Jewish Community in Bacau,
Federation of Jewish Communities
in Romania and Centrul Pentru
(Bacău, Romania)

46°34' / 26°54'

Translation of Obstea Evreiasca Din Bacau Eritropia Communitatil Israel

by I. Kara

Editors: Paul Litman, Editura Hasefer

Published in Bucharest, 1995

Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Our sincere appreciation to “Editura Hasefer”
for permission to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Obstea Evreiasca Din Bacau Eritropia Communitatil Israel;
Jewish Community in Bacau, Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania and Centrul Pentru,
by I. Kara, ed. Paul Litman, Editura Hasefer, Bucharest, 1995

This material is made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project for the purpose of
fulfilling our mission of disseminating information about the Holocaust and destroyed Jewish communities.
This material may not be copied, sold or bartered without JewishGen, Inc.'s permission. Rights may be reserved by the copyright holder.

JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.

This book has been accomplished with the help of the Jewish Community in Bacau through
Iosif Antoniu, Iosca Brill, Iosif Leibu, Carol Isac, Gheza Lovingher, Carol Marcusohn, Hary Rotman, Arion Simhas, Ernest Simon.
Some of the documents related to the history of Jewish people in Bacau have been submitted by Professor Dumitru Zaharia.
The material in this book has been put together by C. Litman.
This book has been written with the material help of DITA and MUNDI, in memory of their parents EVELINA and ITIC BRAUNSTEIN.
Note: Picture of couple

We wish to express our gratitude for their support to the following sources:

States' Archives, offices Bacau and Iasi
The Central Archive of the History of Jewish People – Jerusalem (Israel)
The A.C.M.E.O.R. Archive– Tel-Aviv (Israel)

This English translation is credited to

Ruth Blanch, Toronto, Canada, Dana Melnic, Toronto, Canada, Daniela Cornestan, Iasi, Romania, Leslie Erschen, Cape Coral, FL and Harry Green, N. Ft. Myers, FL.

Editor

Paul Litman

Graphics and pictures

Valeriu Giodac

Article		Page

Foreword by Prof.N Cajal

A.	Demographic Evolution of Jewish Population in Bacau
	The Participation in the Economic Life and Aspects of Relations With the Romaniam Population	1
I.	Jewish presence in Bacau in the XVIII Century	1
II.	Information Regarding the Jews in Bacau Until the Middle of XIXth Century	4
III.	Jewish Community in Bacau in the Second Half of the XIXth Century and Beginning of XXth Century	12
IV.	Bacau's Jews in the Inter-War Period	22

B.	The Jewish Community of Bacau Throughout the Years	44
1.	Historic Evolution of the Jewish Community	45
2.	Community Preoccupation and Institutions	53
	a. Cemeteries: The Sacred Society	53
	b. The Bath: Securing the Ritual Nourishment	56
	c. Synagogues: Cult Staff – Religious Education	58
	d. Social and Sanitary Assistance	61
	e. Education	63

C.	Associations of Mutual Support and Other Societies Founded by the Jews	72

D.	The Zionist Movement	84

E.	The Jews from Bacau During the Years of Wrath of the War and the Racist Laws. The Community from Bacau After the War	94

F.	Aspects of the Spirtual Life	120

Appendix I		131
Appendix II		133
Appendix III		135
Appendix IV		137
Appendix V		138
Appendix VI		139
Appendix VII		140
Epilogue		142
Other Books by I. Kara		143

Foreward

Prof. N. Cajal

The publishing house “ HASEFER” proposed the writing of a second volume of the collection the book “THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN ….”

The first volume of the collection describes the life of Jewish people in PODUL ILOAIEI. This volume describes the life of another Jewish community, the one from the town of Bacau.

These books are very important to preserve the history of the Jewish people from the past and the small towns they lived in.

This work contains information regarding the location, the traditional style of living and governing organisations of the Jewish population who lived in the city situated on the banks of the river Bistrita. Jewish people had lived there ever since the XVIIth century, and their fate was often common with that of the Romanian population.

The Jews in Bacau were present at all the important events in the history of Romania. They were amongst the ones fighting for a modern society, for the unification of all the Romanian provinces and for independence of the country.

In the first World War they fought for the ideals of the whole nation, and their graves stand as proof.

As you read this book you will find a very comprehensive story describing everyday life of the Jewish population, active in every aspect of the economic, cultural and spiritual life.

We acknowledge the valuable contribution of all who assisted the respected historian I.Svart-Kara in gathering the documents necessary for writing this book, but especially the expertise of Dr.I.Svart-Kara in culling from archived documents, information that has developed an authentic image of a world that existed, and which has left behind proof of a substantial presence in all aspects of life.

We hope that this historical work which will reference more monographs, will enrich the knowledge about the Jewish communities in Romania, thus supporting an unbiased portrayal of the Jewish community and will contribute to bringing everyone together.

I have said this before and have also written about it many times: knowledge brings people together while ignorance sets them apart!

Prof. N. Cajal
15 February 1995

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Foreward

Prof. N. Cajal

Prof. N. Cajal 15 February 1995

Prof. N. Cajal
15 February 1995