The Great Temple of Rădăuți: Twin Towers and a Bukovina Community

Two domed towers in Moorish style rise above a quiet street in a northern Romanian town: the Great Temple of Rădăuți was dedicated in 1883 in honour of Emperor Franz Joseph. In 1930 Jews were about a third of the town. Today a few dozen Jews live here, and the restored temple is the place where their community is remembered.

A Town of Merchants and Craftsmen

According to Yad Vashem’s Pinkas HaKehillot, the Jews of Rădăuți were already organised under Moldavian rule in a “Jewish guild” headed by a starosta. After Austria annexed Bukovina (1774–1777), Jews arrived from Galicia. The first cemetery is dated 1820 and the first synagogue 1830, and in 1859 the community became independent.

It grew quickly: 3,452 Jews in 1880 (30.9% of the population), 7,754 in 1911 and 5,647 in 1930 (33.6%). On the eve of the Second World War the town had 23 synagogues and prayer houses, and Hasidim of Vizhnitz (the Hager family), Sadagura and Boyan.

Rabbis and Movements

The first rabbi of Rădăuți was Rabbi Hirsch Shapira (d. 1881). He was followed by Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Kunstadt (1883–1909), Rabbi Yaakov Hoffman (1912–1922) and Rabbi Shimshon Stein (about 1930–1940). The Hashomer movement was founded in the town in 1919, and a Hebrew gymnasium opened the same year; the Romanian authorities closed it in 1926.

A Temple for the Emperor

The Great Temple (Templul Mare) was built in Moorish style with two domed towers and dedicated in honour of Emperor Franz Joseph I. According to Pinkas HaKehillot it was inaugurated on 18 August 1883, and in 2013 Romania issued a stamp for its 130th anniversary. The Times of Israel says it was built in 1879, which may be when construction began.

After a full restoration the temple was rededicated in July 2012. It serves for prayer and cultural events and houses an exhibition on the history of the town’s Jews. Another former synagogue in town is now a window and door shop, its ceiling paintings still visible.

October 1941

On 11 October 1941 the Jews of Rădăuți were ordered to leave within 48 hours. On 12–13 October about 6,000 were taken by train to Mărculești in Bessarabia; according to Pinkas HaKehillot, 90% of them were murdered. The last transport, of about 4,000, left on 13 October for Atachi. The figures include Jews from the surrounding villages. In 1942, 62 Jews remained in the town. In 1947 about 6,000 Jews lived here; by 1962 about 800.

Children of Rădăuți

The poet Dan Pagis was born in Rădăuți on 16 October 1930, deported to Transnistria in 1941, and reached the Land of Israel in 1946. His Holocaust poems include “Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car”. The painter Avigdor Arikha was also born in Rădăuți according to most sources (1929); he survived Transnistria and emigrated in 1944. Some sources place his birth near Czernowitz.

The Cemetery

The Jewish cemetery is at Strada Ștefan cel Mare 131. According to the Radautz descendants’ documentation project it was founded in 1831; in 2005 about 3,700 stones in 26 sections were photographed. A JewishGen survey records more than 5,000 graves, many of them fallen. Conditions vary from section to section. The cemetery also holds a sensitive Holocaust-era memorial, a burial of “RIF” soap.

Visiting

The Great Temple stands in the town centre; sources give Strada 1 Mai 2 as its address, which should be checked on site. Visits to the temple and the cemetery are arranged with the local community. Rădăuți is about 19 km from Siret and a short drive from Suceava, and a key stop on the Bukovina heritage route.