Rabbi Tsirelson's Synagogue and Magen David Yeshiva

Die jüdische Gemeinde

Kishinev was one of the great Jewish cities of the Russian Empire and later of Greater Romania. Before the Second World War Jews made up roughly half of its population, about 50,000 people, and the city had 77 synagogues and prayer houses. The community was shaken by the pogroms of 1903, in which 49 people were killed, and 1905, yet it remained a centre of religious learning, Zionist politics and Yiddish and Hebrew culture. Charity was a central part of communal life, and wealthy families funded hospitals, schools and almshouses. The Perelmuter and Kligman families, described as distinguished by many charitable actions, created the Popovskaya Street complex as one such institution, combining care for the elderly, Torah education for boys and a place of prayer under one roof.

Architektur und Gestaltung

The complex consisted of two connected buildings, the synagogue and the old-age home, with the yeshiva forming the third element of the ensemble. The two-storey street front is long and regular, with arched upper windows; the synagogue section is marked by a taller bay crowned by a curved, ornamental gable and flanked by balustrades. Chișinău's tourism office describes a symmetrical facade with Baroque details. The prayer hall was lit by windows set in two tiers, as were the ritual rooms, which suggests a main hall with a women's gallery, though no interior plan has been found. Early photographs show plastered masonry with rusticated lower walls, pilasters and moulded window surrounds. The almshouse was admired in its day as "the little palace", and the press praised its rooms, shared by two or three residents, as models of "Dutch comfort". The architect is not recorded in the sources consulted.

Leben in der Synagoge

The complex combined worship, learning and care. In the synagogue the elderly residents of the almshouse, the yeshiva students and neighbours from the surrounding streets prayed together. The yeshiva, named after Shulim Perelmuter and also known as Magen David, taught boys Talmud and religious law, and Chief Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tsirelson taught there himself. Tsirelson, a noted halakhic authority and one of the founders of Agudat Israel, also chaired the board of the old-age home. Accounts of the almshouse describe warm, spacious rooms, a kitchen that ran constantly to provide kosher meals, and residents dressed in clean, good clothes. Because of the rabbi's close involvement, the people of Chișinău came to call the synagogue and the whole charitable institution "Tsirelson's Synagogue", a name that survives in the street name today.

Zerstörung

The complex survived the Second World War, unlike much of Jewish Chișinău. Its destruction was the work of the Soviet authorities and decades of Communist neglect. After the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia in 1940 the Soviet authorities nationalised Jewish communal institutions in the city, and under Soviet rule the synagogue, yeshiva and old-age home were confiscated from the community and never returned to religious use. In 1964 the Communists closed every remaining synagogue in Chișinău except one. Photographs from the 1980s show the building still standing and roofed, but with its ground floor cut through by large utility doors. The building was then left to decay. By 2009 the roof, floors and interiors had collapsed or been stripped, rubble filled the entrance bay and trees grew inside the walls. What remains today is the masonry shell: the street facades of the synagogue, with its ornamental gable and arched windows, and part of the long almshouse wing, standing roofless behind a fence.

Das Schicksal der Gemeinde

Romanian and Nazi German forces captured Chișinău in July 1941. In the first days of the attack Rabbi Tsirelson was killed when a bomb struck his home. On 25 July 1941 the Romanian authorities established a ghetto in the city under joint Romanian and Nazi German command; from 5 August Jews had to wear the yellow star, and mass killings accompanied the Romanian–German advance through Bessarabia. The ghetto was closed in April 1942. An estimated 10,000 people died. After the war Jews returned to Chișinău, but under Soviet rule religious life was severely restricted; bar mitzvahs were banned in 1961 and by 1964 only one synagogue remained open. Since 1991 the community has revived, with synagogues, a yeshiva and cultural institutions.

Der Ort heute

The ruin stands at Strada Rabbi Țirilson 8 in the Rîșcani sector of Chișinău, on the street renamed after the rabbi. It is listed as a cultural heritage monument of Moldova as the complex of the former synagogue with retirement home. The roofless masonry shell, with the synagogue's ornamental gable, arched windows and part of the almshouse wing, is enclosed by a corrugated metal fence and overgrown with trees and shrubs. Chișinău's municipal Jewish heritage route includes it, noting that only a historical ruin remains. No restoration has been carried out.

Bedeutende Namen

Yehuda Leib Tsirelson

1859–1941Chief Rabbi of Kishinev (from 1908/1910) and of Bessarabia (1918–1940); teacher at the yeshiva

Yehuda Leib Tsirelson, crown rabbi of Kishinev from 1908 and Chief Rabbi of Bessarabia from 1918, taught at the complex's yeshiva and chaired the board of its old-age home. His involvement was so close that Chișinău residents called the whole institution "Tsirelson's Synagogue". A founder of Agudat Israel and a member of the Romanian parliament, he was killed by a bomb in July 1941.

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Shulim Perelmuter

UnknownFounder and sponsor

Shulim Perelmuter, one of the wealthiest members of Kishinev's Jewish community, received permission in 1902, with his son-in-law Moses Kligman, to build the old-age home and boys' yeshiva with a synagogue between them. The yeshiva was named after him and the almshouse after the Perelmuter and Kligman families.

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Moses Kligman

UnknownFounder and sponsor

Moses Kligman, son-in-law of Shulim Perelmuter, co-founded the charitable complex on Popovskaya Street in 1902 and, with the Perelmuter family, was its main sponsor. The almshouse bore the names of both families, which were known in Kishinev for many charitable works.

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