Botoșani

Jewish community

Jews were present in Botoșani by the early 17th century, when the town's position on trade routes linking Moldavia with Poland, Bukovina and Bessarabia attracted Jewish merchants. The community subsequently grew through immigration from Galicia and Ukraine, becoming one of the largest and most important Jewish communities in Moldavia. In 1745, Moldavian prince John II Mavrocordatos granted the town's merchants, including Jews, the right to own houses, and in 1799 Alexander Ypsilantis granted the Jewish community the status of an autonomous corporation. By 1803, approximately 350 Jewish families were paying taxes in the town.^[6][7]

During the 19th century, Jews became an important part of Botoșani's commercial and artisanal life. A Jewish hospital was established in 1817, while secular Jewish schools for boys and girls opened in 1865 and 1896, respectively. The community also maintained numerous synagogues and prayer houses, charitable organizations and religious schools. By 1899, Botoșani had 16,817 Jewish inhabitants, comprising about 51% of the city's population. In the early 20th century, Jews constituted approximately three-quarters of the city's merchants and more than two-thirds of its registered artisans.^[6]

The community experienced recurrent antisemitism and official discrimination. During the 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt, peasants entered Botoșani and looted Jewish homes, businesses, synagogues and schools; two Jews were killed and more than 1,600 Jewish families were affected.^[7] After World War I, Romanian Jews obtained citizenship rights, and Jews became active in municipal politics. The 1930 census recorded 11,840 Jews among Botoșani's 32,355 inhabitants. Jewish communal life included a hospital, schools, an old people's home, charitable societies and a library, while Zionism had a substantial following in the city.^[6]

Persecution intensified after the establishment of the National Legionary State in 1940. Jewish property was confiscated or looted, Jews were excluded from public schools and professions, and thousands of Jewish men were subjected to forced labour. Approximately 8,000 Jews from Botoșani were assigned to forced labour during the war, about half of them outside the city. In June 1941, Romanian authorities began holding prominent Jews as hostages and threatening reprisals in the event of Soviet attacks or alleged espionage. Jews were also required to wear the yellow star.^[7]

Botoșani became a place of refuge and forced resettlement for Jews expelled from smaller communities in northern Moldavia. Their arrival increased the city's Jewish population to 15,502 by 1942. The local community provided the displaced with accommodation, food and schooling. Romanian authorities deported 148 Jews from Botoșani to the Transnistria Governorate, including people accused of communist activity or other political offences.^[6][7] Unlike the Jewish populations of Bessarabia and Bukovina, however, the majority of Botoșani's Jews were not subjected to mass deportation to Transnistria.

As Soviet forces approached in April 1944, Romanian officials withdrew and deserters and armed groups began looting the city. The Jewish community assumed many municipal and administrative functions, established a civilian guard, maintained the public hospital and old people's home, and registered births and deaths. After Soviet troops entered Botoșani, representatives of the Jewish community formally handed over the city, and Jews were temporarily appointed to public offices in the absence of Romanian officials. The Soviet commander warned the new officials not to turn Botoșani into a "Jewish republic"; this brief episode later became known as the Botoșani Jewish Soviet Republic.^[7][6]

After the war, survivors, evacuees and refugees from Transnistria, Bessarabia and northern Bukovina settled in Botoșani. The Jewish population reached nearly 20,000 in 1945 and was recorded at 19,550 in 1947.^[6][7] Subsequent emigration, principally to Mandatory Palestine and later Israel, led to a rapid decline in the community. Approximately 200 Jews remained in Botoșani in 1990 and 92 in 2003.^[6]

