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

www.jewishfed.ro

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