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Imagine walking the very same streets that your parents, grandparents or your great grandparents walked somewhere in Romania, Bucovina or Turkey, where they once lived.
Imagine the sights ... the sounds ... and the smells that must have been there ... before you became a part of this world.
Yes, there was a time when Jewish life compared more like the Sholom Aleichem stories we've all heard. A time when making a living and studying Torah were the only important goals a Jew could hope to (and pray to) achieve.
Located in southeastern Europe, Romania borders the Black Sea and is between Bulgaria and Ukraine. Today, there is a total population of 22.4 million. Romania included the Danubian Principalities of Transylvania, Banat, Maramures, Valahia (Wallachia), Moldova, Bessarabia and Bucovina. Today, all of these regions are in Romania and Moldova, with a portion in southern Ucraina (Ukraine) ROM SIG covers the MoldovaandTransylvaniaareas
www.jewishgen.org/romsig
and click on Links where you will find a list of maps for Romania, Transylvania-Eastern Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire 1882, and Romania- Moldova-Balkans 1882. In addition to many other helpful sites and a photo gallery, there is a link to the Jewish Community of Moldova.
http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/Romania.html
Modern Romania began in 1859 with Prince Alexander John Cuza (Alexandru-Ioan Cuza) of Moldova and Wallachia. As a nation, Romania began on January 24 to February 5, 1862 after the 1856 Congress of Paris declared the end of the Crimean War and decided that this area was to be independent, but under the Turkish suzerainty. Bucharest is its capital city. A leading Israeli expert on the Holocaust in Romania, Jean Ancel, said that of the 760,000 Jews who once lived in Romanian-controlled territories during WW II, 420,000 were massacred. Yad Vashem has published a two-volume book by Ancel on the subject.
There are today, about 6,000 Jews, mainly elderly, still living in Romania with fewer than 1,000 of them under the age of 35. Half of them live in
Bucharest. The average salary is $100 a month and 40 percent of the population lives on little more than one dollar a day.
If you are searching for
Bessarabia,
Bessarabien, or
Moldova, this area is known as Moldova today - a region of today's Romania.
The truth about Romania's western province is that it is one of the most scenic settings in the world. The Borgo Mountains soar, while the Bistrita and Bargaului Valleys dip between them, home to medieval villages nestled among woodlands.
Search Europe An excellent site to find information about most European countries - type in the name of the country you wish to research in the search field. This site is a great source to find information for almost every European country.
http://searcheurope.com
Another valuable site to help find a person, maps, etc. - and type in the name of any country you wish to research. This service is free. http://www.webhelp.com/home
Books
Documentary: The Nobel Peace Prize winner and the world’s foremost author on the Holocaust experience takes a haunting journey to his hometown of Sighet, Romania for the first time in 20 years. Mr. Wiesel is made an honorary citizen of his hometown of Sighet, Romania, where he walks through the neighborhood in which he played and studied as a child. Despite mixed feelings, he sees a town unchanged since his deportation to Nazi concentration camps in 1944, except for one significant feature; not a single Jew lives in the entire village. Academy Award winning actor William Hurt reads passages from Mr. Wiesel’s renowned writings, including his first and most honored work, “Night,” published in 1958.
Added features include interviews of two of the nation’s leading authorities on the Holocaust: - Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesental Center and its acclaimed Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles Professor Bernard Goldberg, Director of The American Jewish Cultural Studies Program at West Los Angeles College. Running Time: 105 minutes ISBN No: 1-930545-62-2
https://www.choicesvideo.net/newchoices/index.html
"Anthology of the Dorohoi Country Since The 15th Century" After WW II, this county has been included into that one of Botosani. Romanian Title: "Generatii de judaism sionism: DOROHOI (+Saveni, Mihaileni, Darabani, Herta, Radauti-Prut)" English Title: "Generations of Jewishness and Zionism: DOROHOI (+Saveni, Mihaileni, Darabani, Hertza, Radautz-Prut)" Redactor and Coordinator: Shlomo David. 5 Volumes, about 3,500 pages together, bilingual (Romanian + Hebrew). The Romanian halves (from left to right) and the Hebrew ones (from right to left) do mostly contain different info. There are Latin and Hebrew "Summary" lists. Submitted by Alex
Finkelstein@mail.biu.ac.il
"Gazetteer of the former Galicia and Bukowina" Produced by Felix Gundacher of the Institute of Historical Family Research in Vienna, has a CD-Rom of maps from the 1880s. The Institute has a web site - for useful looking resources and advice.
http://ihff.nwy.at/index.htm/
"Jewish Immigration from Romania" Reference: RG76; IMMIGRATION, Series I-A-1, Volume 359, Reel C-10262, File: 426364 referred to on the on-line Canadian National Archives web site.
http://www.ingeneas.com
"Jewish Heritage Travel" Authored by Ruth Gruber and published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 1984.
"Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova: Pages from the Past and
Archival Inventories" Author Miriam Weiner
"Memorial to the Jews Deported from France 1942-44" Authored by Beate Klarsfeld, was published after 1978 in English and should be available from F.F.D.J.F 32, rue la Boetie, 75008 Paris, France or The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation 515 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022. The book lists 3,000 Romanians on this list.
"Romania, The Jewries of the Levant after the Fourth Crusade" Authored by Joshua Starr in 1949. On page 56, there are 7 names given.
This ROM-SIGsite contains the names of the shtetls (towns) of Romaniaincluding Romania, Moldova and Southwestern Ukraine: Moldova (Moldavia)Transylvania (Transylvania) Valahia (Wallachia) Banat Basarabia (Bessarabia) Bucovina Dobrogea Maramures. For each town, the county (judete), region and country is listed. If you click on the town name, you can get additional information.
The towns, regions and countries included in the town list are the currently designations used. Changes in national boundaries occurred since pre-World War I times. Therefore, a shtetl may have been in one of the countries covered by the ROM-SIG that was in Russia, Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, or Austria in earlier centuries http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/Shtetls/Romania.htm
Note that Transylvania had one register for all religions denoting religion in a column, whereas Poland and Ukraine have separate registers for each religion.
Over 40,000 new records have been added, consisting of two components:
* Kishinev Vital Records:
The database contains over 25,700 birth records and over 6,400 marriage and divorce records from Kishinev,Moldova. Kishinevwas formerly in Bessarabia Guberniya of the Russian Empire. The original records are located in the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova in Kishinev (Chisinau).
Contains birth, marriage, divorce and death records from 1829 to 1915. Many records remain to be transliterated; work to transliterate these records is ongoing.
Over 17,000 new records, primarily for the Uyezds (districts) of Bendery and Soroki.
This includes the towns of Bendery(Tighina), Kaushany (Causeni), Romanovka (Basarabeasca), Chimishliya (Cimislia), and Ataki (Otaci), all currently in Moldova, and smaller towns in Bendery district. Data for Orgieev,Bieltsy and Khotin districts were previously transcribed. There are over 80,000 records still to be transcribed. Contact Terry Lasky
lasky@bwn.net
http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/Romania/BessarabiaDuma.htm
It is derived from a census drawn up during the Antonescu regime in 1942, of males born in Romania between 1881-1892, and who were deemed to old for work in Labor Camps. The entire census, obtained from the Federation of Jewish Communities (FEDROM) in Bucharestby Prof. Ladislau Gyemant for the JewishGen Romania Special Interest Group (ROM-SIG), consists of some 300+ pages containing about 8,200 entries. This first installment of the database contains 3,275 records, with the remainder to follow.
This is our first database which uses the Romanian alphabet. Our Daitch- Mokotoff Soundex algorithm has been enhanced to account for Romanian diacriticals (i.e. the letter "t" with a cedilla has the "ts" sound").
It is becoming easier
to access records in the Romanian archives, whether in
person or by mail. It is no longer necessary to get
permission from the National Archives in Bucuresti
for permission to enter regional archives. It is
recommended, however, that a person write ahead of time to
the local archives indicating arrival date and what types of
records and family names will be of interest. This will
enable the archives to have records available upon arrival.
The Rom-SIG website now has a list of locations of
Romanian archives that includes addresses, phone
numbers, fax numbers, and, in a few cases, email addresses.
It is a PDF file that can be downloaded at
http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/New/Links.html.
Scroll down to the
heading “Romanian Links.” The site also includes a
form letter, written in Romanian, for communicating
with archives. It also is a PDF file that can be downloaded
from the Rom-SIG home page, It is the last entry in
the left column.
http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/
It is also possible to request records by mail. The
recommended procedure is to contact the Romanian embassy
in your country and ask how to obtain records. They may
direct you to a website where you can a download an
application form. One researcher in England claims the cost
was £28 (about $55) per record).
Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (CAHJP)
Chief of Mission: Ambassador Mircea Dan Geoana 1607 23rd Street NW Washington, DC 20008 Phone: (202) 332 4846, 4848, 4851;
Fax: 1 202 232 4748 Consulate (s) General: Los Angeles and in New York.
Diplomatic Representation from the US Chief of Mission, Ambassador James C. Rosapepe. Embassy: Strada Tudor Arghezi 7-9, Bucharest
http://romania.usembassy.gov/
American Embassy Bucharest Department of State Washington, D.C. 20521 (pouch) Phone; (40) 1 210 01 49 210 40 42; Fax 40 1 210 03 95;
Chancery of Romania Located at 1607 23rd Street NW Washington, DC 20008 Phone 1 202 332 4846, 4848, 4851 FAX: 1 202 232 4748.
http://tracingroots.nova.org/
US Embassy: Strada Tudor Arghezi 7-9, Bucharest. Mailing address: American EmbassyBucharest Department of State Washington, DC 20521-5260 (pouch) Phone: 40 1 210 01 49 210 40 42 FAX 40 1 210 03 95. http://www.usembassy.ro/
A branch office is located in Cluj-Napoca
Family Tree
Dr. Zisu Lebel's Genealogical Tree - Each entry in this list includes the names of:
The village
The pre World War I Hungarian county (megye) or
Austrian Galician district (Bezirk)
A German term usually applied to the Romanian Jews who walked for hundreds of miles to Hamburg. They walked in groups, sometimes whole families walked together.
