DIN ISTORIA UNEI OBȘTI EVREIEȘTI DIN ROMÂNIA: ORGANIZAREA COMUNITARĂ LA GALAȚI ÎN ANTEBELIC ȘI INTERBELIC

AUTHOR: Lucian-Zeev HERȘCOVICI, Violeta IONESCU

FROM THE HISTORY OF A JEWISH ASSEMBLY OF ROMANIA. THE COMMUNITARY ORGANIZATION IN GALAȚI, BEFORE AND AFTER THE WWI

Danubius, XXXVII, Galaţi, 2019, pp. 89-140.

Abstract

The article aims at presenting some aspects of the formation and evolution of a Jewish community from the Old Kingdom, before WWI and in the Interwar period. Under scrutiny is the Jewish community of Galați, the third biggest community of the country. Its attempt to re-organize, under a centralized pattern, during the last decades of the XIX-th century stirred other Jewish communities of Romania to re-organize according to the same pattern.
The article approaches the issue by answering to some specific questions. What was the situation of the Jewish social organization in Galați, before WWI and in the Interwar period? What was the form of organization of the Jews from Galați, during the XIX-th century? How did the re-organization of the community take place in Galați, at the end of the XIX-th century? Who was the local leader that attempted the re-organization and why did he not succeed in organizing the whole community life of the Romanian Jews around the community of this town? What was the communitary, social and political organization of the Jews from Galați, during the Interwar period?
We will approach these questions by making use of information and documents from the archives of the Jewish Community of galați and from local Jewish and Romanian publications. We will also avail of information and interpretations found in a recent work on the history of the Jews from Galați, written by the authors of this article (Lucian-Zeev Herșcovici, Violeta Ionescu, O istorie a evreilor din Galați: file de cronică de la începuturi până la marea emigrare, Hasefer, Bucharest, 2018).

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