    |
|
 |
|
       |
|
Demographic evolution and business activities Political, cultural and sports associations World War II and the massive post-1948 emigration Community beginningsLittle historical data is available on the Jewish presence in Harlau before the 18th century. A certain doctor Shmil of Harlau is said to have treated Stephen the Great (1457-1504) of gout at his court in Suceava. A report of April 13, 1562 sent to Maximilian of Habsburg by his imperial agent Belsius, which spoke about the tolerance policy promoted by the Moldovan ruler Ion Despot (1561-1563), mentioned a Jewish presence in the locality. Rulers Stephen Tomsa in 1612 and Gheorghe Ghica in 1658 invited the Polish, Armenian and Jewish merchants of Lemberg to settle in Moldova, in an attempt to boost local commerce. This open policy continued: the most insistent invitations came from Grigore Ghica, in 1736 and 1737, and Constantin Mavrocordat in 1742 respectively. The newcomers, particularly Jews, repopulated old boroughs or set up new ones, usually under special agreements with the local boyars. Such agreements were confirmed by royal deeds, which provided for certain privileges: Jews were given land for the synagogue, cemetery, and ritual bath (mikve) and a tax reduction for the first years.Jewish immigrants thus settled in Harlau particularly during the second half of the 18th century and early 19th century. A tax exemption deed granted by ruler Grigore Callimachi (1767-1769) to Marcovici Hetzel, for the opening of a glass factory and a paper mill, which was signed on March 30, 1768 in Jassy, stipulated: “This deed is hereby granted by His Highness Prince Grigorii Ioan Callimah to Marcu, Jew of Harlau, who has pledged to open on his own account two facilities: a glass factory and a paper mill. Three Jews will administer the factories and they shall not be disturbed. The sixty foreigners who will work in the factories shall be exempt from income and state taxes. And for their merchandise they shall give the royal court one out of every twenty bottles and one of every twenty pieces of paper; but they shall not pay any custom taxes. However, foreign merchants willing to buy from them and take the merchandise across the border shall pay the regular custom tax. The Jews may also build a wine cellar and a windmill for their own needs, which will be exempt from taxes”. In 1768, the Jews of Harlau, who by 1751 were organized in a guild, and by 1834 in a community, obtained permission to build a prayer house and a ritual bath. Ruler Alexandru Ioan Mavrocordat issued a new act in 1786 in relation to the glass factory, granting new privileges both to the new owner Shaber and the workers, among who there was a Jew called Boroh. In the ruler’s words: “the said Shaber has shown to me that the raw materials needed for glass processing are being brought from Poland by a Jew called Boroh, who resides in Harlau, and requested that he be exempted from income and other taxes. Thus, since this Jew is so useful to the works of this factory, we decide to include him in the number of 100 subjects whom I exempt from all taxes”.
