הסיפור של Gaster Temple, Bucharest
Bucharest once had many synagogues, a large number of them in the old Jewish quarters east of Union Square. One of them was the Gaster Temple on Sticlari Street. According to a 2020 article by Steliu Lambru for Radio Romania International, it was built in 1858 by the Gaster family and rebuilt in 1903. The name is that of the founding family. Moses Gaster, the scholar born in Bucharest in 1856 who later became haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in London, came from a Gaster family that had settled in Wallachia at the beginning of the nineteenth century; his grandfather Asriel Gaster was a merchant and community leader. No source read in this research states, however, that the synagogue's founders were Moses Gaster's own relatives, so the link remains unconfirmed.
The same article records that the building was damaged by earthquakes, giving the years 1940 and 1987; the second date is probably a slip for the great earthquake of 4 March 1977, since there was no major earthquake in 1987. The temple was razed in 1987. The article places its loss within the systematization of Bucharest carried out by Nicolae Ceaușescu's Communist regime, which used the 1977 earthquake as the occasion to remake the city and demolished the Jewish quarters together with most of their synagogues. Nothing is known of its architecture, its rabbis or its last congregants from the sources consulted.
Where it stood for 129 years
Historic: Strada Sticlari (Sticlari Street), Bucharest; house number unknown. Today: unknown, street apparently no longer exists; placeholder pin at the centre of Bucharest (approximate).
פתיחת מפה גדולה ←הקהילה היהודית
Radio Romania International, drawing on historians at the Museum of the Municipality of Bucharest and the Wilhelm Filderman Center for the Study of Jewish History in Romania, traces Jewish settlement in Bucharest to the mid-sixteenth century, when Sephardic Jews, descendants of those expelled from Spain in 1492 who had first settled in the Ottoman Empire, arrived during the reign of Prince Mircea Ciobanul. The Sephardic community centred on the Popescului neighbourhood east of Union Square. By the nineteenth century the city's Jews worshipped in many synagogues, some founded by trades or families: the Fraterna Temple on Mămulari Street belonged to a guild of tailors, the Carpenters' Temple to joiners, and the Gaster Temple to the Gaster family. Moses Gaster's English Wikipedia biography describes the Gasters as a renowned Jewish family of Austrian origin that settled in Wallachia at the beginning of the nineteenth century; Asriel Gaster was a prosperous merchant and community leader, and his son Abraham Emanuel Gaster was consul of the Netherlands in Bucharest. Whether these are the founders of the Sticlari Street temple is not stated in any source found. The size of its congregation is unknown.
אדריכלות ועיצוב
No description, plan or photograph of the Gaster Temple was found in this research, so its appearance is unknown. The only architectural facts available come from the Radio Romania International article: the synagogue was first built in 1858 and rebuilt in 1903, so the building demolished in 1987 was presumably the structure of 1903 rather than the original one. The architect and builder of either phase, the materials, the seating capacity, the arrangement of the prayer hall and any women's gallery are all unknown. Whether it stood on the street front or in a courtyard has not been established. The building suffered damage in earthquakes, which the article dates to 1940 and, apparently in error, 1987. The style field is left as unknown until a photograph or survey drawing is traced, perhaps in the Federation of Jewish Communities' archives or the Museum of the Municipality of Bucharest.
החיים בבית הכנסת
Almost nothing is known about worship in the Gaster Temple. The name and the founding by a family suggest that it began as a private or family foundation, of a kind common in Bucharest, where synagogues were often established by a single family, a trade guild or a group of immigrants from one town, but the sources read do not describe its rite, whether it served Ashkenazi or Sephardic worshippers, or how it was governed. No rabbi, cantor, president or warden of the temple is named in the sources consulted. Its rebuilding in 1903 indicates that the congregation was still active and able to raise funds at the start of the twentieth century. The Radio Romania International article does not say whether it remained in use after the Second World War or whether it was still holding services when it was demolished in 1987.
הרס
According to Radio Romania International, the Gaster Temple was damaged by earthquakes in 1940 and in a year the article gives as 1987, probably meaning the earthquake of 4 March 1977, and was razed in 1987. The article does not name the authority that carried out the demolition, but it places all the Bucharest synagogue demolitions of the 1980s within the reconstruction and systematization of Bucharest by the Communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu. The historian Cezar Petre Buiumaci of the Museum of the Municipality of Bucharest describes the 1977 earthquake as the beginning of the tragedy for the old neighbourhoods, which the regime used as a pretext to transform the city; the Uranus district and the Jewish quarters were hit hardest. Between 1984 and 1987 the Communists also demolished the Carpenters' Temple, Adath Ieshurim, the Fraterna Temple, Malbim and Cahal Grande. A press report of August 1986 shows that foreign assurances that synagogues would be spared were not kept. No document of the Gaster Temple's demolition itself was found.
גורל הקהילה
Bucharest's Jews suffered antisemitic violence during the Second World War; Radio Romania International records that Legionnaires of the Iron Guard devastated and vandalised several synagogues in 1941, among them Cahal Grande, the Carpenters' Temple and Malbim. Whether the Gaster Temple was attacked then is not recorded in the sources consulted. How many of its worshippers survived the war, and when its congregation dispersed, is not recorded in the sources consulted. In the 1980s the demolition of the old Jewish quarters scattered those who remained: Anca Tudorancea of the Wilhelm Filderman Center notes that many residents, especially those who had applied to emigrate, lost their jobs and had to renovate and hand over their homes during a long approval process. Today the Jewish community of Bucharest numbers about 4,000 people according to the same article, and only three of its historic places of worship remain: the Choral Temple, the Great Synagogue and the Holy Union Temple, now a museum.
האתר כיום
The site of the Gaster Temple has not been located. Sticlari Street, named in the Radio Romania International article, could not be found on present-day maps through OpenStreetMap, which suggests that the street was renamed or erased during the systematization of the 1980s. According to Radio Romania International, the Jewish quarters were among the areas hardest hit by the rebuilding, and surviving synagogues such as the Great Synagogue ended up hidden behind concrete apartment blocks; which present building or road occupies the plot is unknown. No surviving fragment and no marker on the site are recorded in the sources consulted. The map pin for this entry is a placeholder at the centre of Bucharest and does not mark the synagogue. Historic city plans of about 1900 to 1940 would be needed to fix its position.
יש לכם משהו לתרום?
תמונות, מסמכים, סיפורי משפחה וזיכרונות מבית הכנסת ומהקהילה שלו עוזרים לשמור על ההיסטוריה שלו בחיים.
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