Pinkas Hakehillot Romania: Vadu-Rashcu (Vadul-Raşcov, Moldova)

“Vadu-Rashcu”
Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Romania, Volume 2
(Vadul-Raşcov, Moldova)
47°56' / 28°50'

Translation of “Vadu-Rashcu” chapter from
Pinkas Hakehillot Romania

Published in Jerusalem, 1980

Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem for permission
to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Romania, Volume II,
page 350, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 1980

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[Page 350]

Vadu-Rashcu
Translated by Ala Gamulka

Romanian – Vadu Rashcu; Russian – Vad Rashkov; Yiddish – Rashkov

Village in Soroka District on the right bank of the Dniester. (There is also a village by the same name on the Ukrainian left bank). Vadu Rashcu was located about 60 km from the capital, 20 km from Rezina and 12 km from the nearest railway station on the Balti-Rezina line.

Jewish Population

Year Number
of
Jews

1847 22
families

1897 3,237

1930 1,958

The village was founded around the middle of the 18^th century. After Bessarabia was conquered by Russia in 1812, many Jews emigrated there from Ukraine. The area was rich in wheat, tobacco, vineyards and fruit orchards. About 40 Jewish families grew tobacco, another 40 worked the land and the rest were craftsmen and small merchants. There is no information about the community and its institutions during the Soviet regime.

During Romanian Rule

Between the two wars the Jewish tobacco growers sold their crops to the government. Most of the craftsmen were tailors, carpenters, shoemakers, construction and fruit grove workers. An important branch was the leather and fur trade. Jewish peddlers travelled in the area and bough leather from the peasants. They sold it to merchants and middlemen. During that time 4 oil refineries, owned by Jews, were established. There were 7 synagogues, a bathhouse and a cemetery. There was also a Talmud Torah for poor children, founded before World War I. There were 40 students in the school. In 1917, after the first Russian revolution, an elementary school, called Talmud Torah, was established. The students were taught Hebrew, Russian and other subjects. At the same time a middle school was opened by the Society for Dispersing Education. It had 4 grades (boys and girls) and the government curriculum was followed. Some Christian students also attended. In the early 1920 an elementary school, teaching Yiddish in its 4 grades, was opened. There was a public library with over one thousand books in Russian, Hebrew and Yiddish. There were also some charitable societies: “Visiting the Sick”, “Help for the Poor”, “Savings and Loan Fund”. There were also 4 judges and 2 ritual slaughterers. At the beginning of the 19^th century Rabbi Shabtai Zuckerman, a descendant of a rabbinic dynasty from Apta, came to settle in the village. He had followers mainly from among the Jews who lived in the countryside. After his death, his sons and then his grandsons inherited his position. Two of his great-grandsons, Rabbi Yitzhak Meir and Rabbi Yaakov, served there until the Holocaust. They both died in Transnistria.

Until the annexation of Bessarabia by Romania relationships between the Jews and the Moldavian population were cordial. Jews held important positions in local government. The new rulers encouraged anti-Semitism among the Moldavian Romanians. In 1919 a Jew was arrested after having been accused of insulting a Romanian soldier. The entire population was invited to watch him being put to death. After paying a bribe, the Jews managed to appease the Romanian commander and the Jew was released.

Holocaust

There is no information on the fate of the Jews. It is assumed that most of them escaped to the Russian side of the Dniester when the war began.

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