Demographic evolution and business activitiesThe number of Jews doubled during the 19th century: 300 in 1803, 525 in 1820, 1,389 in 1859, 2,254 in 1886 (56.6%) and 2,718 in 1899 (59%). We have evidence that in 1870 eight of the community notables joined the Alliance Israelite Universelle, the international Jewish organization headquartered in Paris and aimed at providing relief to Jews who were victims of persecutions: Moise Borstein, Haim Charas, Edelstein, Ginsberg, Haskal Merdler, Mendel Neulicht, Wolf sin Iehuda and A. Zuckerman). In 1915 we find the same number of members: J. M. Barasch, S. Balush, I. Cutin, S. Feuer, A. Lobel, I. Rosen, S. Rosen, Osias Segal.The immigration wave at the turn of the 19th century, with its most famous aspect, the “fusgeier” (pedestrian emigrants driven by poverty), caused mainly by the economic crisis, was followed by a demographic decrease: 2,032 Jews in 1930 (22.3%) and 1,717 in 1941 (45%). Jews played an important economic role in the traditional fields of commerce and crafts. A 1910 statistics mentions 233 merchants, 87 tailors, 49 boot-makers, 17 blacksmiths, 9 carpenters and 191 “various” craftsmen. At the end of the 19th century Idel Breazu set up the first printing house of the town, which published, in 1897, physician Grigore Ciolac’s study “The asphyxiated brought back to life by laryngo-tracheotomy”. After World War I a cooperative bank was established with the help of the American Jewish organization “Joint Distribution Committee”, to assist the small merchants and craftsmen. As a result, most of the stores in Harlau – from the tiny booths to the important ones on the Large Street – belonged to the Jews. Here are a few examples: the Moritz Gâtlan & Noe Schonfeld textile store, the Mendel Landau grocery store (he was Michael Landau’s father), the Zeilic Bumbacaru textile and cotton store. The same was valid for most enterprises: the “Yellow Corner” restaurant (owned by Avram Segal), the “Caldararu” hotel, the “Iancovici” coffee shop, the “Zeilingher” cinema (the only cinema in town, which also served as a theatre hall for the Yiddish shows coming to Harlau), the “Strul Breazu” bookshop, the “Globus” printing house and bookshop (owned by Sami Sielberstein) which published, in 1937, a book called “The Educator’s Duties” by Vasile M. Lisman (1896-1994), teacher and former mayor, the “Zaharia” watermill (owned by Leiba F. Iticescu), the Jean Weisenfeld bookshop, the Moise Cohn (Tepper) & Azriel Tepper Bros pot factory, the Faibis soda and lemonade factory, the “Red-haired Ita” (Ita di Roita in Yiddish) inn and bistro, owned by Doctor Leon Halpern’s grandmother, the Srul Cuten inn and bistro, the Nuham Cuten (Srul’s son) bank, the Iancu Halpern bakery, the Jean Goldstein pharmacy (taken over from a former German owner, Victor Rhein), the Solomon Fain glass factory (his father, Herscu Fain, was an en gross merchant, trading fish from the neighboring ponds), the David Herscovici tannery, etc. Among the numerous crafts workshops there were: the Levi der Anbinder book binding shop (grandfather of Professor Reuven Feuerstein, laureate of the Israel Prize), the Ramascanu carpentry, the Idel Cohn tailor shop, the Saie Leibovici tailor shop, the Craiu boot-making shop, etc.
Religious lifeThe Great Synagogue, one of the most important in Moldova, still standing today, was erected in 1812-1814, and restored in 1880. Its marvelous mural paintings were drawn in 1924 by artist Sloime Mendel. Among the first rabbis of Harlau were Haim Itzhac Aizikson (1780?