La storia di Băcești Synagogue
Băcești lies in the hills of central Moldavia, about 28 miles north-west of Vaslui and 25 miles north-east of Bacău. Historic sources also call it Băcești-Târg, the market part of the settlement, as distinct from Băcești-Sat, the village. Like many Moldavian market towns, it had a Jewish community that grew up in the nineteenth century. The Jewish cemetery was established in that century, and the 1930 census counted 460 Jewish inhabitants; the figure for 1899 is given in one survey both as 526 and as 18, a conflict the source does not explain. A cemetery survey names three scholar rabbis remembered there: Iehuda Leib, Iehoșua Hesil, who died in 1888, and Moșe Ițac.
Almost nothing is recorded about the synagogue building itself. Its date, appearance and size are unknown, and it is not even certain whether the community had one synagogue or several prayer houses. The only account of its end is a single line in the historian I. Kara's list of synagogues and prayer houses in interwar Romania: the synagogue was set on fire by the 'Hitlerites' in retreat in 1944, that is, by Nazi German forces withdrawing through Moldavia. No rebuilding is mentioned. After the war the community dwindled; the last known burial in the Jewish cemetery took place in 1950, and no Jews live in Băcești today.
Where it stood
Historic: Băcești (Băcești-Târg), Vaslui County; street and plot unknown. Today: Băcești village, comuna Băcești, 737050 Vaslui County; placeholder pin at the village centre (approximate).
Apri la mappa grande →La comunità ebraica
Jews settled in Băcești as part of the wider growth of Jewish trading communities in the market towns of Moldavia during the nineteenth century. The JewishGen Cemetery Discovery Project, drawing on a site survey made by Lucian Năstasă in July 2000, states that the Jewish cemetery was established in the nineteenth century and that its oldest legible stones date from the end of that century. The same record gives the town's Jewish population as 526 in 1899 in its heading but says in its text that the 1899 census registered 18 Jews; the census of 1930 registered 460. The survey names three scholar rabbis among the town's prominent Jewish residents: Iehuda Leib, Iehoșua Hesil (1888) and Moșe Ițac. Their exact dates of service and their link to the synagogue are not recorded. The cemetery was Orthodox, with separate sections for men, Cohanim and children, which indicates an Orthodox congregation. Pinkas Hakehillot Romania, volume one, has a short entry on Băcești that was not available in translation and could not be read.
Architettura e design
No photograph, drawing, plan or written description of the Băcești synagogue was found. Its date of construction, its builder, its size and its style are all unknown. I. Kara's list records only that it was a synagogue and that it burned in 1944; it does not say whether the building was of timber or masonry. It is also unknown where in the town the synagogue stood. The cemetery survey places the cemetery about 500 metres from the congregation that used it, which suggests the community's buildings lay in the town centre, close to the market. Any further detail would have to come from local archives, the county archives in Vaslui, or the testimony of former residents and their families.
La vita nella sinagoga
No account of religious life inside the Băcești synagogue was found. The evidence that survives is indirect. The cemetery, laid out with separate sections for men, for Cohanim and for children, points to a traditional Orthodox community, as was usual in Moldavian market towns. The Cemetery Discovery Project record remembers three scholar rabbis, Iehuda Leib, Iehoșua Hesil, who died in 1888, and Moșe Ițac, which shows that the town supported learned men and probably a rabbi or religious teacher for much of its history. The community numbered some 460 people in 1930, but the names of its officers, cantors and teachers in the interwar years are unknown. Whether the town also had smaller prayer houses besides the synagogue is not recorded in the sources consulted.
Distruzione
The only source found for the destruction of the synagogue is I. Kara's list of synagogues and prayer houses in interwar Romania, as reproduced on the jewish-romania.ro portal. Its entry for Băcești, Vaslui County, reads in full: 'synagogue set on fire by the Hitlerites in retreat, in 1944'. 'Hitlerites' was the usual Romanian term for the troops of Nazi Germany, so the entry attributes the fire to Nazi German forces withdrawing through Moldavia in 1944. The list gives no exact date, no circumstances and no reference for this statement, and no second source, eyewitness account or document was found to confirm it. It is not known whether the building was empty at the time, whether anything was saved from it, or whether local people took part. The list says nothing of rebuilding, and no later synagogue in Băcești is recorded.
Il destino della comunità
How the Jews of Băcești lived through the war years is not documented in the sources read. In the neighbouring county seat, the Pinkas Hakehillot entry for Vaslui records forced labour, the confiscation of Jewish buildings, mills and land across the Vaslui district, and the transfer into Vaslui in 1941 of about 600 Jews from surrounding villages and farms, but it does not name Băcești among them, so whether its Jews were moved is unknown. The community lost its synagogue in 1944. When and where the surviving Jews went after the war is not recorded in the sources read. The last known burial in the Băcești Jewish cemetery was in 1950. By the time of the cemetery survey in 2000 no Jews lived in the town, and the cemetery belonged to the national Jewish community.
Il luogo oggi
The site of the synagogue has not been identified in any source consulted, so what stands on it today is unknown, and the map pin for this entry marks the centre of Băcești village, not the building. The Jewish cemetery survives about 500 metres from the former community. In 2000 it measured about 120 by 180 metres, was fenced with a locking gate, and held between 100 and 500 visible gravestones, more than three-quarters of them toppled or broken; the land is owned by the national Jewish community, partly used for agriculture, and cleared yearly by a paid caretaker. The surveyor recorded that it had never been vandalised.
Hai qualcosa da condividere?
Fotografie, documenti, storie di famiglia o ricordi di questa sinagoga e della sua comunità aiutano a mantenerne viva la storia.
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