A virtual exhibition sponsored by Beth Ha'tefutsorth explaining Romanian Jewish culture, Jewishfamily life, Holocaust, emigration and community life through this fascinating exhibition featuring on-line by the Diaspora Museum. You will find interactive maps, beautiful graphics and audio/video files. There is a clickable photo gallery that showcases the Romanian Jewish experience through time.
http://www.bh.org.il/V-Exh/Romania
A list of over 1380 organizations
includes all Landsmanshaftn listed in A Guide to YIVO's
Landsmanshaftn Archive by Rosaline Schwartz and Susan
Milamed, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York, 1986,
and Guide to the YIVO Archives, compiled and edited
by Fruma Mohrer and Marek Web, YIVO Institute for Jewish
Research, 1998. The list also includes the additional
Landsmanshaftn collections that YIVO has acquired since then
that have been catalogued. Several synagogues and other
Jewish organizations are also included if their YIVO file
contains records pertaining to burials or if they have a
cemetery plot in the New York metropolitan area.
Indicated on this list is whether or not an organization
contains a cemetery plot map, but you may also see
Burial
Societies in the New York Metropolitan Areafor a separate listing of
burial societies in YIVO's landsmanshaftn collection that
contain one or more plot maps.
The letter "K" is a non-Latin one, but an Anglo-Saxon letter, therefore "deep" Romanian words shouldn't be written with a "K", but with a "C" instead according to Alex Finkelstein. He further states that the same observation is true about the letter "Y". This is a left over from the Austro-Hungarian period.
Global Gazetteer is a great web site. It is a directory of 2,880,532 of the world's cities and towns, sorted by country and linked to a map for each town. A tab separated list is available for each country. www.calle.com/world/
Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping projectOpenStreetMaphas
amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005
and, according to navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts
greater accuracy in
England, Russia
and
Germany
than rivals such as Google Maps. I tried the site and
found an accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town
Tal'ne, Ukraine.
Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org
"A Mazeldiker Yid: Old time Klezmer From East Europe" Klezmer still lives in the mountains of Romania where Di Naye Kapelye with Mihaly Sipos and Peter Eri of Muzikas compile a lively recording using folk instruments such as the cimbalom. Music is part of our heritage so listen at
www.hatikvahmusic.com
Professional Researchers The Special Interest Group for Romanian Jewish Genealogy offers a wonderful informational site about dealing with professional researchers at
http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/rsdb/prof-sum.html
Alexander Dunai Professional researcher
dunai@iname.com (located in L'viv, Ukraine)
Ladislau Gyemant, PhD Professional genealogical researcher, Professor of Jewish History at the University of Cluj-Napoca, communicates in
English Phone 011 40 64 167256 or Email: tedmar333@gmail.com
gyemant@zortec.ro
"Between 1859-1860 there were 3,288 Jews; in 1899 - 4,019, in 1930 - 5,925. A statistics situation, after a documentary included in the volume "The contribution to the culture and civilization of the Jews from Romania", it shows the "Activity of the Mosaic Cult in all over the country, between 1918-1943". Thus, "The Roman district office": in 1940 - 5,689 souls, 18 synagogues and two cemeteries. Rabbis, two cemeteries; in 1941 - 6,485 souls, 18 synagogues and two Rabbis, two cemeteries; in 1942 - 18 functional synagogues with two Rabbis (Isacsohn Salomon and Frenkel Mendel), five Hahams, two psalm readers and 16 clerics. There were about 7,000 Jews in Roman (including the Jews evacuated from the neighboring villages: Bozieni, Bara, Demienesti, Bacesti); in 1943 - 6,470 souls, 18 synagogues and 2 Rabbis, two cemeteries. More information
http://www.romanianjewish.org/en/mosteniri_ale_culturii_iudaice_03_11_03.html
The countries known today as Romania and Moldova, as well as the southwestern portion of Ukraine and Southern Hungary are the areas of interest. Included in these countries are the areas formerly known as Bucovina, Moldavia, Bessarabia, Transylvania, Walachia and TheBanat. The site includes Photos, links. This SIG provides a 'full service' home on the web which includes a complete table of contents for each issue; an archive link; a database of all towns in Romania, Moldova and southern Ukraine, showing latitude/longitude, alternate names and all towns within a selected distance of a specified town - and more.
