Jews in Bucharest
Walachian princes and the Jews - Russian occupation -
quarrel between orthodox and progressive Jews -
emancipation - cultural life - WW I and WW II - Jews in
communist Bucharest
from: Encyclopaedia Judaica
(1971), vol. 14
presented by Michael Palomino (2008)
[[There is no indication about Jews in Bucharest from 1500
to 1700 in this article]].
<BUCHAREST (Rum. Bucuresti), capital of *Rumania
[[Romania]]. Before the union of the Danubian principalities
(Moldavia and Walachia) in 1859, it was capital of the
principality of Walachia. Up to the 19th century almost the
entire Jewish population of Walachia was concentrated in
Bucharest, where the great majority continued to live
subsequently.
Thus the history of the Jewish community in Bucharest is
essentially the history of Walachian Jewry. The community,
consisting of merchants and moneylenders from Turkey and the
Balkan countries, is first mentioned in the middle of the
16th century in the responsa of several Balkan rabbis (e.g.,
Samuel de Medina, nos. 5, 54). When Prince Michael the Brave
revolted against the Turks in November 1593, he ordered the
massacre of the Jews in Bucharest along with the other
Turkish subjects. Toward the middle of the 17th century, a
new community, now predominantly Ashkenazi, was established.
Many of the Phanariot princes who ruled Walachia in the 18th
century maintained close relations with leading
Constantinople Jews and brought a number of them to
Bucharest, where they attained influential positions (e.g.,
the Bally family).
In the 18th century the Jews were concentrated in the suburb
of Mahalaua Popescului, but as the community increased a
number began to move to other parts of the city, where they
even established synagogues; however, these were closed by
the princes. The populace, afraid of Jewish economic
competition, was intensely hostile toward the Jews, and in
1793 the residents of the Râzvan suburb petitioned Prince
Alexander Moruzi to remove Jews who had recently settled
there and demolish the synagogue they had erected.
The (col. 1438)
prince ordered the synagogue to be closed (January 1794),
but refused to have the Jews removed from the suburb, and a
few days later even issued a decree affording them
protection.
In 1801 there were anti-Jewish riots following *blood libel
charges, and 128 Jews were killed or wounded. The community
again suffered persecution during the Russian occupation of
Bucharest from 1806 to 1812, and in particular during the
Greek revolt (
Hetairia)
under Alexander Ypsilanti and its suppression by the Turks
in 1821.
During this period, the Bucharest Jews, like those elsewhere
in Walachia and Moldavia, were organized as an autonomous
Breasla Ovreilor ("Jewish corporation") headed by a
Staroste ("provost").
The head of the Bucharest community also acted as the deputy
of the
hakham bashi
(chief rabbi) of Moldavia, whose authority extended over
Walachian Jewry as well.
In 1818-21, the
Staroste
of seceded from the authority of the Moldavian
hakham bashi and
assumed the title independently. The few Sephardi Jews,
whose numbers began to increase only at the end of the 18th
and the beginning of the 19th century, did not then
constitute a separate community, although they had their own
synagogue in a rented house in Mahalaua Popescului and in
1811 established their own burial society. In 1818 they were
granted permission to build a synagogue.
[1820-1899: immigration
movement - quarrel about taxes, authorities, and different
synagogues]
The Bucharest community grew rapidly in the 19th century
through immigration. From 127 families registered in
Bucharest in 1820 and 594 in 1831, the community grew to
5,934 persons in 1860 and 40,533 (14.7% of the total
population) in 1899. Under the *Capitulations system foreign
subjects were free from the regular taxation and
jurisdiction in Rumania. Hence the immigrants questioned the
authority of the community leadership and refused to pay the
tax on
kasher
meat, which constituted its sole income.
The authorities, drawn into the conflict, at first upheld
the traditional rights of the Bresla Ovreilor. However,
following repeated complaints from both sides, as well as
constitutional changes in the principality resulting from
the promulgation of the Organic Statute (see *Rumania) in
1832, the community was given a new constitution in that
year which severely curtailed its autonomy and placed it
under the direct authority and close supervision of the
municipality.