Cultural institutions

• "Ciomac Cantemir House" (historic monument dating from 1800), today the headquarters of the "Ștefan Luchian" foundation ();
• "Nicolae Iorga" Memorial House, situated in one of the houses where great historian Nicolae Iorga passed his childhood. Two sections of the house hold a photo documentary exposition and an exhibition of Iorga's first written editions. Another section holds a regularly updated library of history. The Iorga family's salon boasts an interior dating from the final decades of the 19th century;
• "Octav Onicescu" Memorial Museum, realized in October 1995, houses the furniture that once belonged to the mathematician and philosopher Octav Onicescu. In addition, there are also his manuscripts, writings, diplomas, books from his personal library, family photos, and decorations, offering an intimate portrait of a Romanian polymath;
• County Museum (Ethnographic section), housed in a fine example of late-18th-century architecture that once served as the house of Manolache Iorga, the grandfather of the great historian Nicolae Iorga. Open to the public since 1989, the museum displays the most important elements of the area's rural culture; artifacts of the principal occupations (farming, animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, and beekeeping), traditional crafts (spinning, embroidery, furriery, pottery), traditional costumes, and other customary and traditional crafts specific to the Botoşani region.
• County Museum (Historical and Archaeological section), housed in a historic monument dating from 1913, presents in its 17 rooms the story of Botoșani's evolution from prehistory to the present. Exhibits include the dawn of civilization in the region, from the Paleolithic era, to the Neolithic era (with Cucuteni ceramics), and finishing with the Bronze and Iron Ages. More notable displays include weapons made of sharpened stone and bone, decorated pottery, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, seals belonging to the lords of Moldavia, and historic jewelry. The museum also includes artifacts from the oldest human habitation found in southeastern Europe, discovered in Ripiceni and partially reconstructed and displayed inside the museum.
• "Ștefan Luchian" Art Galleries, the fine-arts section of the County Museum, pays tribute to Botoșani's rich artistic heritage, including the paintings of Ștefan Luchian, Octav Băncilă, and many other contemporary artists; the works of many renowned illustrators, foremost among them Ligia Macovei, the most celebrated illustrator of the poems of Eminescu; the sculptures of Iulia Onila and Dan Covătaru; and the tapestries of Cela Neamţu, Aspazia Burduja, and Ileana Balotă;
• "Mihai Eminescu" National Theatre; the building was opened in 1914, partially destroyed by the bombings of 1944, and restored in 1958 and again in the 1990s. The theatre hosts a team of actors whose remarkable evolution was crowned by their winning of the Grand Prize at the International Theatre Festival in 2001 at Piatra Neamț. The Grand Hall of the theatre also hosts numerous other cultural activities, of which the most notable are the concerts of the Botoșani State Philharmonic.

• "Vasilache" Puppet Theatre; home to a troupe of puppeteers appreciated not only in Romania but also abroad, as evidenced by their win at the International Puppet Festival in Silistra, June 2001. Every two years the theatre organizes the International Gala of Puppet Theatre, which brings to Botoșani the most prestigious names in puppet theatre, from Romania and abroad;
• Botoșani National Philharmonica, who generally perform in a 19th-century neoclassical building known as Vila Ventura, are renowned all over the county, its artists often finding themselves invited on a permanent basis to participate in concerts throughout Romania and abroad. The Philharmonic is the principal organizer of the series of tributes to George Enescu, tributes which benefit each year from the presence of the great personalities of Romanian art and culture;
• "Rapsozii Botoșanilor" Ensemble, a long-standing folkloric orchestra with a history stretching back for decades, presents a multitude of folkloric songs from Moldavia and the rest of Romania under the direction of its renowned leader, Maestro Ioan Cobâlă. The ensemble has long been associated with the greatest names in Moldavian folklore, such as Sofia Vicoveanca, Laura Lavric, and Daniela Condurache, and continues to nurture the next generation of folkloric talent. The artists of the ensemble are recognized nationally and internationally by virtue of their television appearances and their winning of numerous prizes;
• "Mihai Eminescu" County Library, housed in a building known as the "Casa Moscovici," a late-19th-century structure that combines French and German architectural elements in a unique synthesis. The library contains a collection of around 380,000 volumes;
• The Old Centre (The Old Downtown) is the oldest part of the city from an architectural standpoint, bringing together a large number of commercial buildings dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.

A series of historic churches built by the Lords of Moldavia :

• "Uspenia" Church - founded by Elena Rareş, the wife of king Petru Rareș, in 1552; the site of the christening of Mihai Eminescu.
• "Sfântu Gheorghe" Church - founded by Elena Rareş in 1551.
• "Sfântu Nicolae" Church (Popăuți) - founded by Stephen the Great in 1496. The monastery is surrounded by walls, giving the appearance of a small citadel.

Botoșani boasts many other constructions of special architectural value, among them: the Antipa House, from the end of the 19th century; the Bolfosu House, from the beginning of the 19th century; the Silion House, dating from 1900; and the City Hall, built at the end of the 18th century in an eclectic style with German influences.

• Botosánka is a dance of the Csángós.
• National Jewish Theater (Romania)