The websiteincludes a complete table of contents for
each of the 21 issues of the SIGquarterly journal;
description of the family finder; database of all towns in
Romania, Moldava and southern Ukraine, showing
latitude, longitude, alternate names, etc.: a list of
professional researchers with basic information about their
services; and information about ROM-SIG
http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/
Nearly 40,000 new records have been added, including:
* 25,000 new records in the Bessarabia Duma Voter Lists, 1906-07, primarily for the Khotin and Bieltsy districts. This includes the towns of: Foleshty (Falesti), Ryshanovka (Riscani), Skulyany (Sculeni), Brichany (Briceni), Lipkany (Lipcani), Yedintsy (Edinet) and a major update to Orgeyev (Orhei), all currently in Moldova, and Khotin, Novoselitsy (Novosel'tsy) andSekuryany (Sokiryany), currently in Ukraine. All of the smaller towns and villages in the Orgieev, Bieltsy and Khotin districtshave also been completed.
The database will continue to grow. There are over 100,000 records still to be transcribed. Contact Terry Lasky
tlasky@bwn.net
TheSilesian Digital Library is online and has scans of three volumes of Ksiega pamiatkowa i adresowa wygnancow wojennych z Galicyi i Bukowiny 1914–1915 oraz Album pamiatkowe (The Memorial, Address and Photo Album Directory of the War Refugees from Galicia and Bukovina 1914–1915). There are few photos of people; most are of places.
http://www.sbc.katowice.pl/dlibra
There is an excellent description of the contents of these books and how to use the search engine by Logan Kleinwaks in the Rom-SIG Digest. To retrieve the message, send Email: tedmar333@gmail.com to
lyris@lyris.jewishgen.org and in the body of the message write "get rom-sig 20070103" (without the quote marks).
Major revisions have been made to the "Database Data" and "Database Columns" sections of this introduction.
* 5,000 additional records, completing the "Tabele Barbitalor - 1942 Census of Jewish males born in Romania, 1881-1892".
It is derived from a census drawn up during the Antonescu regime in 1942, of males born in Romania between 1881-1892, and who were deemed to old for work in Labor Camps.
The JewishGen ROM-SIG also has in its possession the census of men born between 1893-1921, who were sent to the camps. The list contains more than 300 pages, and over 8,000 entries.
Rosanne Leeson
Leeson1@attglobal.net along with Paula Zieselman are Co-Coordinators of ROM-SIG and welcome suggestions or photos and materials to be added to the site.
This is the rickety old ship with 789 Romanian Jewish refugees (all of whom died including 103 children except for one that lived) that was sunk either by a Russian sub or a mine, near Istanbul in the Black Sea on February 23, 1942 (story is in English)
http://www.alpas.net/uli/struma/struma_engl.htm
The refugees left the port of Constanta, Romania (the last ship to leave Germany carrying refugees who were bound for Palestine) were trying to reach Turkey or Palestine, but didn't have Visas for either country although the fare was to include Visas for Palestine. The boat was in very poor condition and was denied entrance to Istanbul. The boat was being towed away from Turkey and into The Bosporus sea by a tug, since its engine was not working. There were only five survivors and three of those died in turkey. The British government of the day steadfastedly refused them visas to Palestine as illegal entrants of an enemy country. The local Turkish community helped feed the passengers during the 70 days that the ship remained in the port.
The British authorities in Palestine had set tight limits on Jewish immigration. The British transferred the Struma's passengers, along with those of two other boats, to another ship, the Patria, intending to send them to detention in Mauritius.According to a story in the February 2003 issue of Hadassah Magazine, a Haganah bomb, meant to keep the Patriah from leaving for Mauritius, sank the ship.
Books
"Death on the Black Sea" About the Struma. A very comprehensive list of the passengers is included. You may purchase this book through my link with Amazon.com to your left on this page.
http://sephardichouse.org/
Just in case you didn't think of it, contact a nearby university or college's foreign language department. They may offer to write letters and translate letters into English. A nominal fee is usually charged.
In the near future, the about 40 'judete' (counties) are going to become 8 "regiuni" (singular: regiune) meaning regions, as a request prior to the acceptance of Romania into NATO and other European organizations.
Administrative Divisions
40 counties (Judete, singular - judet)
1 municipality (municipiu)
Alba
Arad
Arges
Bacau
Bihor
Bistrita-Nasaud
Botosani
Brailla
Brasov
Bucuresti Buzau
Calarasi
Caras-Severin
Cluj
Constanta
Covasna
Dambovita
Dolj
Galati
Gorj
Giurgiu
Dorohoi
Harghita
Hunedoara
Ialomita
Iasi
Maramures
Ilfov
Mehedinti
Mures
Neamt
Olt
Prahova
Salaj
Satu Mare
Sibiu
Suceava
Teleorman
Timis
Tulcea
Vaslui
Vilcea
Vrancea
Note: Moldova is today the northeast area of Romania, but is also an independent state from USSR (CCCP). Both areas together, represent the original Moldova, prior to 1940 as Romanian area. Corrections and this statement were contributed by
Alex.Finkelstein@mail.biu.ac.il
A collection of oral histories by Jews living in this region, located in southwestern Romania, has been published. "Rescued Memory: The Jews of the Banat Yesterday and Today," the fruit of four years' work is the latest volume in a series of anthropological and oral history research conducted by the Third Europe Foundation, based in the city of Timisorara. About 12,000 Jews lived in the region before WW II. Only about 400, mainly elderly, remain there today.
