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Markulești (also known as Starovka, after the name of the landlord, or Kot-Markulești, from the Hebrew phrase ki tov — “this is good,” according to local legend) was founded in 1837 (according to another version, in 1839) as one of the first Jewish agricultural colonies in the Bessarabia region, established on leased land. According to […]

Jews were among the founders of Bălți, settling there as early as 1779. Over time, the city became an important center of secular Yiddish culture. In 1930, Bălți was home to 14,259 Jews, who made up around 60% of the city’s population. Two Jewish cemeteries are known to have existed in Bălți. The old Jewish […]

Among the speakers at the opening were Andrei Chistol, State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Moldova Ministerul Culturii al Republicii Moldova; Alexandr Petkov, Mayor of the Municipality of Bălți Primăria municipiului Bălți; Robert Althaus, Cultural Affairs Officer at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Moldova; Alexandra Fishel, […]

Rașcov is one of the earliest and most fascinating Jewish communities in Bessarabia, located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River. The town was an important center of early Hasidic tradition. At one time, Yaakov Yosef of Polonne, a prominent disciple of the Baal Shem Tov and author of the first published Hasidic treatise […]

This burial site was protected by the ESJF with the financial support of the Auswärtiges Amt (German Federal Foreign Office) and in cooperation with the Jewish Community of Moldova and the Municipality of Ceadîr-Lunga. The official rededication ceremony was attended by Magdalena Poirier, Head of the Culture and Media Department of the Embassy of the […]

Rashkov is one of the oldest centers of Jewish life in the region. The old Rashkov Jewish cemetery once served a large Jewish community, and around 1,000 tombstones have been preserved there. Moreover, it is a major site of pilgrimage, as it contains the grave of Rabbi Shabtai of Rashkov (1655–1745), an early disciple of […]

Over the past two days, it has been a great pleasure to host our second European Commission Masterclass and the first of the series to take place in person for local engaged leaders in Chișinău, Moldova. After an opening statement from Ion Duminica, Director of the Center for Ethnology of the Institute of Cultural Heritage, […]

The ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative is looking forward to hosting its second EU master class tomorrow on the topic of Jewish cemeteries in Moldovan Cultural Heritage, which will take place in Chișinău, Moldova over two days. This event is organised in cooperation with the Center for Ethnology of the Institute of Cultural Heritage, which […]

ESJF continues to find success rolling out its educational programme online. An ESJF teacher training event was originally scheduled to take place in Chișinău on the 13th of March 2020. However, on March 10th, ESJF received word from Julia Sheinman, Director of the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova, informing us that the event […]

The European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative (ESJF) visited the Lomonosov lyceeum in Orhei, Moldova today. Olga Sivak of the Itzik Manger Jewish library gave a guest lecture to the 11th and 12th grades. Students learned about the history of Orhei’s Jewish community (which dates all the way back to the 17th century), its historical events, people, […]

The video clip (in Russian with Romanian subtitles) ESJF’s work surveying 150 Jewish cemetery sites in the Republic of Moldova has been covered in a short documentary by journalist Eugenia Creţu for Radio Free Europe Moldova. The news item, titled “Salvarea de uitare” (“Saving from oblivion”), is part of the series “Pur și simplu” (“Simply”) […]

ESJF surveys in Moldova are progressing well and are on schedule for completion by mid-April. The surveys began on March 25th 2019 with the help of our national coordinators, Irina Shikhova and Julia Seinman, and support from the National Agency for Inspection and Restoration of Monuments as well as the Jewish Community of the Republic […]