-1852) and his son Israel Aizikson, who was a partisan of the pre-Zionist ideas promoted by the Hovevei Tzion movement, and traveled to Paris to convince Baron Rothschild to help a small group of Jews from the Botosani and Dorohoi counties, who wanted to settle in Eretz Israel.Between the two world wars the Jewish community owned seven synagogues, among which: the Great Synagogue (“Der Groiser shil”), the Synagogue on Stephen the Great Street, Rabbi Haim Itzic’s synagogue, the Craftsmen’s Synagogue (“Di Schnaderische shil”), the “Hunter’s” Synagogue. It also had other religious institutions: the Talmud Torah schools, where children were taught Hebrew and religion, Hevra Kadisha, the sacred society for burials, an azyme factory (producing matza, the special unleavened bread that is eaten on Passover), a ritual bath (mikva), a poultry slaughterhouse, etc. The community was served, among others, by rabbis Menahem Mendel Rabinovici (1916-1944) (his father, Meir Rabinovici, and grandfather, Iosef Rabinovici, were also rabbis in Harlau), Bentzin, who was also the chazzan of the Great Synagogue, and Srul Israelovici, son of Rabbi Haim Itzic. The community also benefited from the services of chachams Herscu Fruchtman, Srul Haim Moscovici, Iancu Wiesenfeld, Avram Gonik and Avram Iosel, of chazzans Moscovici and Reicher (who was also a teacher of Hebrew), of melamed Glück, who headed a Talmud Torah school on the Salishte Street and served as shamash at the Great Synagogue at the same time, etc. There are two Jewish cemeteries in Harlau today: the old one in the Bojica neighborhood, which counted 965 graves when it was closed at the end of the 19th century, following the opening of the second one, “Eternity”. The oldest epitaph in the old cemetery of Bojica dates from December 1785: “Here lies a woman, Mrs. Feighe, daughter of Rabbi Betaol Baruh, our great light, our teacher, deceased on 12 Svat 5536 according to the Jewish calendar”. An original aspect of Jewish religious life in Harlau was the yearly visit of the famous Rabbi Avraham Matatiahu Friedman (1848-1933) of Stefanesti, which the late Michael Landau describes as follows: “It was in winter, during the Hanuka days, that Rabbi Friedman – offspring of the Rijin dynasty, an aristocratic figure, imposing through his personality, admired and loved by everyone – would pay his annual visit to Harlau. Men and children would go out on the Botosani road to welcome him, carrying water buckets and awaiting the convoy; when the coach led by four horses approached, they would throw water on the road, to avoid the dust raised by the coaches, carts and young riders. Local people in carts or on foot would join the convoy; every single soul impatiently awaited the arrival of the rabbi and the guests who accompanied him. Across the road, near the market square, stood the house of Harlau’s richest inhabitant, Israel Cuten, who used to offer an entire wing of his home for the accommodation of the rabbi and his companions. The town’s Jews, along with those coming from the surrounding localities, would gather there, awaiting the rabbi’s blessing and perhaps even a miracle! Local “boyars” (notables) would also come to get the rabbi’s blessing. They all acted respectfully and humbly. The rabbi remained in town from Thursday afternoon until the following Thursday morning, when he would leave on his usual visit to Jassy. His venerated father rested in a grave in the old Jewish cemetery of Jassy, and the commemoration of his death fell on the last day of Hanuka. The rabbi of Stefanesti, Avraham Matatiahu Friedman, of blessed memory, did not have children, so he adopted his nephew to ensure the continuity of the rabbinic dynasty. But times changed and the rabbinic court’s repute did not continue for long… The borough would boil for the entire week. Some were seen by the rabbi, others awaited their turn; the rabbi was severe to one of the visitors, but received another with a blessing, or a comforting word. His devotees praised the rabbi for his wisdom; his enemies would not dare speak against the effectiveness of his blessings. During that week, harmony reigned over the Jewish families, and a tacit armistice operated between the various camps: along the rabbi’s stay in Harlau, he protected and helped us all, equally. Besides the phone at the Post Office, there was only one other phone in the whole town: Israel Cuten’s, who needed it to call the rabbi of Stefanesti each morning and tell him: ‘Good morning, rabbi’, thus getting his awaited blessing”.