The Ashkenazi community was again reconstituted in 1843, and
the new statute, which further curtailed the community's
autonomy, was confirmed with slight changes by the reigning
prince in 1851; although never formally abolished, it fell
into disuse in the second half of the century. In the
meantime the Sephardi Jews (numbering about 150 families in
1854), had founded their own community. Within the Ashkenazi
community, the conflicts between the native and foreign-born
members continued. Finally, in 1851, the Prussian and
Austrian subjects (about 300 families) were permitted to
found a separate community. In 1861, a bitter conflict broke
out between the native community and the Russian subjects
because some articles had allegedly been removed from the
Russian synagogue.
[Fight between Orthodox and
Progressive Jewry in Bucharest - both sides damaging to
each other]
At that time, the Bucharest Ashkenazi community was also
torn by violent strife between the *Orthodox and
*Progressive wings (the latter led by Julius *Barasch and
I.L. *Weinberg). The controversy centered around the modern
school opened in 1852 (a year earlier a similar school had
been established by Austrian and Prussian subjects) and a
proposal in 1857 to build a Choir Temple and introduce
certain reforms into the service. The dissension reached its
peak when, in 1858, Meir Leib *Malbim was called to the
rabbinate. He placed himself at the head of the Orthodox
wing and a fierce struggle ensued. (col. 1439)
The conflict also had a social character since the
Progressives were drawn mainly from the well-to-do, while
the masses were Orthodox. In 1862 the Progressives achieved
success; the government deposed Malbim from the Bucharest
rabbinate, and in 1864 he was arrested and expelled from the
country. The Temple project was resumed in 1864; it was
completed in 1867 and became the center of Progressive Jewry
and the focus of a variety of cultural and educational
activities. Continued quarrels within the community and
repeated complaints to the authorities by each of the
competing factions brought about in 1862 the government's
decision (which applied to the whole country) not to
interfere any more with the internal affairs of the Jewish
communities and to withdraw from them their official status.
This decision reiterated in 1866, led to the gradual
disorganization and dissolution of the Ashkenazi community
in Bucharest, which in 1874 had ceased to exist as an
organized entity.
Several attempts were later made to reconstitute the
community, the most serious in 1908. However, it was only in
1919 that an organized Jewish community was again
established in Bucharest. Until then various benevolent
societies and organizations undertook educational and social
welfare activities. Chief among them were the Choir Temple
Congregation, formally constituted in 1876 as a separate and
independent organization levying its own tax on
kasher meat, and the
[[racist Herzl]] Brotherhood Zion of the B'nai B'rith,
founded in Bucharest in 1872 by the American consul B.F.
*Peixotto. These succeeded in setting up and maintaining a
network of educational and charitable institutions,
including, in 1907-08, 15 schools, filling the void created
by the lack of an organized community.
[Jewish cultural life in
Bucharest]
Cultural bodies were also established, and a number of
Jewish journals and other publications made their
appearance. Bucharest also became the center of Rumanian
Jewry's political activity and the struggle for
*emancipation. National Jewish bodies, among them the Union
of Native Jews, established their headquarters there.
Among the most prominent spiritual and religious leaders of
the community before World War I were Antoine Lévy and
Moritz (Meir) *Beck, rabbis of the Choir Temple Congregation
from 1867 to 1869 and 1873 to 1923 respectively, and Yitzhak
Eisik *Taubes, rabbi of the Orthodox congregation from 1894
to 1921. The most prominent lay leader was Adolf *Stern.
[Occupations and
professions]
In the 19th century, a high proportion of the Jews in
Bucharest were occupied in crafts. There were 2,712 Jewish
artisans in the city in 1899. Others engaged in commerce and
several, notably Sephardi Jews, were prominent in banking.
During the second half of the 19th century a number of
anti-Jewish outbreaks occurred in Bucharest. In 1866, when
the legislative assembly was discussing the legal position
of the Jews, an excited mob started a riot in which the new
Choir Temple, then under construction, was demolished.
Another serious riot took place in December 1897, when
hundreds of Jewish houses and shops were attacked and
looted.
