Chișinăul interbelic în memoria evreilor (I)
Interwar Chisinau in the memory of the Jews (I)

Summary/Abstract: This article is devoted to the reflection of specific realities and sites of Chisinau (mainly of the interwar period) on the mind map of Jews – natives and residents of the city. We mainly used as material for analysis interview texts collected, recorded and processed as part of the project for the collection of personal stories and photographs, implemented in Moldova by the Jewish Historical Institute Centropa (Germany) in 2001–2003; as well as other sources of memoir character. In the first presented part, Chisinau synagogues and educational institutions are examined. The article contains a brief view of the history of the Jews from Chisinau, as well as their recollections compared with historical information about significant sites of Chisinau, such as the Choral Synagogue and others, yeshiva, Princess Dadiani, Regina Maria, Jeanne d’Ark lyceums and gymnasiums, the vocational school for Jewish girls. The study shows how historical realities are transformed, being refracted through the prism of personal memories. According to childhood memoirs of the pre-war period, recorded more than half a century later, one can also trace the process of secularization of the Jewish community and its integration into Moldavian society. In the future, Jewish charity institutions will also be studied: hospitals, orphanages, almshouses; as well as the place of the Jewish cemetery in the history of the city and in private memoirs of Chisinau Jews.

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