Community in Moldova (Republic of) - World Jewish Congress

Moldova (Republic of)

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About

WJC Affiliate

History

The years of the Holocaust

Demography

Community Life

Religious and Cultural life

Kosher Food

Jewish Education

Jewish Media

Information for visitors

Relations with Israel

2023 statistics place the number of Jews living in the Republic of Moldova at 1,900. Historically devastated by both the Shoah and a brutal civil war, the Moldovan Jewish community today has been largely revived and is spread throughout the Republic. There has been a widespread development of a national self-consciousness and a return to their roots by the Jews of Moldova, with Jewish identity and culture being celebrated in a number of forms, including literature, musical composition, and theatre.

The Moldovan Jewish community is represented by the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova, the Moldovan affiliate of the World Jewish Congress.

WJC Affiliate

Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova

Telephone: +373(22)509689
Email: office@jcm.md
Website: https://jcm.md/en/

Social Media:
Facebook: Еврейская Община Молдовы / Jewish Community of Moldova
Instagram: @jewish.moldova
X: @jewish_moldova
YouTube: Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova

President: Alexandar Bilinkis

History

The first Jews appeared on the territory of modern Moldova in the first century with the Roman legions. In the 15th century, it was an important transit stop for Jewish merchants from Constantinople and Poland; by the 18th century, several permanent Jewish communities had been established in urban developments. The 1803 census indicates that there were Jews living in all 24 Moldovan cities, as well as in many villages and towns.

With Russian rule in 1812, there was a permanent and steadily increasing Jewish presence in Moldova. The Draconian anti-Jewish decrees in Russia did not initially affect the Jews of Bessarabia during this period, but the full loss of autonomy in Bessarabia to Russia saw these laws equally applied in the region. Various decrees of expulsion were issued, and for some Jews in Bessarabia, these measures sparked an interest in Zionism. The First Zionist Congress in 1897, for example, saw many Jews in the region represented by Jacob Bernstein-Kogan from Kishinev, the modern capital of Moldova.

By this time, the Jewish population continued to grow and constituted almost half of the entire population of Kishinev. However, tension with Moldova’s population coincided with this continued communal growth. Pogroms like the one in 1903 that claimed hundreds of innocent lives were a result of familiar "blood libels" and came from the accusations of the Bessarabian Russian-language newspaper. Additionally, thousands of people lost their homes as a result of the Russian and Romanian violence. The 1903 pogrom was especially noteworthy since it incited resentment on a global scale; thousands of Moldovan Jews emigrated, and the United States publicly condemned the massacre and imposed trade restrictions against Russia. Despite this, more violence in 1905 saw the deaths of countless Jews across Moldova.

In 1917, Bessarabia became part of a territory controlled by the Soviet Union, and a year later, it became a part of Romania within the “Union.” The Jewish community in the area was given Romanian citizenship and was able to open Jewish day schools with instruction in Yiddish and Hebrew. Manifestations of antisemitism and violence continued to reveal themselves, despite promises from the Russian Revolution of some sort of civic equality for Jews in the Soviet Union.

In 1992, Moldova was torn apart by a civil war that resulted in the division of the country into two separate parts: the Republic of Moldova to the west of the Dniester and the self-styled Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic of Transnistria to the east of the river. In response, the Federation of Jewish Organizations and Communities (Va’ad) in Moscow and Israeli organizations arranged for the evacuation of the Jewish population. In the aftermath of all the violence and turmoil, the fall of communism and the establishment of democracy in Moldova allowed Jewish life to begin to flourish again.

Notwithstanding these events, the Jewish regional communities on both sides of the Nistru River are closely cooperating and form a single national organization.

Today, Moldovan Jewry is largely elderly and spread throughout the country, though the majority of Jews in Moldovia live in the capital of Chisinau (Kishinev). Since independence, the Jewish community in Moldova has significantly decreased due to high levels of immigration and the largely elderly population.

Despite this, the community actively supports and promotes Jewish live, values and education.

The years of the Holocaust

In the years preceding World War II and the Holocaust, the Jewish community in Moldova had reached a peak in population and was a large community within the country (despite inflammations of antisemitism throughout the early half of the 20th century).

The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 saw hundreds of thousands of Moldovan Jews die in Bessarabia and Transnistrian ghettos and concentration camps before being completely banished from the territory of Bessarabia. Tens of thousands perished at the hands of German and Romanian forces via mass shootings, and other instances of extreme violence also befell Jews in the area during the Nazi occupation, as the Jewish community of Kishinev was nearly annihilated.

