Name of synagogue: SINAGOGA MARE (HOIHE SHIL, GREAT SYNAGOGUE)
Street address: 1 MARCHIAN (formerly 18 MUZICANȚI) ST.
City and postcode BOTOȘANI
Website of Jewish community or synagogue (if available) –N/A
Website of Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania: www.jewishfed.ro
Contacts
Contact at Jewish community: (president) DAVID IOSEF
Street address of Jewish community: 54, 1 DECEMBRIE ST.
Telephone number 0231.514.659 and email: ce.botosani@gmail.com
Street address of Jewish cemetery:
(1) 194 M. Eminescu St. (new)
(2) 25 Independentei St. (old)
Condition of the cemetery: Good
Synagogue facts (as we know them)
When was it built: 1834
Year(s) when it was remodeled or expanded: unknown to us
Name of architect(s): unknown to us
Other synagogues that this architect built N/A
Is it known who designed the brass candelabras etc? N/A
Is it known who was the artist who painted on the walls? – N/A
How would you describe the condition? Very good (recently repaired)
Statistics
How many Jews lived in this city before the Holocaust?
1930:11,840 Jews (out of a total population of 32,355)
What was its peak year of Jewish population? 16,817 (51% of the total population of the city in 1899)
How many synagogues were in the city then? In 1936 - 54 synagogues, in 1951 - 38 synagogues.
How many now? 2
Are the others used as synagogues? No.
If not, what are they used for? Mechanical workshop
Their addresses, if known. Synagogue (XVIII-XIX century), 18 Vornic Boldur (formerly Dimitrov) St., Botoșani, coordinates (longitude/latitude): 26.66486189/ 47.74319538
Holocaust related
Fate of the Jews of this city during the Holocaust
After 1941, Jewish men were sent to hard labor detachments in Moldova and Besserabia. A total of 148 people from the town were deported to Transnistria.
How many were murdered? (unknown at this point. Still researching).
How many were living in the city from 1945 – 1948? In 1945, the Jewish population of Botoşani was nearly 20,000. However, massive immigration first to Palestine and then to Israel in 1956 reduced the numbers by half.
How many emigrated? The vast majority.
How many live there today? In 1990 there were still approximately 200 Jews living in Botoşani, but by 2003 these number had fallen to 92. Still fewer today (2016).
What are the social services for Jews in the city, if any? N/A
Sources:
Congresul Mondial Evreesc. Secțiunea din România, Populația Evreească in cifre. Memento statistic (Bucharest, 1945): 26, 44
FCER, Memoria cimitirelor evreiești (Bucharest, 2007): 39
Arh. Aristide Streja, Arh. Lucian Schwartz, Sinagogi din Romania, Bucuresti, Hasefer, 1996, p. 98
http://lacasedecult.cimec.ro/RO/Documente/asp/detaliu.asp?k=32778-1
http://www.jewish-romania.ro/monumente.php
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Botosani
The Romanian Synagogue Documentation Project
Underwritten by the David Berg Foundation
Grant recipient: Centropa, Vienna, Edward Serotta, Director,
Organizing Partner: The Center for Hebrew Studies and the Goldstein Goren
Center for Israel Studies, University of Bucharest, Felicia Waldman, Coordinator
Researcher: Anca Tudorancea, Center for the Study of the History of Romanian Jews
Photography: Daniel Gruenfeld, Oliver Beck Assistant
Web coordinator: Dragos Parasca