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Inhabitant’s Occupations in Târgu Frumos Jewish Presence in Târgu Frumos Demographic Evolution of the Jewish Population Occupations of Jewish Population Jewish Synagogues, Social Institutions, Schools Geographical coordinatesThe city of Târgu Frumos is located in northeast Romania (27o10’, 47o17’) and in the northwest of the county of Iasi, 45 km away from the city of Iasi. It lies between Câmpia Moldovei, Podisul Central Moldovenesc and Podisul Sucevei, the three subunits of Podisul Moldovenesc. The relief is 125 m high, with slow slopes and wide agricultural plots. The city is surrounded by hills, except for the eastern side, where there is the plane of the stream of Bahluiet, which traverses the city.
AdministrationTârgu Frumos is an administrative division of the county of Iasi. Its surface area is 2,224 hectares. It is a connection point between the cities of Iasi, Roman, Pascani and Hârlau. During the World War II, the city was about 75% destroyed, so that in 1950 it was “downgraded” to “rural commune”. Only in 1968 Târgu Frumos gets back the city status.
Current populationIts population amounts to 14,300 inhabitants. The active population aged 18-65, counts 10,000 individuals. The working population amounts to 7,700 inhabitants, out of whom 2,000 in agriculture, 3,500 in different economic and administrative sectors, 1,900 in the private business sector, 260 commuters, and the registered unemployed amount to 16% of the active population. The city has 3 schools with 2,300 schoolchildren, schools for the disabled with 850 children, kindergartens with about 600 children.There is no Jew left in the city.
HistoryTârgu Frumos is one of the oldest small cities in this region. On the basis of documents dating back to the time before the reign of prince Stefan cel Mare, the well-known document editor M. Costachescu reaches the conclusion that Târgu Frumos is “a town older than the foundation of [the medieval state] Moldavia” (1359). The historian Nicoale Iorga also stated “it is one of our oldest city settlements”. The archeological vestiges discovered downtown, in the point named “Silistea Târgului”, testify the existence of a urban settlement since the end of the XIV-th and the beginning of the XV-th century, since the reign of the princes (domnitori) Petru I Musat (1375-1391) and Alexandru cel Bun (1400-1431).The first document that mentions it dates from 5 October 1448, when Petru the II-nd, son of prince Alexandru cel Bun, donated to the monastery of St. Nicolae in Probota (Poiana Siretului) some wax from Târgu Frumos. A similar document has been preserved since 1466, speaking about the same donation, for the same monastery, consolidated by Stefan cel Mare (1457-1504), as the prince’s mother, Maria-Oltea, had been buried here. Subsequently, Târgu Frumos is frequently mentioned in documents, successive references being made in 1449, 1450, 1453, 1454 and 1466. From the documents – papers written in chancelleries or foreign travellers’ notes – we can see that the place had a tradition, it was well-coagulated, it had its own seal and benefited by a good organization. By 1834, it was the capital of the area named “Tinutul Cârligatura”. An advantage was also the location of the town, a joint between five regions, a stage on the route of the princely post, on several commercial routes. During the Middle Age, in the town there was a halt princely court and a palace, probably built by prince Vasile Lupu (1634-1653). A few decades later, prince Dimitrie Cantemir mentioned in his book Descrierea Moldovei the fact that at Târgu Frumos there was a “princely house in stone, taken care of by a county administrator”. In 1541, prince Petru Rares (1527-1538, 1541-1546) built here a Princely Church (Biserica Domneasca), having as a patron the “Saint Paraskeva”. Yet, starting with the XVI-th century, the city was much damaged by the Polish’s and the Tartars’ plundering incursions (among which we should mention that of Khan Bet-Gherei in 1512, during which the city was plundered and burnt). Moreover, the main traffic axis moves on Valea Siretului. In the Phanariot times, prince Matei Ghica (1753-1756) offered the domain of Târgu Frumos as a donation the to small monastery named “Schitul lui Tarîta”. The last one started to ask for “bezman” (tax) from the inhabitants in order to rebuild the church of Saint Paraskeva, now in a very bad state. “Bezmanul” affected even more the economic condition of the borough, used by then to benefit by all its incomes. To compensate this, prince Grigore Callimachi (1761-1764, 1767-1769) issues an act, on 3 July 1763, by which he forbids the monks to take the tax and, in order to increase the population of the town, invites there bourgeois from everywhere (“all those who will want from other parts