JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

of the Jews were Sadgora ḥasidim or belonged to Chabad.
Several leaders of the community were killed by Greek revolutionaries
in 1821, because the Jews were unable to pay them
the money they demanded. The community numbered 1,500
in 1803, 5,767 in 1859 (63.5% of the total), 5.499 in 1899, 4,751
in 1910 and 4,216 in 1930 (36.6%). Up to World War I the majority
of the Jews in Falticeni were occupied in crafts, and the
rest in commerce. Jewish traders held an annual fair there. The
community had a hospital, an old age home, 11 synagogues,
a talmud torah and two schools (for boys and girls). Among
the rabbis were Joshua Falik (1835–1915), author of Torah studies;
Aryeh Leib Rosen (d. 1950), author of responsa published
in Eitan Aryeh; and Alter Dorf. The Jewish scholar Solomon
Zalman *Schechter also lived in Falticeni, where he studied
Torah. Other prominent figures were the Hebrew writer Mattitiyahu
Simḥah Rabener, director of the Israelite-Romanian
school (in the 1860s and 1870s); the traveler Israel Joseph Benjamin
(*Benjamin II); the painter Rubin Zelicovici (Reuven
*Rubin; later emigrated to Israel); the mathematician David
Rimer (later emigrated to Israel); and the journalist Ḥayyim
Rimer, former director of the Jewish periodical of Romania
Revista Cultului Mozaic (1980–94) At the end of the 19th and
beginning of the 20th centuries a Zionist organization led by
Shulem Mayer was active. After World War I, when Bukovina
was incorporated within Romania, Falticeni ceased to be
a border town and the economic situation of the Jews deteriorated.
In the 1930s members of the antisemitic parties organized
the looting of Jewish shops and forcibly prevented Jews
from attending the annual fair.
Holocaust Period
There were 4,020 Jews living in Falticeni in 1941, about
one-third of the total population. Under the Fascist regime
(September 1940–January 1941) a “Green House” was set up
in the center of town, where Jewish merchants were brought
and tortured until they agreed to pay for their release. On
the eve of war with the Soviet Union (June 1941), a German
headquarters was set up in the town and the synagogues were
expropriated to be used as military barracks. All male Jews
were concentrated in camps, from which 1,000 were sent on
to Bessarabia for forced labor; those wealthy enough were able
to ransom themselves. More Jews were sent on forced labor
far from their homes, where a number perished in the harsh
conditions. Falticeni was evacuated in the spring of 1944, at
the approach of the Soviet Army. The Jews took refuge in
Suceava and Botosani and returned six months later to find
their houses stripped of all their possessions. By the time the
other inhabitants had returned, the Jews had succeeded in
restoring public services both in the town itself and throughout
the district.
The Jewish population numbered 4,700 in 1947, but decreased
to 3,000 in 1950. In 1944–48 a Jewish secondary school
functioned. In 1969 there were about 150 families with one
synagogue. In 1994, 51 Jews lived in Falticeni. In Israel there
is an organization of Jews from Falticeni.
familiants laws
Bibliography: A. Gorovei, Folticeni (1938); PK Romanyah,
188–92; E. Schwarzfeld, in: Egalitatea, 22 (1911), 162–3, 170–1, 178–9,
186–7, 194–5; idem, Împopularea, reîmpopularea şi întemeierea tîrgurilor
şi tîrguşoarelor din Moldova (1914), 24–26; M. Schwarzfeld, in:
Analele Societăţii Istorice Iuliu Barasch, 2, pt. 1 (1888), 65, 73; W. Filderman,
in: Sliha, 1 no. 3(1956), 3; 1 no. 4 (1956), 3. Add. Bibliography:
O. Bacalu, D. Rimer, and N. Vaintraub (eds.), Fălticeni (1995).
[Theodor Lavi / Lucian-Zeev Herscovici (2nd ed.)]
FALUDY, GYÖRGY (1913–2006), Hungarian poet and author;
born in Budapest. He translated François Villon’s poetry
into Hungarian (Villon balladái, 1937). In 1939 Faludy fled to
France and eventually settled in the United States, where he
volunteered for service in the U.S. Army. He returned to Hungary
in 1946 and devoted himself to writing and journalism.
Five years later he was arrested on a political charge, and was
released from prison in 1953. Faludy then joined the editorial
board of the literary journal Irodalmi Ujság. It was in this paper
that in 1956 he published a poem about his experiences
in prison. At the time, the publication of the poem was regarded
as an indication of the liberalization of the regime.
Almost immediately, however, the failure of the revolution
forced him to flee the country once again. This time he went
to England, where he resumed publication of Irodalmi Ujság.
Faludy’s works include A pompéji strázsán (“On the Guard at
Pompei,” 1938); Európai költők antológiája (“An Anthology of
European Poets,” 1938); and the prose works Tragoedie eines
Volkes (1958) and Emlékkönyv a rót Bizáncról (“Memories of
Red Byzantium,” 1961). In 1962 he published his autobiography,
My Happy Days in Hell, in English. Faludy’s works in Hungarian
were burned by the Nazis and in later years confiscated
by the Communists.
Bibliography: Magvar Irodalmi Lexikon, 1 (1963), 327.
[Baruch Yaron]
FAMILIANTS LAWS (Familiantengesetze; Heb. Gezerat ha-
Sheniyyot in allusion to Yev. 2:4 (20a)), legislation regulating
the number of Jews in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia entitled
to found families. The laws were introduced by *Charles VI
in 1726–27 to curtail the number of the Jewish population.
The number of families fixed was 8,451 for Bohemia, 5,106
for Moravia, and 119 for Silesia. The laws were expressly confirmed,
with certain modifications (see below), by Joseph II
in his Toleranzpatent of 1781. The structure of the Familiants
system was basically the same for all three regions. In Bohemia
the apportionment of the number of families was allotted
to the Kreis (district) authorities, while in Moravia the
communities themselves, which were more compact and exercised
a relatively strong autonomy, had more influence in
the apportionment. The regulations remained, with some alleviations,
in force until 1848. According to this system no Jew
could marry and found a family unless he possessed one of
the “family numbers” (Familiennummern). This could only be
transferred to the eldest son (at the age of 24) after the death
of the Familiant. A younger son (but not a daughter) could in-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6 689