http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/
The JewishGen Yizkor Book Necrology Database indexes the
names of persons in the necrologies -- the lists of
Holocaust martyrs -- published in the Yizkor Books appearing
on the Yizkor Book Project site at
http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/translations.html
This database is only an index of names; it directs
researchers back to the Yizkor Book itself, where more
complete information may be available. This database
currently contains over 186,000 entries from the necrologies
of 210 different Yizkor Books.
The second largest city in Romania. Strolling along the winding streets of medieval Brasov, you'll find cathedrals, a fortress, a Franciscan monastery and buildings which once housed the craftsmen and jewelers who made Brasov legendary throughout the region. David Gordon
dgordon@interaccess.com offers to make copies of photos he has taken of six synagogues
http://www.jewishgen.org/romsig/
Capital city. This was the capital of one of the 3 principates (Valahia) prior to 1859. It is believed to have been founded in the late 14th century by a shepherd named Bucur. The city later became a residence of the Walachian princes and the name was changed to Bucharest. In 1859, Wallachia and Moldavia merged and Bucharest became the capital of Romania. It was once known as the "Paris of the East". Its citizens lived it up with glittering parties, grand entertainments, and fashionable lifestyles - befitting the folkloric meaning of its name: City of Joy.
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/regions.html
Located in Bacau province, had a population of 8,198 in 1948 and was located on a railroad line about 20 miles southeast of PiatraNeami. It was a woolen and textile manufacturing center and also did oil refining, distilling and manufacturing of candles and cheese.
http://motic.wiesenthal.com/pages/t012/t01244.html
Ruth Gruber's "Jewish Heritage Travel" writes that it was a noted Chassidic center headed by Rabbi Isaac Friedman of the Ruzhyn Dynasty and still has its 'marvelous' synagogue which is well maintained although it was vandalized in the 1980s.
This shtetl is in Moldavia, which was in northwestern Romania on the Austro Romanian border. In 1820 there were 183 Jewish taxpaying head of families; by the middle of the century, the Jews were the majority of the town's population. By 1899 the Jewish population had increased to 2,038 according to the article.
For additional information about this region located in Bukowina,
Bukowina
A city, Odessa Oblast (province) located in southernmostUkraine. In Turkish it is known as Akkerman and in Russian as Belgorod-Dnestrovsky. There is a lot of historical information available at
http://www.britannica.com/seo/b/bilhorod-dnistrovskyy/
Located on the border where Romania, Hungary and Ukraine meet. It is south of Vynohradiv, Ukraine and north of Satu Mare in Romania. Before, while it was in Austria-Hungary, it was in Ugocsa county in Hungary
Formerly known as Kolozsvar and was located in Hungary. This is one of the capital cities of the three principates (Transylvania) prior to 1859. The Napoca secondary name has been added to the Clujcity name because this was the name of this settlement during ancient times.
Cluj NapocaDiscussion List - This the coolest, newest and possibly funniest, discussion list about the Young Romanian Jewish community of Cluj Napoca and also about all the other Romanian Jewish Communities, their activities, their members, and their life, and all regarding it
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/otercluj/
Contact George Paltan. There are Regional Special Interest Groupsthat have Romanian information and links. The site includes links to Bohemia-Moravia SIG, Denmark SIG, German-Jewish SIG, Hungary SIG and Stammbaum - German SIG at
http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html
Constanta
Originally captured by the Greeks, followed by the Romans and Turks, and finally by the Romanians, who acquired this seaside resort in 1878. It has since become Romania's most important seaport. The old section is known as Piata Ovidiu.
The county seat, with a large Jewish population. In 1940, before Romania joined WW II on the Nazi side, it was already clear to all in which direction the wind was blowing. The Jews were expelled first from all the shtetls and villages, and then from Dorohoi, as well as from the other medium size Jewish towns in the area, Botoshani. Most of them fled to Iasi (Yass), the capital of Moldovaat that time
Cemetery
Three
headstones bearing the surname Abramovici, from left to
right: Shmuel ben Chaim Abramovici, died 3 October 1943;
Gusta (Golda) bat Zvi-Eliezer Abramovici, died 23 January
1948; Yona ben Elimelekh Abramovici, died 9 May 1945.
http://hashkedim.com/doropix.html
According to the statistics, in 1805
there were 848 Jews; in 1859- 5,765; and in 1899 there were
5,500; in 1930 - 4,046 souls. After the 1941 census, was
estimated that the Jewish population in Falticeni decreased
to 4,020 souls and, in 1947, their number was 4,700, and in
1950- only 3,000.
