. The present community is very poor, and comprises no more than thirty families (1902). It has a small school,and services are held in a house which has been arranged to serve as a synagogue.
Bibliography:
- Judah H. Alkalai, Ḥesed le-Abraham, p. 83, Salonica, 1819.