The aftermath of the Holocaust in Bessarabia saw many Jews emigrate to Israel. Overall, more than 100,000 Jews from Bessarabia perished during World War II and the Holocaust.

Following the Holocaust, the Moldovan Jewish community faced numerous hardships, including being forbidden to practice many Jewish traditions. This was largely due to the Soviet Union’s imposition of strict communism on its satellites, which aimed at forcing some semblance of a shared culture on many different communities, Jewish ones included. The 1961 ban on celebrating bar and bat mitzvahs further reinforces this.

Demography

According to the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova, Moldova is home to about 20,000 Jews, while Hebrew University demographer Sergio DellaPergola estimated the Moldovan Jewish community to number between 2,000 and 7,500 as of 2004. The largest community is in Chisinau, with smaller communities in Tiraspol, Beltsy, Bendery, Rybnitza, Soroky, and elsewhere.

Community Life

The Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova is a national umbrella association that consists of 12 municipal organizations and nine regional communities in the cities of Balti, Soroca, Orhei, Cahul, Ribnita, Dubasari, Bender, Tiraspol, and Grigoriopol. The president of the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova is Mr. Alexander Bilinkis, a successful businessman, prominent public and diplomatic figure, and philanthropist.

In addition to schools and educational programs, the Jewish Community also provides charitable and social welfare services to low-income groups in Moldova's Jewish population. It has also installed monuments to Holocaust victims throughout Moldova and restored monuments and cemeteries destroyed by the Nazis. It further focuses on combating antisemitism by monitoring incidents, organizing conferences, and publishing articles in the mass media.

There is significant attention dedicated to improving Moldovan legislation. At the initiative of the Jewish community, January 27 was officially recognized as National Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2015. The Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, led by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, was approved by the Moldovan Parliament in 2016. Changes have been made to the legislation on counteracting extremist activity, while efforts are continuously undertaken to criminalize the denial of the Holocaust and prohibit the glorification of fascism.

Religious and Cultural life

There are a few synagogues in Chisinau and some in other cities and towns throughout the country. Rabbi Shimshon Daniel Izakson serves as the community’s spiritual leader.

Chabad Lubavitch maintains a synagogue in Chisinau and Tiraspol, and Agudath Israel is active in Moldova as well.

Kosher Food

Kosher food is provided and imported in Moldova.

Jewish Education

The Jewish Community offers educational activities for Jewish students. There is one kindergarten in Chisinau, two Jewish schools, and a municipal Jewish library named after I. Manger. This infrastructure supports the development of programs aimed at promoting Jewish tradition, history, and religion, as well as Holocaust studies for Jewish and non-Jewish educational institutions.

Jewish Media

The Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova publishes a biweekly Jewish newspaper, Nash Golos (“Our Voice”).

The creativity of Moldovan Jewish writers and poets, journalists, composers, professional performers, musicians, producers, and artists in Moldova continues to advance. Books are being published in history, linguistics, and literature.

Information for visitors

There are a number of Jewish sites in Moldova, including the Jewish Cultural Center in Chisinau. Numerous architectural and religious sites can be visited during guided and free tours throughout the capital сity and other regional locations. Memorials to the Kishinev ghetto, to the victims of fascism, and to the victims of the Chisinau Pogrom are sites for remembrance in Chisinau.

Additionally, in cooperation with its national and international partners, the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova creates and sponsors various complex programs, such as the Jewish heritage in Moldova museum’s concept design, fostering the restitution of the Jewish communal property, the reconstruction of the former Tsirelson Yeshiva and Synagogue in Chisinau, strengthening the security of Jewish sites, and the edification of memorials and monuments to the victims of the Holocaust all over the country.

Relations with Israel

Israel and Moldova have enjoyed diplomatic relations since 1992.

Israeli Consulate is located in Chisinau
Chancellery: 4, Albisoara str., Chisinau, Moldova

Tel.: (+373 22) 88 80 22, 88 77 28, (+373 22) 54 42 83
Fax: (+373 22) 26 00 17; (+373 22) 54 42 80
e-mail: kishinev@il4u.org.il; consul@chisinau.mfa.gov.il

Consular issues: Embassy of Israel in Romania 1, Dimitrie Cantemir, Tronson 2+3, Sector 4, Piata Unirii Square, Bucharest

Tel: 0040213028568,
Fax: 0040213028555

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