Destinies Written in Yiddish

The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Community in Iasi

With an ancient history written on the dusty roads of exile, the Jews came to the north-eastern Moldavian city of Iasi four centuries ago, and created a community. More than 40,000 lived here between the two World Wars. Now there are only 500 left. This is their story.

The merchants with 113 synagogues


"There is a nation scattered among the people of your kingdom. Its laws are different from any laws your might have seen. They do not obey the king's laws. That is why it would not be better if he left them alone.” Hamam was speaking to King Asveros.

Spread out all over the world, the Jews have always lived inside communities. This was their way of showing the world that they existed, that they were able to maintain their faith and spiritual values far away from the Holy Land. The hermetic Jewish community kept them close to the Common Law, and gave them a feeling of protection and identity. The Jews in Moldavia have had a tumultuous history.


When the foreigners founded towns


Some Jewish communities came to Iasi, in the 17th century, to seek a better life. Their first settlements, ghettoes, were built on the outskirts of Iasi, on landed allotted to them by Moldavian rulers. The local people would call them “guests”. The Jews went into business, vying with Greek and Armenian merchants. Their business talents allowed them to acquire more financial security than the Moldavians. Their sense of mutual help consolidated the Jewish community. In 1657 they were able to buy land in Targu Cucu. More than a hundred years later, in 1770, they built their Great Synagogue - one of the 113 synagogues in Iasi.


A Mosaic island in a Christian ocean


It was a picturesque community, quite difficult for us to understand nowadays. Even the poorest settlements had to have a synagogue, a ritual pool, a Rabbi, a cemetery and a charitable association for both the old and the poor ("Ezrat Aniim", "Hahnasat Cola", and "Neuschatz" orphanages). The spiritual leader, known as the "hazan", used to organize religious ceremonies. He was also a "heider", a teacher at the Jewish school. Most importantly, the Jewish community observed the religious code and practiced traditional professions.
Jews were involved in almost every branch of commerce.


In 1657 they were particularly well-known as silversmiths, brass workers, jewellers, bakers, tailors, carpenters, bricklayers and watchmakers. They set up their own professional guilds. According to the historian Gheorghe Ghibanescu, Smil the silversmith, Moisai the cantor, Hahambasa Isaac, the leader of community, and two other rabbis lived in 1775. Shortly after their arrival in Iasi, the Jews started play an important economic role. They founded small settlements with a predominantly Jewish population in Iasi County in Podu Iloaiei (1818), Bivolari (1834), Sculeni and Poieni.
Yet the biggest Jewish community on Romanian territory lived in the city of Iasi. Between the two World Wars Iasi the 40,000 Jews formed 51% of the population. Their number would have increased if it had not been for the 1890-1910 slump, which led to massive emigration.


Synagogues and the world’s first Jewish theatre



Religion assured the continuity of Jewish life in Iasi. A righteous Jew had to keep 257 daily precepts, as well as those observed during religious feasts. He was not allowed to drink alcohol, or to eat pork or rabbit meat.


Jewish women were supposed to take a ritual bath once a month to purify themselves. It was important that no hair floated on the surface of the water. If a woman happened to break the tradition, the community would have condemned her and made her life a misery. For this reason they used to shave their heads and wear a wig.
Most of the Jews lived near the synagogue, where they learned the popular "Pirkin Avot" and "Peirik". At Purim , they studied the Book of Esther ("Meghila"), at Pesah the "Hagada". Many knew Ecclesiasticus ("Kohelet"), Ruth, Eiha and fragments from the Prophets. But the use of the Hebrew script remained a mystery for most women.


Their spiritual leader, the Rabbi, came from a noble family (Cohen or Levi) and was highly respected in the community. One of the well-known Rabbis of Iasi was the historian and philosopher Nathan Hanover, who wrote "Safa berura" (Clear language) and "Sa' arei Tion", a mystical prayer book. He witnessed the pogrom led by hetman Chmielnicki in the 18th century.
The cultural life of the Jewish community revolved around the synagogues, and groups which studied the Bible, the Talmud and the Caballah. In contrast to other countries, Jews in Romania were persecuted for economic rather than religious reasons. The large number of synagogues stand as evidence of anti-Semitic legislation after 1937. The Street of Synagogues traversed the Mosaic community.

The Street sheltered no fewer than five Jewish places of worship, the Furriers’ Synagogue, Haim Hoffman, Big Targu Cucu, Meniche and Zalmina Feijolis Synagogue.
On entering a synagogue an orthodox Jew had to step down one step as a sign of piety, to accomplish king David's words : "From the depths I called for you ". A synagogue had its own laws. It was open every Friday evening, on Saturdays and during religious feasts. Everybody had to have their heads covered. The women stayed on the top floor, separated from men. On Friday night, after sunset, the Sabbath began. The Jews protected their precepts closely, and paid a man to keep watch over their community, beginning with the synagogue. The roots of this ritual are lost in time. Walls surrounded cities. All the entrances had to be well-closed, and they had to be checked. Many poor Christian children waited impatiently for the Sabbath, when they were paid a penny to help Jewish families.


The Jews of Iasi loved the theatre and watched different plays on Purim Spiel. In 1876 Avram Goldfaden founded the first Yiddish professional theatre, known as the “Green Tree”. Its repertory included Viennese operettas, and plays by Shakespeare, Gotzkov, Gordin and Lidin. The Yiddish theatre enjoyed great success both in Iasi and abroad, though the actors were poorly paid.

Surviving terror

The end of the First World War brought citizenship to all Romanian Jews. The Constitution in 1923 gave Jewish immigrants the same rights as the older communities who came two centuries before. They enjoyed these rights at a time when the virus of nationalism was spreading in Europe. The same day they became Romanian citizens, A. C. Cuza founded an anti - Semitic nationalist league called the League of National Christian Defense. He considered Jews “speculators” and hated them for economic reasons. As a result, many right-wingers promoted undemocratic measures against Jews. Most of the time they forgot or seemed to have forgotten that Jews were either good artisans or distinguished intellectuals. In 1937 the great Romanian diplomat Nicolae Titulescu wrote: "I confess I don't understand the fury of anti-Semites. I am happy to live among Jews, who are obliging, intelligent and active. All my Jewish employees have always been loyal to me."


The nationalists believed that the large number of Jewish students at the Faculty of Medicine was a threat. Since 1929, only few Jews had had a chance to enrol at University. Shortly afterwards, Jews were banished from most institutions. For instance, the Iasi bar association did not allow them to practice law, though they were professionally qualified. World War II had a tragic effect on all the Jewish communities across Europe. Those from the city of Iasi were not spared. Many Jews were killed at the train station and the police office. Many died on the Death Train. Some were deported and never returned to their homes. The end of the war gave another chance to the Jewish community. The poverty of the Communist period forced most of the 30,000 survivors to emigrate to Israel and the USA.

The dawn of a new beginning

Nowadays the city of Iasi shelters a Jewish community of only about 500 members, most of them old age pensioners. They either refused to leave their homeland, or simply were not able to do so. The war destroyed their houses and their families. It buried most of their old customs and traditions. From time to time, their relatives from Israel come to see Iasi and taste our traditional Romanian mamaliga (polenta) again. All that is left of the city of their childhood is an old synagogue, a cemetery and memories. The tragic years of World War II was forgotten during Communism. Romanians remembered them again at the time of the December 1989 “Revoliution”. Now we seek to find the truth and re-write our history. First of all, we must recognize and accept the errors of our past.

Raluca Hrituleac