Moldavia Jewish Tour

Eduard  will wait for you at the Bucharest Airport.
Transfer to the city, HoteL Mercure 4 *, Bucharest downtown.

Welcoming dinner   at the Beer Cart Bucharest.

Oppened in 1879,   it is a  famous restaurant and beer house , neo-gothic architectural style is reflected both in the facades and the interior decorations: columns, arches, chandeliers, a wooden staircase, furniture and murals on the walls and ceiling.

Highlights of the tour

• The Holocaust Memorial
• The Great Synagogue & The Holocaust Museum
• The Jewish Community center
• The Jewish Theatre
• The Choral Temple
• The Bucharest Jewish History Museum

Short History

The Jewish community used to be the largest minority community in Bucharest.
Bucharest jews are mentioned for the first time in a rabbinical correspondence dating back to the 16th century.

Jewish quarter Bucharest 19century

The first documented evidence of a jewish presence in Bucharest, from 1550, names 8 jews, two of whom, Isac Rufus and Habib Amato, ‘have a shop’.

In 1930, 69.885 jews lived in Bucharest, representing 11% of the population.

The events of the second world war and then of the emigration to Israel caused a great drop in the jewish population in Bucharest. Today it stands at less than 10,000 jews. In the place of the old jewish center today stands Bucharest’s commercial center. Even still, some of the houses are reminiscent of those that once stood in that area. A state-run jewish theatre still shows productions today.

The tour

Visit the  Romanian Holocaust Memorial was unveiled on Thursday, October 8, 2009, in Bucharest.

The monument is a five-sculpture ensemble – “The Column,” “Via Dolorosa,” “The Roma”s Wheel,” “The Star of David,” and “Epitaph” arranged around a central memorial precinct.
The programme for the creation of a Romanian Holocaust Memorial was initiated in 2006 upon the recommendation of the International Commission for Romanian Holocaust Studies, known as the Wiesel Commission, after talks with public luminaries, officials for the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, men of culture and artists as well as Holocaust survivors.

We will visit  inside  The Great Synagogue & The Holocaust Museum.

The Great Synagogue was raised in 1845 by the Polish-Jewish community. It was repaired in 1865, redesigned in 1903 and 1909, repainted in Rococo style in 1936 by Ghershon Horowitz, then it was restored again in 1945.

Visit the Jewish Community Center Bucharest.

We will visit  inside  The Yesua Tova Synagogue

Located downtown from 1827 and totally renovated in 2007, this is the city’s oldest synagogue. It still serves the local Jewish community.

The Jewish Theatre

Visit the Jewish Theatre.

The Choral Temple

The Choral Temple  is a synagogue located in Bucharest, Romania. It is a copy of Vienna’s Leopoldstadt-Tempelgasse Great Synagogue, which was raised in 1855-1858. It was designed by Enderle and Freiwald and built between 1857 – 1867.

The synagogue was devastated by the far-right Legionaries, but was then restored after World War II, in 1945.

Depart Moldavia, with a visit of the Braila Synagogue.

Port on the lower Danube, The presence of Jewish merchants in Brăila was first documented in the seventeenth century.

In 1828, there were 105 Sephardic Jews in the town. A cemetery opened in 1819, and a synagogue was built in 1820.

After the town was annexed to Walachia in 1829, Ashkenazic Jews also settled in Brăila and their synagogue was founded in 1836.

Jews  from Braila  emigrated in large numbers. In 2003 there were 155 Jews remaining in Brăila; just one synagogue was still active.

Arrive Galati , overnight in Galati , Hotel  faleza Hotel by  Vega 3 *.

Visit Galati and the Galati Jewish Community.
Visit the Galați synagogue.

Certificate of Sale of a Seat in the Synagogue. Galati, Romania 1896
Certificate of Sale of a Seat in the synagogue by members of the workmen’s guild in the city of Galati, Romania. August 11, 1896.
The certificate, written in Romanian, grants a seat in the synagogue to Mr. Samuel Grünberg. The certificate includes a drawing of the synagogue, the symbol of the guild, and includes the signature of the president of the guild, and other dignitaries.
This synagogue is the only one in this city that survived the Holocaust. Printed by Lith. Friedmann in Galati.

Galaţi is a port on the River Danube   where Jews first settled at the end of the sixteenth century.

Jewish artisans and merchants participated actively in Galaţi’s economic and commercial development throughout the period of their presence in the town.
Before World War II, twenty-two synagogues, a kindergarten, two elementary schools for boys and one for girls, a secondary school, a trade school, a hospital, an orphanage, an old-age home, and two mikvahs served the Jewish community.

