Bnei Rapp Anshe Dombrowa

Bnei Rapp Anshe Dombrowa 

            The Bnei Rapp Anshe Dombrowa Society was organized in 1884 (merged with Agudas Achim in 1913) by immigrants hailing from Dumbrava, Romania. Due to the lack of information regarding Jewish history in Dumbrava, this blog will instead discuss the Jewish history of Romania.

            Jews began coming to Romania towards the end of the 14th century after having been expelled from Hungary. There was a further influx of Jewish immigration towards the end of the 17th century following the Chmielnicki massacres in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Rulers in Moldova sought to attract Jews, hence exempting them from taxes and providing them with land for their cultural and religious institutions. Many Jews began working as craftsmen and merchants. By the middle o the 19th century, Jews began to also engage in moneylending and land leasing. Jews also made up over 30% of the country’s physicians. Additionally, Jews are recognized for having established several successful banks, including the Moldova Bank, and the Craiova Commercial Bank. During the second half of the 19th century, intellectuals and scholars alike laid the foundation for Jewish communal and cultural life in Romania.

            Following their independence at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, Romania was required to also grant Jews living in the country full rights. This was largely ignored, however, with harsher antisemitic measures gradually being instated, including barring “foreign” Jews from practicing various professions and removing Jewish students from public schools. As a result, about 70,000 Jews left for Palestine and neighboring countries between 1898-1904.  In 1923, the Romanian constitution granted citizenship to Jews among other groups, however, this was overwhelmed by growing antisemitism in the region. Various professions remained closed to the Jewish communities and officials continued to persecute them legislatively.

Romania ultimately established close relations with the Nazis and eventually joined the Axis Alliance. Under the dictatorship of Ion Antonescu, antisemitic measures were increased. The Iron Guard routinely robbed and seized Jewish businesses, and incited a pogrom against the Jews of Bucharest, where several were killed. Romaninan Jewry ceased following the Holocaust. Under Hungarian rule, almost the entire Jewish population was deported to Auschwitz. After Romania was forced to give up Northern Transylvania, Northern Bukovina, Bessarabia, and Southern Dobruja, SS units and members of the Romanian police carried out attacks, resulting in the loss of thousands of Jews. Survivors of these attacks were taken to the ghettos and concentration camps that were instated by the Antonescu regime throughout Transnistria. In the late 1940s, a mass emigration of Romanian Jews occurred to Palestine, Western Europe, and Israel. In total, over 300,000 Romanian Jews were killed by the Germans and their Hungarian and Romanian collaborators.

As of 2002, the Jewish population of Romania was estimated to be around 17,000 people, with a majority living in Bucharest, Iasi, and Oradea.

https://jguideeurope.org/en/region/romania/

https://romaniatourism.com/iasi.html#:~:text=The%20Great%20Synagogue&text=Mezullah.,the%20Jewish%20community%20of%20Iasi.

https://genealogy-collections.cjh.org/synagogue/777

https://www.facebook.com/100064829642926/posts/bnai-rappaport-anshei-dombrowa-synagogue-at-207-east-7th-street-between-avenue-b/1067293325441646/

https://www.cjh.org/exhibits/synagogue-list

https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/about/communities/ro

https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/24

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/7028610/jewish/10-Facts-About-the-Jews-of-Romania.htm

https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/final-solution-beginning/romania.html

~Blog by Olvia Scanlon