to come to settle in Târgu Frumos, who will be foreigners…”) who would be tax exempted for six months, and would afterwards pay smaller taxes. This is the first repopulation charter we know. It was addressed, above all, to Jews, their presence being thought to bring the development of the local commerce and crafts and by this to contribute to the flourishing of the town. Not all the following princes respected the tax exemption so that, for several decades, the bourgeois deposited to the Princely court grievances concerning their rights. As an answer to such a grievance, prince Scarlat Callimachi (1812-1819) issues, on 5 September 1815, a document that is, we could say, the birth certificate of the modern version of Târgu Frumos. The document solves a great part of the existing disputations, settles the property and the tax regime, establishes a model of city administration, regulates the economic life (especially the markets), imposes to the bourgeois self-administration tasks, etc. Scarlat Callimachi’s document also renews the invitations to the foreigners who wanted to settle down in the town, to the Jews too, but in a more restrictive form: they would be settled on “some backstreets of the town” and would especially contribute to the public works, to the maintenance of bridges, fire extinguishing, etc. The XIX-th century is favourable to Târgu Frumos, who has a slow but consistent development. The city’s administration was made of four reeves (epitropi), accounting with their estate for the function they had. The city had a fire service, a maintenance service for streets, bridges and the market areas. Târgu Frumos was especially famous for its cattle market, visited even by foreign dealers. A sign of city development was the emergence of modern education. The foundation of a school in Târgu Frumos had been projected for 1832, but it was achieved only in 1841. The boy school had, at the time of its beginnings, 29 students and one teacher. At the end of the XIX-th century, the school will move at the location where today is “Ion Neculce” high school (liceu). Starting with 1857, a girl elementary school appears as well. By the World War I, 891 boys and 636 girls graduated elementary school. The most famous of the graduates is the great chemist, professor and ministry of culture and education, Petru Poni (1841-1925). Among the personalities who lived or passed by Târgu Frumos we could mention the chronicler Ion Neculce (1672-1745), the literary critic and novelist Garabet Ibraileanu (1871-1936), the writer Ion Creanga (ordained deacon at Saint Paraskeva Church, in 1859).
Inhabitant's Occupations in Târgu FrumosDetailed information about the professional structure in the city dates only from the beginning of the XX-th century.Romanians were mainly dealing with agriculture, animal husbandry, gardening, haulage, the culture of vineyards and, in a smaller degree, with industry and commerce. At the beginning of the XX-th century, many are attracted by the clerk position. As Neculai Darânga, the author of the only monograph of the city (1916) notices, “many Romanians in the city left the occupations they had and bounced in the clerk functions: regardless of their [little] honourableness or wages…” Few inhabitants owned plots of land around the town, but agriculture was practiced by leasing the land from the very rich House of the hospital “Saint Spiridon” in Iasi, which owned most of the land in the vicinity. Serbs, Bulgarians and Russians had the quasi-monopoly of the vegetables and herbs culture.
Jewish Presence in Târgu FrumosThe first known mentions of the Jews in Târgu Frumos are from the middle of the XVIII-th century. A document from 1755 speaks about “two pubs and a Jewish leased inn (orînda) there in the town”. Other mentions date from 1763-1769. We can notice that the Jews appear in the borough especially after the invitation to foreigners that Prince Grigore Callimachi’s document was making in 1763, as we have mentioned above.A consistent Jewish presence is registered only at the end of the XVIII-th century.
Demographic Evolution of the Jewish PopulationThe census of 1774 registers 15 Jewish families in Târgu Frumos. After half a century, the register (catagrafia) of 1820, made under the rule of prince Mihai Sutu, counted 99 families. The first census made according to the Organic Rule, in 1831, counted 60 Jewish families.At the end of the XIX-th, the census of 1899 registered 832 Jewish inhabitants in Târgu Frumos. In 1912, Târgu Frumos had 4,980 inhabitants, out of which, according to a statistic made in 1913 by the teachers of the Jewish school, over 2,000 were Jews (518 householders, 735 school-age children). As for the rest, besides the Romanians, in town there were also Russians (one hundred families), Gypsies, and a few Turks, Armenians and Germans.
