The story of Cahane Synagogue, Iași
Iași, the old capital of Moldavia, had one of the largest Jewish communities in Romania: Jews made up about half of the town's population in the later nineteenth century, and a JewishGen community page counts 127 synagogues in 1930. Most were small prayer houses run by Hasidic courts, rabbis and craft guilds. The Cahane Synagogue, also spelled Kahane, was one of the larger ones. It stood on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard, the main street of the town centre, but its exact plot, its date of construction and the origin of its name are unknown; the name may refer to a founder or rabbi called Cahane, but no source read says so.
What is known comes from two survivors interviewed by Centropa. Rosa Kaiserman recalled that her father prayed there after the synagogue of his youth was destroyed, that it was 'pretty big, with a large yard', that weddings were held in it, and that for several years it was the only synagogue that remained. Tili Solomon named it among the prayer houses of her childhood and said it was 'only demolished in the communist period, in the process of urban systematization'. Kaiserman added that apartment houses were built in its place. No photograph, plan or demolition document was found.
Where it stood
Historic: Bulevardul Ștefan cel Mare, Iași; house number unknown. Today: Bulevardul Ștefan cel Mare și Sfânt, Centru, Iași (apartment houses built in its place, per eyewitness); pin approximate.
Open larger map →The Jewish community
Tradition places the first Jews in Iași in the fifteenth century, and the settlement grew quickly after the town became the capital of Moldavia in 1565, according to the Pinkas Hakehillot Romania. The community counted 17,570 people in 1831 and 31,015 in 1859, when Jews formed 47.1 per cent of the population; in 1899 there were 39,441, or 50.8 per cent. The oldest synagogue, in the Târgul Cucului quarter, was built between 1657 and 1682 and still stands as the Great Synagogue. The town had many prayer houses named after rabbis, among them those of Rabbi Zwolower, Rabbi Tversky and Rabbi Reines, and others belonging to trades, including three of tailors and three of stone cutters. By 1930 the Jewish population was 35,465, or 34.4 per cent, and JewishGen's community page gives 127 synagogues on the eve of the Holocaust. Where the Cahane Synagogue's congregation fitted within this network, and whether it was Hasidic or a general community synagogue, is unknown.
Architecture and design
No photograph, drawing, plan or description of the building's architecture was found. The only physical details come from Rosa Kaiserman, who told Centropa that it was 'pretty big, with a large yard' and that weddings were held there, which suggests a free-standing building set back from the street in its own courtyard, but that is an inference, not a documented fact. Its location on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard placed it on the main street of the town centre rather than in the old Jewish quarter of Târgul Cucului, where the Great Synagogue stands. The architect, the builder, the year of construction, the seating capacity, the building materials and the style are all unknown. Whether it had a women's gallery, a dome or any decoration is not known, and no witness described its interior.
Life inside the synagogue
Almost nothing is recorded about worship in the Cahane Synagogue. Rosa Kaiserman's father used to go to the Tailors' Synagogue in his youth and moved to the Cahane Synagogue later, after the older building was destroyed; for several years the Cahane Synagogue was the only synagogue that remained to him. She remembered it as a place where weddings were held in the large yard, which points to an active congregation that served families beyond a single trade or Hasidic circle. Tili Solomon listed it among the prayer houses her parents attended: she remembered at least ten in her childhood, two or three on Halei Street and as many on Independenței Boulevard, a synagogue at Kantarski, and the Cahane Synagogue on Ștefan cel Mare Boulevard. The names of its rabbis, cantors, presidents and members, its rite and its daily routine are unknown.
Destruction
No source found records damage to the Cahane Synagogue in the Iași pogrom of June 1941 or during the fighting of 1944. Rosa Kaiserman says that after other synagogues were destroyed and the number of Jews shrank, the Cahane Synagogue was the only one that remained for several years, and that eventually it too was destroyed and apartment houses were built in its place. Tili Solomon is more specific about the cause: she told Centropa that it was only demolished in the communist period, in the process of urban systematization. Urban systematization was the redevelopment policy of the Communist state, under which the centre of Iași was rebuilt with blocks of flats. On this testimony, the Communist authorities demolished the synagogue to clear its site for housing. The year of demolition, the body that ordered it and whether the building was first given up by the Jewish community are not recorded in any source read; both accounts are oral memories, not documents.
The community’s fate
On 28-30 June 1941, days after Romania joined the Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union, the Romanian authorities under Ion Antonescu carried out the Iași pogrom. Police, gendarmes and soldiers, with Nazi German military involvement and mobs led by freed Iron Guard members, killed Jews in the streets and in police headquarters. More than 5,000 were packed onto two death trains to Călărași and Podu Iloaiei, where most died of thirst and suffocation. The Romanian authorities later counted more than 13,266 dead, about a third of the Jews of Iași; the Jewish community put the figure at nearly 15,000. In 1947 about 38,000 Jews lived in Iași, and the community has since shrunk to a small fraction of that. JewishGen gives 300 to 600 Jews today, and only the Great Synagogue and the synagogue on Palat Street remain in use.
The site today
The site of the Cahane Synagogue has not been identified precisely. Rosa Kaiserman said that apartment houses were built in its place, but no source names the house number or the block that replaced it. No surviving fragment of the building and no marker on the site is recorded. The map pin for this entry is placed at a midpoint of the boulevard in the centre of Iași and should be read only as an approximate location on the right street. Locating the plot would need an interwar town plan of Iași, the archives of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania, or the records of the town's systematization projects.
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