The Israelite-Romanian schoolBefore end 19th century there was no organized Jewish education in Harlau. Certain people versed in the field of religion delivered courses to groups of children, who learnt Hebrew, Bible and ritual prayers. The material conditions, in which this kind of education was provided, often in improper locations, also known as confessional asylums, were very poor. In 1897, sixteen years after the erection of the “Stephen the Great” primary boys’ school in the St. Dumitru Church’s courtyard, the community opened its own first primary school. But lack of funds and a decent building, plus a controversy, led to its closure only two years later. The community leadership then decided to build the first Israelite-Romanian school. A document I found in Paris, in the Alliance Israelite Universelle archives, informs us about the conditions in which this decision was made. The document is a letter sent by the trusteeship of the Israelite community of Harlau on December 17, 1902, to the President of the Alliance Israelite Universelle. The letter’s signatories, President S. Balus and Secretary Ignatz Kästenbaum, requested a subvention for the completion of the school’s new building. This is the letter’s content:Mr. President, We believe you are fully aware of the precarious condition of the Jews in our country: no means of living, no school access for their children, due to the high school taxes but also the disdain our kids are regarded with, in contrast to the Christian children, despite our blood and tax contribution. This situation, which resulted in about 320 Jewish boys wandering on our town’s streets, highly susceptible to become vagrants, gave us the idea to build an Israelite-Romanian primary school for boys, which we immediately proceeded to do. The building has been erected up to the roof. But as we still need money to finalize the edifice and turn it functional, and since our resources are insufficient, we have decided to organize a philanthropic ball, and use the outcome to achieve our objective. Consequently, we appeal to the generosity and noble sentiments that animate you when it comes to cultural works, to help us with a donation. To this end, we are proud to send you an invitation to this ball. Hoping our request shall be regarded favorably once again, especially now that the education of our children is at stake, please receive our gratitude and highest consideration”. It is not surprising that such a request was addressed to the Central Committee of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris, since that year 33 Jews of Harlau were members of the organization. Unfortunately I have not been able to trace the A.I.U. reply, but it is safe to assume its reaction was positive. With the help of other donors, including the Jewish Colonization Association (I.C.A.) and Baroness Clara Hirsch of Vienna, the school was able to open its gates two years later. This is how the school is presented in the monograph of Harlau written by the late teacher Vasile Lisman: “The school was opened in 1904, as a donation of Baroness Clara Hirsch of Vienna. It was bound to use the entire range of school registries, records, rolls, matriculations and imprints, like any of the state primary schools. Each class and teacher was unfailingly inspected at least once a year, by the instruction and control bodies of the Private Education Directorate of the Ministry of Education. The findings on the manner in which the training and education process was being carried out were recorded in the inspection registry”. In 1904, almost 400 students were attending the school, boys and girls. The school, soon named “Cultura”, developed rapidly and turned into a spiritual center for the youth, and the community members in general. Even the meetings of the Zionist movement were organized here, as Michael Landau mentions in his memoirs book. Moreover, in 1922-1923 the famous Zionist leader Sami Stern (Shmuel Kohavi), Doctor in Law from the University of Roma, author of a thesis entitled “The Nationalities’ Principle and the Jews”, was appointed as the school’s Principal. Mention should also be made here of the fact that the beautiful Israelite-Romanian school possessed the only big hall in town, which explains why it was here that the various Yiddish theatre companies coming from Jassy, Bucharest or even Poland, as well as the “Vasile Alecsandri” national theatre of Jassy, used to perform their shows. Today, a kindergarten and the annexes of the “Stephen the Great” High-school stand on the location of the former Israelite-Romanian school.
Political, cultural and sports associationsThe Jews of Harlau were active participants in Jewish politics, in the Union of Romanian Jews, or in the Zionist parties and associations represented in the town, but also in the local and national Romanian political life. In 1930, seven Jews were members of the municipal council (four representing the party in office, two the opposition and one the merchants’ association). Cultural activities were organized by numerous organizations: “The Cultural Association of the Jewish Youth” set up by Burah Aron, Lupu Pantofaru and Marcel Marcovici) (which had a library of 2,000 volumes), the “Progress” Cultural Association of the young Jewish craftsmen, the Ronetti Roman cultural circle (set up in 1933), the Cultural Association of Jewish Women (ACFE), which organized conferences, public lectures, literary events, dancing evenings and theatre shows, etc.We should also recall here the sports associations, particularly the Macabi football team whose members and supporters were recruited from among the notables and merchants, and the Haghibor football team, created by Itic Iancu (Hertzenberg), who was also its captain, and whose players and supporters came from among the craftsmen.
