Sephardic Jews in Romania

Sephardic Jews in Romania

Total population
<1,000
Regions with significant populations
Bucharest
Languages
Ladino, Yiddish, Romanian
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
Sephardic Jews

Sephardic Jews have played an important historical role in Romania, although their numbers in the country have dwindled to a few hundred, with most living in the capital, Bucharest. Antisemetic pogroms and economic strife lead to mass emigration out of the country in the 20th century.

History

Origins

Many Sephardic Jews began settling in Wallachia in the 16th century, although there is evidence they began settling in Romania as early as 1496 following the Spanish Inquisition. They arrived through the Ottoman Empire, which was more welcoming towards Jewish immigration than other countries in Europe at the time.

Communities

The Cahal grande was considered one of the most beautiful synagogues in Eastern Europe, but it was destroyed during antisemetic pogroms in Romania in the early-mid 20th century.

In 1730, following advice of Jews Daniel de Fonseca and Celebi Mentz Bali, the then-ruler of Wallachia, Nicolae Mavrocordat, formally allowed Sephardic Jews to organize themselves into communities. Since then, according to historian Iuliu Barasch, many Sephardim from the Ottoman Empire began settling in Romania. However, it was not until 1819 that the first synagogue was built in the capital, Cahal Grande, with reforms by Rabbis Eliezer Papu and Damascus Eliezer.

Since the establishment of said communities, the Sephardic community in Romania thrived, despite antisemetic measures taken by government officials Ion C. Brătianu and Dimitrie A. Sturdza. In 1934, there were large Sephardic communities in Bucharest, Craiova, Ploiești, Turnu Severin, Timișoara, Corabia, Calafat, Brăila, Galați, Tulcea, Constanța and Giurgiu.

The Bucharest Sephardic Jewish Cemetery is an important monument to the community and is still in operation today.

Sephardic Jews' situation worsened in 1937, along with the rest of the Jews in Romania, suffering from antisemetic laws established by Octavian Goga's government, as well as Miron Cristea's, but especially by the National Legionary State. During the Legionary Rebellion at the Bucharest pogrom, the Cahal Grande Synagogue was burned to the ground.

20th century

The establishment of the communist regime, Romanian Sephardic Jews emigrated en masse to Israel. Currently, there are several hundred Sephardic Jews left in Romania, the majority in Bucharest. They no longer have a synagogue exclusive to their community. There is a minute amount of Sephardic Jews who emigrated to Bucharest in modern times, mostly from Israel.

Notable Romanian Sephardic Jews

• Mosko Alkalai, actor
• Mișu Benvenisti, lawyer, Zionist militant, and leader of the Romanian Jewish community
• Aristide Blank, financier, economist, arts patron and playwright
• Mauriciu Blank, banker, co-founder, alongside Iacob Marmorosch, of the Marmorosch Blank Bank
• David Emmanuel, mathematician and member of the Romanian Academy, considered to be the founder of the modern mathematics school in Romania
• Moses Gaster, Hakham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation, London, and a Hebrew and linguist
• Clara Haskil, classical pianist, renowned as an interpreter of the classical and early romantic repertoire
• Jacob L. Moreno, psychiatrist, psychosociologist, and educator, the founder of psychodrama, and the foremost pioneer of group psychotherapy
• Maria Ventura, actress and theatre director