Including towns of Baneasa, Beresti-Tirg/Beresti, Galati, Ivesti (commune), Lestetz/Liesti/Lieste, Nicoresti, Targul, Nicoresti (commune), and Tecuci are included in the ROMSIG Galati County Research contact the Coordinator Ellen Renck - NY Desiree Gil
DAGAG123@aol.com
Gura Humorului is a town located in north Romania, Suceava County in southern Bukovina. In 1857 Gura Humoruluihad a Jewish population of 190 souls. In that year also the Jewish cemetery was established. That cemetery was active until 1920. In 1920 the "New" cemetery was established right near the "Old" one, and it is still open today. These cemeteries (the old and the new) have about 2060 graves.
http://humora.tripod.com/
Gura Humorului Jewish Community The aim of these pages is to provide a photographic record and to provide the burial records of the Gura Humorului Jewish cemetery (Romania), and others records from the Jewish community of that town, for the benefit of those genealogists who live some distance away and for the decedents of
Gura Humorului Jewish community
http://humora.tripod.com/
Located near the Moldavian border in northeasternRomania. This city was once the capital of one of the three principates (Moldova) prior to 1859. At one time there were 157 synagogues, but now, only one is left and it barely gets a Minyan.
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/iasi/iasi.html
This city is also considered the birthplace of the Yiddish theater. A rustic Jewish tavern stood in the city center, facing Iasi's state theater, and in the late nineteenth century, the city's population was over a third Jewish. Today there are only a few hundred Jews.
http://www.romanianjewish.org/en/mosteniri_ale_culturii_iudaice_03_11_09.html
Located in the Kovno Uyezd. In JewishGen's ShtetlSeeker, there are Yanovo's/Janowa's in Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Russia.
There are also many towns named Janow in Poland, including a Janow Podlaski and a Janow Lubelskie. There is even another Yonavo in Lithuania other than the one in Kovno Uyezd - today it is called Jokavai. Ada Green offered a listing of Jonava Societies and Associations associated with the JGSNY Cemetery Project in a message to the JewishGen Digest group
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonava
On the banks
of the
Prut River,
Novoselytsya
was
first
mentionedin a document
in
1456,
having
belonged
to
the Principality
of
Moldova
until 1812.
With the
transfer of
Bessarabia
to the
Russian Empire,
its
eastern half
went
underRussian rule,
while
its
western half,
since
1775,
belonged to
the
Austro-Hungarian
province
of
Bukovina.
In
1905,
the
local train station was inaugurated,
along
an
existing line
from
the last
quarter
of the 19th century
and
which
became the
main
transit
point
for
cattle leather
exported
to
the
Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
The
station
became
famous thanks to
the
famous
American journalist
John
Reed, who started there,
in 1915,
his trip to
Russia in order to witness
the Bolshevik Revolution. With
the end
of
World War I,
the
whole city became part of
Romanian territory
and,
with
World War II,
of the Soviet Union.
In
1930,
the
city,
the second
largest in
the Romanian province
of
Hotin
and
important
commercial center,
hada
population
of
5000
inhabitants,
of whom
about
four-fifths
were
Jews. The city had
several
banks,
a Jewish
hospital,a
synagogue,a
post office
and
telegraph,a
commercial
high school,a
court,
two
cinemas
and an airport
http://ewigerjude.blogspot.com/2010/12/novoselytsya.html
Opriseni (Oprischeny)
Located near Taraseni (Terescheniand was between Czernowitz and Sereth)
Oradea
Yizkor Book "A Tegnap Vaross; A Nagyvaradi Zsidosag Emiekkonyvelrve-etmol; Sefer Zikaron le-Yehudei Grosswardein)" (A City and Yesterday; Memorial Book to the Jews of Grosswardein)
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/translations.html
Sometimes called just Piatra, had a population of 26,303 in 1948. It was in Bacau province and located on the Bistrita River, 175 miles north of Bucharest. It was noted for many different types of manufacturing and was a departure point to various historic monasteries.
Ploiesti (Polesti)
Prahova County. This is a city that is known for its oil refineries. It was bombed by the American Air force.
My friend, Babe Toles' brother was one of the Americans
killed in a raid on this city. To see which county your shtetl was in, check the searchable database at The Shtetls of Romania
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/regions.html
Located near the city of Iasi. A mass grave, containing the bodies of about 100 Jews killed during the Holocaust was discovered in a burial pit in a forest located about 350km (220 miles) north east of Bucharest. It is thought that the pit contains the remains of men, women and children shot in 1941 by troops of the pro-Nazi Romanian regime. Up to 380,000 Jews are believed to have killed in Romanian-controlled territory during WW II. This particular grave was found because of testimonies from local inhabitants who witnessed the kills. Adrian Cioflanca, a Romanian historian, is involved in the dig. It is the second Holocaust-era mass grave discovered in Romania since 1945.