The Zionist movementFollowing the first congress in Basel (1897), the Zionist ideas materialized in Harlau in an association led by Dr. Leon Abeles and Adolf Mihailescu, the “Bnot Zion Dr. I. Niemirower” young ladies’ circle and the “Zionist Youth” circle. The young people met each Saturday afternoon on the premises of the Israelite school, where they sang Hebrew or Yiddish songs, organized book presentations, recited poems. The adults organized fund raising campaigns, and donations to the Jewish National Fund. After Theodor Herzl’s death in 1904, the Hebrew date of his disappearance (20 Tamuz), was systematically commemorated in the Great Synagogue. Under Jessica Abeles’ presidency, the Zionist section of the “Bnot Zion Dr. I. Niemirower” organization pursued an intensive cultural activity, holding meetings every Saturday and collecting aid for the benefit of the Jewish National Fund. In December 1918, it organized a performance of the play “On the Road”, which resulted in a profit of Lei 700. The amount was given as relief for the Jews in Palestine. During the Hanuka feast of that year, an artistic-literary festival was held, which included the very successful performance of the play “A Hanuka Evening”. An interesting testimony on the Zionist movement in Harlau after World War I can be found in a bimonthly review published in Jassy under the title “Regards from Zion”. In issue no.9-10 of Nisan-Iiar 5680 (May 1920), Haim Wisenfeld published, under the penname Ben Silo, a correspondence of which we quote: “The Zionist movement of the townlet is in excellent shape. All Zionist circles have united in one strong organization, in compliance with the latest Zionist conference’s instructions… Thus, the moral and material progress is remarkable. There are three commissions: a financial, an organizational and a cultural one. Each of them does its best to fulfill its duty. In Beit Haam, the Zionists’ meeting place, there is a lecture hall and a secretariat designed to deal with the local Jews’ problems. It is from this corner that the Jewish intellectuals are preaching to the masses, informing them of what is going on in the Jewish world. This Zionist organization is led by Dr. Leon Abeles, the president of the Jewish community. His activity and personality cannot be described in brief: he, his wife and his children are all sacrificing for the local Zionist movement. His devotion has turned his home into a Zionist center, where the youth comes to get encouragement for their aspirations. We are always ready, under the leadership of Messrs. M. Lachs, Michael Landau, Noach Seinfeld, Herman Feler, Ben Iehuda and others, who all act together. Twice a week, or at least once, we gather in the evenings at Beit Haam. People take courses in history, Hebrew and Yiddish literature, recite Yiddish poems and popularize verses on music. Zionism has strengthened and has become very popular ever since the public met with the spirit of the Hebrew language and literature. Jewish music has been more often sung since the two young teachers of Hebrew, M. Stern and Bograd, came to Harlau from Bessarabia. These two educators have taught the population of Harlau a lesson on how Hebrew literature and authors should be appreciated. No less important is the contribution of M. Lachs and Michael Landau, who play a paramount role in local life. The former though his oral talent: he has raised awareness on the importance of Yiddish literature through his weekly lectures on various writers and their works. The latter through his dedication to Zionism: on Sunday, April 4, 1920, he spoke about general Jewish politics and on April 10 about Herzl, Wolfsohn and Tchlenov. As for M. Lachs’ activity, we cannot establish its exact length, but we would like to have more such cultivated people. We assume their progress is continual and we hope they will bring much use to the Jewish people. The townlet of Harlau is imbued with Zionism and sacrifices a lot for other “daily interests”. The pogroms in the Ukraine have led to a rebirth of Jewish brotherly consciousness. On Monday, the Passover day, a big crowd gathered in the Great Synagogue. Messrs. M. Lachs and Michael Landau vividly depicted the