Occupations of Jewish PopulationThe Jews in Târgu Frumos were mainly dealing with crafts and commerce. Historian Moses Schwarzfeld states, citing the documents from the beginning of the XIX-th century, that “the Jews [in Târgu Frumos] played an active role in public life, the bourgeois entrusted them sometimes with missions that proved the esteem and the trust they were enjoying and the inhabitants elected them in the accounting commissions of the town, commissions where anyone, without distinction, was admitted to vote: we could still see them in commissions that had to establish new taxes and they were inquired, like all the other bourgeois, by the [princely] Court envoys, when there was a complaint against local administration”. In a register of the local funds that were raised for self-administration necessities (venitul cutiei), from 1816-1820, we find many Jews receiving money for various services made to the town.In a statistic of the craftsmen (cited by Neculai Darânga) we can notice that, at the beginning of the XX-th century the Jews are well-represented for all occupations: dyers, bakers, furriers and skinners, shoemakers, tailors, stave makers, carpenters, smiths, repairmen, woodworkers, pressmen, braga (a sort of refreshing drink) sellers, brick makers, tinkers, sausage makers, etc.
Jewish Synagogues, Social Institutions, SchoolsIn his book of 1916, Neculai Darânga mentions the existence of five synagogues: the Great Synagogue (built in 1813), the “Craftsmen’s Synagogue” (middle of the XIXth century), “Scoala Vechie” Synagogue”, “Scoala David Leibferber” Synagogue” (1900) and “Izil” Synagogue (about 1860).Each synagogue had a committee made of a number of individuals who were gathering the benevolent donations from the parishioners and were taking care of the rabbi’s sustenance, of the building reparations and maintenance. There were three rabbis and two kosher butchers, paid from the community funds. Besides the synagogues, there was also a poor asylum, also sustained by the community. At the beginning of the XX-th century, in Târgu Frumos there was a mixed Jewish school, functioning in two buildings, having yearly about 200 students. The didactic staff was made of five teachers: three for Romanian language and handicraft, and two for Hebrew and religious matters. The school maintenance and the payment of the teachers were made from funds gathered on the occasion of festivities and from donations, by a committee of 9-11 individuals elected by vote for 2-3 years, as well as from the yearly subvention of the “Ica” society.
Jewish PersonalitiesAmong the Jewish personalities who lived in Târgu Frumos, we mention Avraham Iesaia ben Iaakov and Salom Taubes (1825-1888), two important rabbis.Moreover, in Târgu Frumos was born Bellu Zilber (1901-1978), a famous activist and left intellectual, who, immediately after the installation of the communist regime was tried and condemned in “Patrascanu’s lot”. He was sentenced to life prison, but he was freed in 1964. Afterwards, he writes his memories, a severe analysis of the Romanian communism. These will be published after 1989, under the title of Monarhia de drept dialectic (Bucuresti, “Humanitas” Publishing House, 1991). The information regarding the more recent period is rather poor. According to the interview taken by Laurentiu Ursu on 3 July 2006 to Stefan Fripis (86 years old), in Târgu Frumos there were two attorneys, Weissman and Schosner. There were also several physicians (Tavi and Tober) and pharmacists (doctor Tober’s sister). There was a print shop, owned by Filip Lazarovici. There exists a book signed by Constantin Gheorghiu that was printed in Filip Lazarovici’s print shop on 89 Cuza Voda Street, in 1910. Doctor Tavi made the first local newspaper, “Lumina”. He was a communist, a fact that called the Legionaries’ attention. He committed suicide, under their pressure, it seems. According to the same interview, we have, for the period of the 1930s, several Jewish names in the field of industry and commerce. The Braunsteins were running a perfumery. Sufrim and Schoim owned a pottery. Moise Pincu and Moise Stîngaciu were smiths. Seinfeld and Ghidali were shoemakers. There were quite many Jewish tailors: David, Gutfleisch, Sinlovici. Moreover, the beef butchers were almost all Jews. Târgu Frumos was an important bread manufacture and cereal export center. The “Fortuna” wheat mill, “famous all over the country”, whose director was Mendel Hezer, was owned by a group of Jews. Among the cereal exporters, we should mention Avram Winter, who worked with Germany.
