JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

could read Russian. After the pogroms of the 1880s, Ḥovevei
Zion societies were founded in Bessarabia as elsewhere, the
most important in Kishinev, led by Abraham *Grunberg and
Meir *Dizengoff. Toward the end of the 1880s and early 1890s,
there was some movement toward pioneer settlement in Ereẓ
Israel (aliyah). Seven delegates from Bessarabia, of whom six
were from Kishinev, took part in the founding meeting of the
Ḥovevei Zion Odessa Committee (April 1890). The Zionists
of Bessarabia were represented at the First Zionist Congress in
1897 by Jacob *Bernstein-Kogan of Kishinev. Toward the close
of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, a line of poets
and authors emerged on the cultural scene in Bessarabia,
many of whom were to play an important role in Yiddish and
Hebrew literature, including Eliezer *Steinbarg, Judah *Steinberg,
S. *Ben-Zion, Jacob *Fichman, Samuel Leib *Blank, and
Ḥayyim *Greenberg. The chief rabbi of Bessarabia, Judah Loeb
*Zirelson, wrote halakhic works.
1918–1941
After the incorporation of Bessarabia into Romania in 1918,
the Jews there automatically received Romanian citizenship,
in accordance with the commitments of Romania under the
Treaty of Paris. However, as a result of the Nationality Law of
1924, many Bessarabian Jews who could not fulfill its requirements
were deprived of Romanian nationality, and defined
as aliens. According to a census taken in 1920, there were
267,000 Jews in Bessarabia. As in the other parts of Romania,
they encountered popular hostility, anti-Jewish measures and
suspicion on the part of the government, and petty administrative
harassment. In 1938, 21,844 Jewish heads of families in
Bessarabia were deprived of Romanian nationality (according
to official statistics). The economic situation of Bessarabian
Jewry also deteriorated. The separation of the region from its
former Russian markets, the drought which struck Bessarabia
three times during this period, the world economic crisis, and
the government’s policy of exploitation, all resulted in a severe
crisis in the agricultural economy. Assistance from abroad
was provided principally by the *American Joint Distribution
Committee and ICA. The savings and credit cooperatives set
up before the war supported by ICA also played an important
role in this period. In 1930 there were 41 savings and loan
banks operating in 39 localities with a membership of 30,202,
i.e., two-thirds of Jewish breadwinners in Bessarabia. Of these
12% were farmers, reflecting the development of Jewish agriculture
in this period. At the time of the agrarian reform in
Bessarabia (1920–23), between 4,000 and 5,000 Jews received
7 to 10 acres of land each – altogether approximately 120,000
acres were cultivated. In Bessarabia agriculture as a Jewish occupation
ranked second after Ereẓ Israel. In 1935 about 3,000
families cultivating a total of approximately 20,000 hectares
were supported by ICA. Two new agricultural settlements
were established with assistance from ICA. Under Romanian
rule, Jewish communal life flourished and leadership revived.
A number of political parties, prominent among them the
Zionist movements, were active, as well as other organizations.
bessarabia
The first conference of Bessarabian Zionists was convened in
1920 in Kishinev, and a central office for the Zionist Organization
of Bessarabia was set up in Kishinev. On the basis of
the minority treaties signed by Romania, a ramified network
of Jewish elementary and secondary schools with instruction
in Yiddish or Hebrew was established in Bessarabia at the
beginning of Romanian rule. In 1922 there were 140 Jewish
schools with 19,746 pupils (105 giving instruction in Hebrew
with 16,456 pupils). A teachers’ seminary was established in
Kishinev. However, by the end of 1922 government policy
changed. Many of the schools were deprived of their Jewish
character and converted into Romanian schools. By 1929–30
there remained 64 Jewish educational institutions in 30 localities
(15 kindergartens, 37 elementary schools, 11 secondary
schools, and one vocational school) with 6,381 pupils and
312 teachers. Social welfare institutions in Bessarabia during
this period included 13 hospitals, a sanatorium for tubercular
patients, societies for assistance to the sick in 25 localities, 13
old-age homes, and four relief institutions for children. From
1923 the *OSE society was also active in Bessarabia where it
maintained stations in eight localities. After the entry of the
Red Army into Bessarabia on June 28, 1940, life for the Jews
of Bessarabia was gradually brought into line with the general
pattern of Jewish existence under the Soviet regime. On June
13, 1941, a comprehensive “purge” was carried out throughout
the region. Thousands of Jews – communal leaders, active
members of the Zionist movement, businessmen, and persons
suspected of disloyalty to the regime – were arrested and deported
to internment camps or exiled to Siberia.
[Eliyahu Feldman]
From 1941
The first Soviet occupation of the area lasted from 1940 until
the beginning of hostilities between Germany and Russia
in June of the following year. Romania was an ally of Germany.
Bessarabia was reconquered by German and Romanian
troops by July 23, 1941, and remained under Romanian
authority until August 1944, when it was reoccupied by the
Russians. Central and northern Bessarabia, as well as a narrow
strip on the west side of the Dniester, became the Moldavian
Soviet Socialist Republic with the capital in Kishinev.
When Bessarabia was reoccupied by the Soviets, only a few
Jews were still alive. The great majority had been massacred
by the Einsatzkommandos of Einsatzgruppe D, and by the
German and Romanian soldiers, while others were deported
to *Transnistria, where more than half of them died. Many of
the deported Jews preferred to slip back into Romania, and
from there to leave for Israel.
For further information on the Holocaust in Bessarabia
and subsequent events, see articles on *Russia and the various
towns. For the period after the breakup of the Soviet Union,
see *Moldova.
[Theodor Lavi]
Bibliography: Die Judenpogrome in Russland, 1 (1910), passim;
2 (1910), 5–37; N. Sharand, A Dritl Yorhundert Yidisher Kooperat-
ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3 497