[[There are no reasons indicated for these actions, but it
can be assumed there were some reasons, or the regime only
steered the bad energies in the country against the Jews for
looting as a compensation]].
[[There was a huge emigration wave to the criminal and
racist "USA" since the new anti-Jewish legislation in Russia
1881, see:
Encyclopaedia
Judaica:
Migration 1881-1914 ]].
After World War I.
[modification of the statutes - anti-Semitic agitation in
the 1930s]
In the period between the two world wars in Bucharest
community grew in both numbers and importance. The Jewish
population of the city, now the capital of greater Rumania
and attracting settlers from all parts of the country,
increased from 44,000 in 1912 to 74,480 (12% of the total
population) in 1930, and to 95,072 in 1940. About two-thirds
of those gainfully employed were occupied as artisans,
workers, clerks, and shop-assistants; others were active in
the liberal professions, especially medicine and law.
In 1920, the statute of the reconstituted Ashkenazi
community was officially approved, and in 1931, following
the publication of the new law for the Organization of the
Cults, the community was officially (col. 1440)
recognized as the legal representative of the city's
Ashkenazi Jewish population; at the same time the
community's statute was amended to conform to the
requirements of the law. The organization of the community
was again modified by a new statute in 1937.
With the reconstitution of the organized community, all
Jewish institutions were brought under its jurisdiction. The
community's religious, educational, and welfare institutions
included over 40 synagogues, two cemeteries, 19 schools, a
library and a historical museum, two hospitals, a clinic,
two old-age homes, and two orphanages. The spiritual head of
the Ashkenazi community during this period was J.J.
*Niemirower, while the outstanding lay leader was W.
*Filderman.
Like many other Jewish communities in Rumania, the Bucharest
community was harassed during this period by recurrent
anti-Jewish outbreaks and excesses varying in intensity in
which the university was the focus of anti-Jewish agitation.
The Bucharest community and its leaders continued to play an
important role in the social and political life of Rumanian
Jewry, representing in particular the attitude of the Jews
from the Old Kingdom.
Holocaust Period.
[Deprivation of the Jewish rights, confiscations and
prohibition of professions]
In September, 1940, with the accession to power of the
*Antonescu-*Iron Guard coalition, Bucharest became one of
the main centers of the anti-Jewish activities of the new
regime and of the Legionnaire terror (see *Rumania). The
terror culminated in a bloody pogrom during the Legionnaire
rebellion (Jan. 21-24, 1941), when 120 Jews were murdered,
thousands arrested and maltreated, Jewish houses, shops, and
public institutions destroyed and pillaged, and a large
number of synagogues desecrated and devastated.
Until the end of the Antonescu regime (August 1944),
Bucharest Jews were subjected to all the restrictions and
persecutions which were the lot of the rest of Rumanian
Jewry. Thousands of Jews were deprived of employment. In
1942 only 27.2 percent of the city's Jewish population of
about 100,000 was registered as gainfully employed, compared
with 54.3 percent of the non-Jewish population.
In September 1942, several hundred Jews were deported to
*Transnistria and killed. At the same time, 5,236 buildings
and 14,492 apartments belonging to Jews, including all
buildings occupied by Jewish institutions, were
expropriated. In January 1942 the community was forced to
pay, in money and in kind, a sum amounting to over 760
million lei ($2,550,000). The closing of the government
schools to Jews and the growing pauperization of the Jewish
population imposed upon the community the need to greatly
expand its educational and social-welfare activities.
In 1943 the Jewish community maintained 27 schools of
various grades and 21 canteens. Bucharest became the center
of relief activities for Rumanian Jews, and especially for
those deported to Transnistria.
[E.H.]>
[[Add to this there were
-- Jews coming from Transnistria
-- the general flight movement from Communist Russia to
Eastern Europe with the hope to evade communism
-- the emigration movement from Rumania (Romania) to
Palestine]].
Contemporary Period.