situation. So far, Harlau has sent Lei 20,000 as relief to the victims. On the last day of Passover, it was Iacob Leib Wisenfeld-Shilo’s turn to speak. In moving words he reached the conclusion that Jews should unite their forces in support of Zionism”.In 1922, 23 families stood out for their special contribution to the reconstruction of Jewish Palestine, through the acquisition of shekalim. This is their alphabetical list: ABELES Leon, Dr. BALUS Sana BELIS Nicu BARASCH J. M. BLUMENFELD Isac BUTNARU Luzer CANER Alter CLINGHER Mishu CRUPARU Natan CUTEN Nathan DAVID Iosef GATLAN Marcel HALPERN Iancu HERSCOVICI David HERSCOVICI Shmil HOROWITZ Froim LIZOROVICI Josef (of Macsut, a village near Harlau) LOSNER Iosef ROSEN Isac SEGAL Osias SPODHEIM Rubin (of Deleni, a village near Harlau) WEISS Max In 1924 (5684), the “Zionist” organization of Harlau managed to collect and send to the Central Office in Bucharest the amount of Lei 6,800 (of which Lei 800 through the Jewish National Fund). In May 1925, Harlau was visited by a delegation from the capital headed by Dr. Haim Brezis, Director of the Romanian Zionist Organization, within the reorganization campaign of the local Zionist movement. After this visit, on July 13, 1925, Dr. Abeles informed the Zionist leadership in Bucharest that an amount of Lei 8,600, the worth of 215 distributed shekalim, had been collected in the townlet throughout the current year (5685). On July 12, Herzl’s death anniversary was very solemnly commemorated at the “Culture” school. Speeches were given by the rabbi, Dr. Abeles, engineer Braunstein, the school’s principal, educator Iticovici, Herman Poplicher and Herman Feller. In a letter of March 31, 1926, Dr. Leon Abeles proposed to the Zionist Central Committee that Marcel Gatlan be put in charge with the shekel distribution, the organization of the Zionist personalities’ visits and the development of the Zionist movement. “Mr. Gatlan, underlined Dr. Abeles, is a convinced Zionist, intelligent and active, who now, having resigned from the position of community president, can devote his entire spare time to the Zionist movement. This is not to say I am no longer interested in the movement, but that I hope we shall find in Mr. Gatlan a valuable collaborator, who shall carry out the reorganization campaign. In fact, for the preparation of a favorable atmosphere the visit is necessary of a good propagandist from the Central office on a Saturday soon. This could be immediately followed by the registration campaign in the Zionist Organization. We await appeals and propaganda material for 500 Jewish families. Zionist regards”. The Zionist section was thus reorganized, and at the end of 1926, with the assistance of Dr. Abeles, Gatlan, Feller and Cruparu, it managed to collect the amount of Lei 10,950 for two Zionist funds: Keren Hayesod and Mas Hahistadrut. The mutual collection was known as the “shekel-mas action”. In 1927, the local Zionist organization sent three delegates (Agatha Stern and lawyers Herman Feller and S. Koifman) to a Congress in Bacau, in 1928 it was visited again by Dr. Haim Brezis of Bucharest, and in 1929 it offered a Lei 1,000 subvention for the organization of summer courses for the teachers of Hebrew. The Zionist activities, which continued until the outbreak of World War II, also included providing assistance to the two Halutz education centers – the farm in Jassy and the Massada farm in Bessarabia – which trained Halutz students in agriculture, gardening, dairy and other, related, trades, both theoretically and practically. Several Halutz contingents, including a few young people from Harlau, managed to integrate in Eretz Israel, giving the Zionist Organization and Romanian Jewry in general good reason for national pride. In 1930, the Executive of the Romanian Zionist Organization agreed with the owner of the Palestinian film “The land that laughs and works”, which depicted the life of the Halutz pioneers in Eretz Israel, A. Rindman, that the movie be shown in all Jewish centers of the country under the aegis of the Zionist organizations, following that 50% of the net profit be given to “Hehalutz”. The film was very successfully presented in Harlau in May 1930.