Visit the Tecuci small synagogue.

Arrive Iași, overnight at the Hotel International 4*.

Visit Iasi, the largest and most sophisticated Jewish community in Romania, headquarters of Hacham Bashim in the 17th century, one of the great European Centers of Jewish learning during the 19th century and the birth place of Yiddish Theater.

Visit the Jewish Community and meet its president.

Visit the Great Iasi Synagogue, built in 1670 and the oldest surviving Synagogue in Romania.  (the synagogue is in reconstructions process already  years)

Right in front of it is a Holocaust Memorial of  the Iași Pogrom in 1941.

By request, we can have a kosher lunch at the ritual  restaurant  of the Community.

Visit the  Palace of  Culture Iași

The Palace of Culture, acknowledged as the effigy of the city of Iasi, was built in Neogothic style and as such was one of the last expressions of Romanticism in the official architecture.

Although it was not built on top of ancient foundations, as people thought at the beginning of the XX-th century, the Palace was partly built on top of ruins of the Medieval princely courts, mentioned in a document from 1434. The edifice was built between 1906 and 1925, and is the most outstanding work of Romanian architect I.D. Berindei, who was trained at the Parisian School.

Depart Botosani, with a break in Podu Iloaiei

Visit to the Podu Iloaiei Cemetery.

The Jewish community in the village of Podu Iloaiei appeared in the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th.

Podu Iloaiei Cemetery

Only the Jewish cemetery remaines, with tombstones dating from 1829 and 1830.
Arrive Botoșani, overnight at the Hotel Rapsodia City Center 4*.

Visit the Great Synagogue in Botosani, (Oiche Shul), built in 1834.

Meeting with the Botosani Jewish Community President.
A Jewish community of historical importance, Botosani is now home to 80 Jews and an exceptional synagogue that dates back to 1834.

Visit the  SUCEAVA  synagogue

In 1808 73 Jewish families were living in Suceava – a number large enough in order to organize a community and elect a leadership, which was supposed to get the approval of the local authorities.

Visit the Falticeni synagogue

There were 11 synagogues and prayer houses in Falticeni: The Great Synagogue, the Synagogue of Chabad Hassidim, the Rabbi Tabarski Synagogue, as well as the synagogues of the tailors, the shoemakers, and others.

The Great Synagogue was built of wood, and was rebuilt in 1852. This synagogue was splendid, with wall drawings and decorations.

Arrive Piatra Neamț, overnight at the Central Plaza Hotel  4*.

Piatra Neamț – a big jewish community, with approximately 200 jewish people.

The Great Temple, known as Leipziger Bet ha-Midrash Temple, is a big, newer, synagogue, dating from 1839. Piatra Neamț Synagogue inside.

The Piatra Neamt Cathedral synagogue, a historic monument, is the  oldest wooden synagogue still standing in Romania.

It’s design is strongly influenced by local architectural tradition, sharing an evident family resemblance to the timber synagogues of Poland and Bohemia.

The present wooden building was founded in 1766. Some specialists believe that the old building made from stone was founded in the 15th century. The golden altar is 250 years old, with the original ritual objects in fine condition.

Visit  the Bacau synagogues , one of the biggest in Moldavia.

The Bacău synagogue

Arrive Focsani , overnight at the Green Park Boutique Hotel 4*.

Visit the Focșani synagogue

Located at the Oituz Street no 4, this is the last of the 8 synagogues which were in use in Focsani.
The Jewish community of Focsani dates back at least to the second half of the seventeenth century.

The synagogue was built in 1896 on the location of one that had been destroyed in an earthquake two years earlier.
On the eve of World War II, Focsani was home to eight synagogues, two primary schools, a kindergarten, a polyclinic, and a mikveh. After World War II, some 2,000 Jewish refugees settled in Focsani, and the community had 6,080 members in 1947. By 1994, there were only 80 Jews left in Focsani, in 2004 just 43 and in 2011 are only 31 Jewish people.

Photo: Mădălina Mocanu

Visit the Soap Monument at the Focsani Jewish Cemetery.

Testing wine at the  Rotenberg winery

We are a “boutique” winery in Ceptura – Dealu Mare, Romania. Our 2006 Merlot has been voted “The best Merlot in Romania” We cultivate our own 30 year-old vineyards reducing yealds to increase grape quality. The winery is gravitational and the wine is not “agressed” mechanically by pumps. Aging is performed in new oak barriques. – Description from Mihail Rotenberg.

Arrive Ploiesti , overnight in Ploiesti ,overnight Hotel Prahova Plaza 4*.

End of the tour.
Please ask for a quote .