[Jewish institutions closed down or taken over by the
communist state]
After the establishment of the Communist regime in 1947, all
Jewish national, cultural, and welfare institutions in
Bucharest were gradually closed down
[[As since 1948 the Israel regime under dictator Ben Gurion
was cooperating with criminal CIA and criminal "USA" Stalin
cut off all connections between the eastern and western
Jewry because Israel became another "American" state and was
a stone of the encirclement of the "Soviet Union" (which was
financed also by the criminal "USA" of course...]].
The welfare institutions were nationalized and the schools
absorbed in the general educational network. A state Yiddish
school was opened in 1949 but closed a few years later.
Communal activity is organized by the Federation of Jewish
Communities in Rumania. Jewish cultural activities center on
the Yiddish theater taken over by the state in 1948. A
Yiddish school of dramatic art was established in 1957.
[Jewish newspapers -
Federation of Jewish Religious Communities - figures]
Two Jewish newspapers, the Rumanian
Unirea, followed later
by
Viata Novua,
and the Yiddish
Ikuf
Bleter were published, but both were discontinued
in 1952/53. From October 1956 a periodical in Rumanian,
Yiddish, and Hebrew,
Revista
Cultului Mozaic was published on behalf of the
Federation of Jewish Religious (col. 1441)
Communities. The Federation also cares for the religious
needs of its members, supplying them with
mazzot, prayer shawls,
prayer books, etc. In the late 1960s there were 14 regular
synagogues in Bucharest, including the Choir Temple. There
is also a
talmud torah
[[school]], a "Hebra-Shas" (weekly courses in Talmud), a
Yiddish theater, and a kasher restaurant. About 400 Jewish
students participate in courses in Hebrew and Jewish history
organized by the religious community, but the main problem
in this sphere is the lack of competent teachers.
Of the 44,202 Jews (3.6% of the total population) registered
in the city in the 1956 census, 4,425 declared Yiddish to be
their mother tongue. In 1969 it was estimated that 50,000
Jews lived in Bucharest.> (col. 1442)
Jewish
Population in Bucharest
|
xxxxxxxYearxxxxxxx
|
Number
of
Jews
|
1800
|
204
familiesxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
|
1835
|
2,600xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1860
|
5,934xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1889
|
23,887xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1899
|
40,533xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1912
|
44,000xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1930
|
74,480xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1940
|
95,072xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1942
|
98,048xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1947
|
150,000xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1956
|
44,202xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
1969
|
50,000xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |
from: Rumania; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica,
vol. 4, col. 1438
|
<Bibliography
-- M.A. Halevy: Comunitatile Evreilor din Jasi si Bucuresti,
1 (1931)
-- idem, in: Sinai (Bucharest), 2 (1929, xxix-xxxi; 3
(1931), xvii-xxxiv; 5 (1933), lviii-lxiv
-- idem: Monografie istorica a Templului Coral din Bucuresti
(1935)
-- idem: Templul Unirea-Sfânta din Bucuresti (1937)
-- E. Schwarzfeld, in: Anuar pentru Israeliti, 9 (1886),
70-83; 19 (1898), 55-62
-- M. Schwarzfeld: ibid., 9 (1886), 1-30; 10 (1887), 195-9
-- Barasch, in: Kalendar und Jahrbuch fuer Israeliten
(1854), 245-80
- idem, in: AZDJ, 8 (1844), 750-1; 9 (1845), 94-95, 108-11,
177-9, 444-7, 480-2
-- Feldman, in: ZHion, 22 (1957), 214-38
-- Anuarul Evreilor din România (1937), 161-83
-- Comunitatea Evreilor din Bucuresti. Raport asupra
activitatii cultului mozaic (1943), typewritten, in Jewish
Historical Archives, Jerusalem
-- M. Carp: Cartea neagra, 3 vols. (1946-48), index
-- Herbert, in: Journal of Jewish Bibliography 2 (1940),
110ff.
-- Ariel, in: Analele Societatii Istorice I. Barasch, 2
(1888), 187-208> (col. 1442)
Sources
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Bucharest, vol. 4,
col. 1438
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Bucharest, vol. 4,
col. 1439-1440
|
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Bucharest, vol. 4,
col. 1441-1442
|