Neamul Evreesc, an II, nr. 15, 1909
Neamul Evreesc, an II, nr. 14, 1909
The Jewish CemeteryThe Jewish Cemetery was initially located in the south area of the city, but after the construction of Iasi-Pascani railway (started on 1 June 1870), the place was expropriated and the cemetery was moved in the west side, where it still lies. In the ‘30s, the Hassidic rabbi from Pascani descended from the train in Târgu Frumos and continued his way in car, in order not to cross over the cemetery.The cemetery is now belonging to the Jewish Community and it lies on a surface area of 500mX800m (in the interwar period it was almost equally wide). There are about 5,000 tombstones. The oldest one is from 1818 and the last funerals we are aware of took place on 18 July 1977 (Ilie Saim). The tombs are made of different materials, such as marble, granite, freestone, brownstone. Some of them have careful polishes, graphic elements, portrays and/or metal fences around. The inscriptions are made in Hebrew, Yiddish and Romanian. About three quarters of the tombstones are dislocated, fallen or broken. The cemetery has never been vandalized. There is no permanent caretaker. A Christian family living nearby periodically takes care of the cemetery, receiving back from the Jewish Community of Iasi a part of the free land, for cultivation. In the Jewish cemetery of Târgu Frumos are buried about 20 local personalities, among which we mention tabbies Tvi ben Iehuda (d. 1847) and Salon Taubes (d. 1888).
The Mass GraveIn the cemetery there is a huge common grave (25 m long, 2.5 m broad and 2.5 m deep), made after the pogrom of Iasi and the unloading of bodies from the first „death train”, the one going to Calarasi. Near the common grave there is a commemorative monument, built in the communist period, with an inscription in Hebrew and Romanian: “To the 640 Jews buried here, victims of the fascist barbarism, killed in the ‘death train’ on 29-30 June and 1 July 1941. Let us not forget the Fascism’s crimes! ”.There is no consensus between the historians as for the number of dead people in the common grave. The historian Radu Ioanid concluded that they were 650, while historian Jean Ancel thinks that the number of Jews in the first “death train” was much bigger than initially thought and, consequently, the number of dead people buried at Târgu Frumos is bigger than the one usually acknowledged. In his volume (Preludiu la asasinat. Pogromul de la Iasi, 29 iunie 1941), Ancel states that 1,258 victims of the “death train” were buried at Târgu Frumos.
Bibliography***, Marele dictionar geografic al României, Bucuresti, 1900Jean Ancel, Preludiu la asasinat. Pogromul de la Iasi, 29 iunie 1941, Iasi, Editura Polirom, 2005 Lya Benjamin ed., Evreii din România în texte istoriografice. Antologie, Bucuresti, Editura Hasefer, 2004 Neculai Darânga, Monografia comunei Târgu Frumos, Iasi, 1916 I. M. Dinescu, Fiii neamului de la 1859-1915. Statistica sociala pe întelesul tuturora, Iasi, 1920 Carol Iancu, Evreii din România (1866-1919) de la excludere la emancipare, Bucuresti, Editura Hasefer, 1996 Radu Ioanid, Holocaustul în România. Distrugerea evreilor si romilor sub regimul Antonescu 1940-1944, Bucuresti, Editura Hasefer, 2006 Ecaterina Negruti, Structura demografica a oraselor si tîrgurilor din Moldova 1800-1859, Iasi, Fundatia Academica “A. D. Xenopol”, 1997 Adrian Radu-Cernea, Pogromul de la Iasi. Depozitie de martor, Bucuresti, Editura Hasefer, 2002 E. Schwarzfeld, Din istoria evreilor. Împopularea, reîmpopularea si întemeierea tîrgurilor si a tîrgusoarelor în Moldova, Bucuresti, 1914 Dumitru Vitcu, Dumitru Ivanescu, Catalin Turliuc, Modernizare si constructie în România. Rolul factorului alogen 1832-1918, Iasi, Editura Junimea, 2002 # see also : www.primariaorastgfrumos.ro www.jewishgen.org www.ionneculce.licee.edu.ro
The art of Targu Frumos
 
 
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