La storia di Old Wooden Synagogue of Dorohoi
Dorohoi, now in Botoșani County, was one of the old market towns of northern Moldavia, and its Jewish community was among the largest in the region: Jews made up about half of the town's population in the second half of the nineteenth century. Before the Great Synagogue was built in 1825, the community prayed in an old wooden synagogue, which local tradition held to be about two hundred years old by the end of the nineteenth century. That would place its building in the late seventeenth century, close to the date of the oldest dated gravestone in the old Jewish cemetery, 1656, but no document of its construction is known.
The building's end is recorded in the Pinkas Hakehillot entry for Dorohoi. In 1877 the provincial chief, named as Carus, ordered it demolished; the Jews of the town succeeded in having the order withdrawn. In 1890 the town hall again ordered its destruction, on the grounds that it was about to collapse, and this time the synagogue was demolished. The authorities then planned to use its beams in the building of a church, but the Jews strongly opposed this and the plan was dropped. Nothing is known of the synagogue's appearance, size or exact site. Dorohoi later had around 25 to 29 synagogues and prayer houses, and one historic synagogue still stands in the town.
Where it stood for nearly 200 years
Historic: Dorohoi, Dorohoi district, Moldavia; street and plot unknown. Today: unknown; placeholder pin at the centre of Dorohoi, Botoșani County (approximate).
Apri la mappa grande →La comunità ebraica
The Encyclopaedia Judaica dates Jewish settlement in Dorohoi to the seventeenth century, while the Pinkas Hakehillot speaks of Jewish merchants passing through as early as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; the oldest dated gravestone in the old cemetery is from 1656. The community was organised as a Jewish guild, which received charters of privilege in 1799, 1808 and 1823 and was dissolved in 1834. In 1803 there were 600 Jewish taxpayers or families, and 1,133 taxpayers in 1831. The town counted 3,031 Jews in 1859, about half the population, and 6,804 in 1899, or 53.6 percent. A modern communal organisation was formed only late in the century, around 1886 to 1896, encouraged by the mayor G. G. Burghelea. The first rabbi known by name, Mathetyahu Kimen, died in 1824, and Moshe Tsvi Ben Israel served in 1886 and 1887. Besides the Great Synagogue of 1825 and the Beit Shlomo synagogue of 1869, the craft guilds of carters, coachmen, cap-makers, shoemakers and tailors each had their own house of prayer.
Architettura e design
No description, drawing, photograph or plan of the old wooden synagogue has been found, so its form can only be stated in the most general terms. The sources call it a wooden synagogue and an old one; local tradition at the end of the nineteenth century gave it an age of about two hundred years. Nothing specific is recorded about the building: its size, plan, roof form, women's gallery and interior fittings are all unknown. That the authorities wanted to reuse its beams for a church in 1890 shows that its timber frame was still considered sound enough to build with, which sits uneasily with the official claim that the building was on the point of collapse. The architect or master builder is unknown, and so is the seating capacity.
La vita nella sinagoga
Almost nothing is recorded about worship in the wooden synagogue itself. It was the community's old house of prayer, in use before the Great Synagogue was built in 1825 and apparently still standing, and presumably still in some use, until 1890. During its lifetime the Jews of Dorohoi were organised as a guild under a headman, as in other Moldavian towns, and the synagogue would have served that guild community. The first rabbi of Dorohoi known by name, Mathetyahu Kimen, died in 1824, while the wooden synagogue was still the principal house of prayer, but no source links him to this building in particular. The strength of the Jewish opposition to the demolition order of 1877, which was withdrawn, and to the plan of 1890 to reuse the beams for a church, suggests the building was valued as the oldest Jewish house of prayer in the town, but who prayed there in its last decades is unknown.
Distruzione
The wooden synagogue was destroyed by order of the civil authorities, not by violence. According to the Pinkas Hakehillot entry for Dorohoi, the provincial chief, Carus, ordered its demolition as early as 1877, but the Jews of the town had the order rescinded. In 1890 the town hall of Dorohoi ordered the synagogue destroyed, giving as its reason that the building was about to collapse, and the synagogue was demolished. The same source records that the beams were to be used to build a church, which the Jews forcefully opposed, and that this was not carried out. The jewish-romania.ro digest confirms the attempt of 1877 and the town hall's decision of 1890. Whether the building was really unsafe, who carried out the work, and what became of the timber are not recorded.
Il destino della comunità
The Jewish population of Dorohoi stood at 5,389 in 1941. On 1 July 1940, after the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, soldiers of the Romanian Army, named in the Pinkas Hakehillot as men of the 3rd border battalion, shot Jewish soldiers and civilians at the funeral of a Jewish soldier in the Jewish cemetery; close to 200 Jews were killed, although an official document admitted only 52 dead. In November 1941 the Romanian authorities deported the Jews of Dorohoi and the surrounding towns to Transnistria; between 2,500 and 3,000 were sent from the town itself, and many died in sealed wagons or drowned crossing the Dniester. A further 450 men were deported in June 1942. In 1943 the municipal authorities turned synagogues into warehouses. Of 3,074 deportees from the town, about 2,000 returned by the end of 1943. Refugees raised the Jewish population to about 7,600 in 1947, but emigration to Israel reduced it to 1,013 in 1966 and 49 by 2000.
Il luogo oggi
The site of the old wooden synagogue has not been identified in any source consulted, so it is not known what stands there today. No surviving fragment, marker or archaeological record of the building is reported. The map pin for this entry is a placeholder at the centre of Dorohoi and does not mark the synagogue's location. Dorohoi still has one historic synagogue, which stands in a courtyard behind the Piatra Unirii square surrounded by blocks of flats; it is a different building and should not be confused with the wooden synagogue demolished in 1890. Locating the plot would need the Dorohoi town hall records of 1877 to 1890 or early town plans.
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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