Prahova County
Towns included are: Adunati, Azuga, Baba Ana, Baicoi, Balta Doamnei, Boldesti-Scaeni, Brazi, Breaza, Brebu, Busteni, Cheia, Caresu, Cheia, Cimpina, Comarnic, Cosminele, Dirvari, Draganesti, Dumbrava, Gherghita, Golgata, Gura Valdului, Intre Bisci, Izvoarele, Jugureni, Magurele, Maneciu, Manesti, Mizil, Ploesti, Plopeni, Plopu, Sinaia, Singeru, Slanic, Soimari, Starchiojd, Surani, Teisani, Urlati, Valea Calugareasca and Valea Doftanei
Raciunesti (Kretsnif, Kretsnif Bocicolo Mare (Romanian Byhkov)
Maramures County
Cemetery Contact Leslie Gyi nee Feig who will provide you with instructions on how to view the site using a special password. The site is on the
www.MyFamilyinc.com
The town is situated just south of Polish Galicia region of Stanislawow and Moldova (ex-Bessarabia) borders on the border Prut River and now the northeastern part of Romania. It was one of the easternmost towns in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Radauti is, in fact, Radauti-Bucovina of northern Romania according to Alex Finkelstein
Alex.Finkelstein@mail.biu.ac.il
The territory used to be part of the Austrian Empire, but it was not in Galicia. For additional information about this region located in Bucovina,
Bukowina
Database of more than 250 graduates from the years 1885 - 1896 of the Ober-Gymnasium (secondary school) in Radautz, Bukowina (now Radauti, Romania)
http://mypage.bluewin.ch/bukowina/StudRad.html
In addition to the year of birth, the profession and town of residence in 1897 is given for each graduate. Webmaster is Peter Elbau
Holocaust There is a memorial stone for the Jewish community of Radautz with a listing of about 500 names. The society in Israelwhich erected this stone in 1987, can (in many cases), put you in touch with relatives or friends who contributed the name to the project. The complete list of names from this stone, plus an additional group of about 300 names, is now posted on the Radauti ShtetLinks site and there is a Memorial of Radauti located in Holon, Israel, listing nearly 500 names and possible links to Israel citizens
www.radauti/radautz.html
Records According to a knowledgeable source, there are no Bucovina records in the Romania Archives, but rather there are some in the Ukraine Archives. This statement was challenged by Bruce Reisch in an Email: tedmar333@gmail.com to me of 10/23/01 in which he states "In my experience, the records to be found in Romania are much more complete than those in the Chernivetskaya oblast.' 'The records for Radauti at both locations are amazingly complete.' 'Birth and death records are available post - 1857 but marriage records are much more spotty.'
Yizkor Book "Radautz in Geschichte Der Juden in Der Bukowina" (Radautz in History of Jews in Bucovina); "Mayne Kinder Yorn in Shotn Fun Hurbn" (My Childhood in the Shadow of the Holocaust) -
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/translations.html
Cemetery Remains of a Jewish cemetery has been acknowledged.
Roman
Roman is a mid-sized city, having the title of municipality, located in the central part of Moldavia, a traditional region of Romania. It is the Neamt County.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAJ0IGg9Y2k
Yizkor Book
The book will be translated from the Romanian and placed on Yizkor book site on JewishGen. We are looking for a project coordinator and translators for this project. Contact me if you are interested in helping in this project. Bob Wascou ROM-SIG Research Coordinator
robertw252@aol.com
Now a suburb of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) in the Ukraine, Sadgura had been at one time, a small town with a population that was 80% Jewish. A great deal of information is available at this JewishGen website including photos and a trip report
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/regions.html
Memoirs on the Sadgura ShtetLinks web site recalling life in Sadgura (Bukovina) and Chotin(Ukraine) in the early 1900s. Jack (Yankel) Becker tells the story of his early years in this 1974 oral history - interview with his daughter, Elizabeth
becker.html
Maramures County from Romania and Zakarpatia Region from Ukraine had a historically common development, before the establishing of a country border on the Tisa River, after the twentieth century's World Wars.
Storojinet
There is an excellent site for further information about this old Jewish village located near the Carpathian mountains. The site offers old pictures of the Rigler family and pictures of what the town looks like now
It is the NNE of today's Romania, about 25 miles from the Ukrainian border and about 40 miles from the Moldovan border. Suceava, the town, is the head of today's Suceava Judete (country) of Romania formerly the southern part of Bukovina. Bukovina was an independent Crownland in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Its northern part is the Chernivetskaya oblast, in today's Ukraine. It is 221.1 miles N of Bucharest.