World War II and the massive post-1948 emigrationDuring World War II, 22 Jewish notables were held prisoners and maltreated, several people were killed (among them the community’s president, Iosif Lozner, with his wife), and several families (Alter, Popelnicker-Ivanier, Safir, Sapirin, the Lupu and Herman Belish brothers) were deported in Transnistria, where they disappeared. Several Jews of Harlau were killed in the summer of 1940, being thrown off the train coming from Jassy to Harlau, and yet others, who happened to be in Jassy in June 1941, were murdered in the giant pogrom carried out in the city. Jews were stripped of their shops and goods, fired from their jobs and forced to wear the yellow star for several months. Men (aged 16 to 50) were taken to forced labor in town, then in the terrible labor camps of Bessarabia and Dobrogea. Still, except for a few families driven to Botosani and Jassy, Harlaul was the only Moldovan sub-urban locality whose Jewish population was not “evacuated”. This was due to the tolerant attitude and courage of Dr. Ion Agapie, the town’s mayor after the Legionnaires’ defeat at the end of January 1941, and the intervention of boyars Ghica-Deleni and Nicolae Polizu-Micsunesti. Jews were also helped by priests Constantin Constantinescu and Stefanescu.In 1947, there were 1,936 Jews in Harlau, including some refugees from neighboring Stefanesti, Frumusica and Lespezi. Following several alyiah waves, only 200 were left in 1960, 160 in 1970, 50 in 1984, and 20 in 1994! Today the small group of Jews still living there is led by the enthusiastic Sifra Dascalu-Corbici, who succeeds Izu Abramovici and the late Avram Marcus (math teacher) and Gambil Grinberg (economist). At my initiative, the Romanian Television (TVR 2 Cluj) shot a film dedicated to the Jewish community of Harlau in May 2006. The film, produced by Andreea Ghita, entitled “On the tracks of the Jews of Harlau with Professor Carol Iancu”, was first broadcasted in May 2006 and re-broadcasted several times in Romania and abroad. In May 2007, the film was broadcasted in Harlau, for the 55th anniversary of the local high-school “Stephen the Great”. On the same occasion a special tribute was paid to the memory of the regretted Alexander Safran, former chief rabbi of Romania (1940-1947) and Grand Rabbi of Geneva (1948-1998), at the Great Synagogue, in the presence of Dr. Aurel Vainer, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FCER). Numerous people participated in the ceremony, including representatives of the surrounding Jewish communities and guests from abroad (Avinoam Safran, Esther Starobinski-Safran, Joseph Safran, myself).
PersonalitiesHere are some names of the numerous Jewish personalities born in Harlau, who are no longer alive today: Rabbi Israel Aizikson, born in 1840, author of an essay entitled Shomer Mitzvot (“Keeper of the religious prescriptions”), his nephew Michael Landau, former member in the interwar Romanian Parliament, editor of the Yiddish daily “Unzer Zeit” of Kishinev, then high official in Israel (he made alyiah in 1935), Rabbi Menahem Nahum Buchner, author of a work entitled “Aniat Amen”, written at the end of the 19th century and printed by his son Zvi-Hirsch Copel in Czernowitz in 1917, Dr. Valter Abeles, former Israeli Ambassador in Columbia and Costa Rica, the son of Dr. Leon Abeles (1865-1940), who was the local community’s president before World War II, Horia Carp, journalist and writer, Lucian Boz, literary critic and journalist, Moritz Cahana (Mihail Canianu), folklorist, Haim Zaidman (son of chazzan Bentzin), Yiddish writer, Samuel Haber (1903-1984), son of Yehuda-Arie and Eta Haber, who emigrated with his family in the US in 1911, where he became one of the leaders of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), Mihail Davidoglu (Davidsohn) (1910-1988), playwright, Marcel Marcovivi-Meridan, lawyer and author of a memoirs volume devoted to Harlau, Dr. Leon Halpern, former physician in Nazareth Ilit and former president of the Association of the Jews of Harlau settled in Israel (replaced as of 1993 by Filip Faibis), one of the organizers of the world convention of the Jews of Harlau held in Tel Aviv on April 4, 1984, which was attended by over 500 people.
© Carol Iancu Art of HarlauSynagogue 
Cemetery 
|