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/suceava/suceava.htm
Records According to a knowledgeable source, there are no Bucovina recordsin the Romania Archives, but rather there are some in the Ukraine Archives. This statement was challenged by Bruce Reisch in an Email: tedmar333@gmail.com to me of 10/23/01 in which he states "In my experience, the records to be found in Romania are much more complete than those in the Chernivetskaya oblast.' 'All of the Suceava Judetel Jewish records prior to approx. 1890 are to be found in the regional archive in Suceava.' 'The post ca. 1890 records are in the local town halls.' For additional information about this region located in Bucowina,
Bukowina
Formerly known as Maramoros Szighet. It was never a part of Galician territory, though its Hasidic leaders emigrated there from Galicia during the latter part of the 19th century. Along with them went many Galician followers.
The Jewish population today is 75. Before the war, there were over 15,000. Less than half survived the war and those that did either died off in the last 50 years, or they, or their descendants, move to either Israel, US or other parts of Europe. Eli Wiesel's home in the town is now a museum.
Books
The New York Public Library, Jewish Division, has microfilms of a Yiddish periodical published before WW II in Sighet: "Oyfgang" published between 1933 to 1936 in Yiddish. The Call no is *ZAN-*P721. Note that the asterisk in the Call No. is a significant character in the NYPL catalog system and predates the widespread use of the Dewey Decimal and US Library of Congress classification systems.
http://thedagger.com/archive/romania/jews/
Cemetery
The Jewish cemetery is in decent shape and the full time caretaker lives across the street from the main gate and has the keys.
Records The City Hall has a very large collection of "Jewish Records" that go well back into the Austro-Hungarian empire days including Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death records and some real estate transactions. Other records may be found in the county seat in Baia Mare. Much of this information was obtained from a written memo to the Jewish Gen Group by Jack Schraeter Dd.H. Email: tedmar333@gmail.com
schraeter@lakemed.cumberland.me.us
Synagogue There is one synagogue today, whereas before 1944, there were 16 temples and synagogues.
Located parallel with Dorohoiand on the Romanian/Moldavian border. This shtetl had few Jews.
Books
There is a monograph about Jewish life in Stefanesti called "Stefanesti: Portrait of a Romanian Shtetl" Authored by Ghitta Sternberg and published by Pergamon Press in 1984.
http://www.idee.ro/jewish_heritage2/stefanesti.html
There were about 10,000 Jews before WW II. The author Eli Wiesel attests that: “The Jews of Sziget didn't know what awaited them, until the last minute… no one found it necessary to inform us of this… a year after the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, we still did not know a thing concerning the Nazi plan to exterminate European Jewry”. And even if it registered on their consciousness in a vague way, it was quickly erased by virtue of the well-known “Jewish optimism”. Therefore the Jews preferred going together with their families and with “the community of Israel”, and “What will happen to the people of Israel will also happen to the individual named Israel”, as is so well-known and familiar, and as many of us experienced ourselves, on our own “skin”.
http://www.bigmeathammer.com/aushwitz15.htm
Translated it means the land beyond the Nistru (Dnestr River), a province located in southwestern Ukraine and between the Dnestr and the southern Buh.
Before WWII, there were hundreds of shtetls, including Mogilev. Much of the area was in the old Podolia district, Luchynets, Yaltashkiv and Bar.
Holocaust Mogilev and Bar were larger cities and were the sites of mass killings by the Nazis and their Romanian allies.
Jews from both Bucovina and Bessarabia were forced across the Dnestr to Transnistria and then murdered. Referenced in "Atlas of the Holocaust" and authored by Sir Martin Gilbert, describes the horrible details of the murder of an estimated 300,000 Bucovina and Bessarabien Jews in Transnistria.
Transnistria Death List A link to a list of victims who died in Transnistria, Romania
Trappold - (German: Trappold; Hungarian: Apold; Official: Apold) 15 km south of Sighisoara
Jewish
children, Turnu Severin, early 1900's. Beit Hatefutsoth, the
Visual Documentation Center
The Jewish community of Turnu
Severin, a town today called Drobeta Turnu Severin,
flourished mainly during the late decades of the 19th
century and the early years of the 20th century. In 1899,
the number of Jews in Turnu Severin reached its high
of 899 individuals constituting almost five percent of the
town's general population. Typically for a Danubian port
town at the time, Turnu Severin, which was situated
before WW1 at the western most part of Romania,
harbored various nationalities: Jews made up the fourth
largest ethnic group, after Romanians, Germans, and
Serbs, in a town that also sheltered small Greek,
Armenian, Bulgarian, and Turkish communities.
Turulung - (Turterebes)
Located northeast of Satu Mare and very close to the Ukrainian border. When it was in the Tiszntuli district of Ugocsa county, it was known as Turterebes, Hungary.
Ugocsa County
A small county between Bereg and Maramarosand quite far from Arad county.
Ungersdorf - (German: Ungersdorf; Hungarian: Sajomagyaros; Official: Sieu Magherus)
Residents of Lower-Wisho, brought food to the ghetto, their own and what was taken from the Jews, this despite the beatings they received at the hands of the gendarmes for doing so.
http://www.bigmeathammer.com/aushwitz15.htm
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