The Great Synagogue of Iași: 350 Years of Stone, Fire and Prayer

A stone synagogue that survived fires, earthquakes and half a century of communist rule — and reopened on the first night of Hanukkah 2018. The Great Synagogue of Iași is regarded as the oldest surviving synagogue in Romania.

Moldavia’s Capital and Its Old Community

Iași was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1565, and its Jewish community is considered the oldest in Moldavia. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Jews settled here in the second half of the 15th century, along the trade route between Poland and Bessarabia. After the massacres of 1648–1649, refugees from Poland arrived and the community grew.

In 1859 the city had 31,015 Jews — 47.1% of its population (Pinkas HaKehillot; Encyclopaedia Judaica). In 1939 there were 112 synagogues and prayer houses, many belonging to craft guilds: tailors, shoemakers, carters, hatters and bagel sellers. Only a few remain today, and the Great Synagogue is the oldest of them.

A First Stone in the Days of Rabbi Nathan Nata Hannover

Sources give slightly different dates for its construction, all between 1657 and 1671. According to historian Itic Svart-Kara, the land was bought in 1657 and the building was completed in 1670 under Rabbi Nathan Nata Hannover — author of Yeven Metzulah, the famous chronicle of the 1648–1649 massacres — who served in Iași from about 1660 to 1671. The city’s official tourism site says the stone synagogue was built in 1671 on the ruins of a wooden prayer house of 1580 that had burned down.

The present building largely reflects a reconstruction of 1761–1762 “on the Polish model”, in the words of Pinkas HaKehillot. Five synagogues burned in the great fire of 1822, and the Great Synagogue was restored again. The ten-metre dome topped by a Star of David was added in 1914 according to the city’s tourism site (other sources date it to the interwar years).

An Ark Rediscovered Under the Paint

A full restoration began in 2006, funded by the Romanian Ministry of Culture, and stalled almost at once: in 2007 the contractor went bankrupt and the building stood behind scaffolding for about five years. Work resumed in 2013 at an estimated cost of 2.34 million lei (about US$700,000), according to the World Monuments Fund.

In 2014 the synagogue was placed on the World Monuments Watch, which described it as the “oldest existing Jewish religious architectural monument in Romania.” WMF and the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania restored the Torah ark together; restorers Pia and Mihai Stinghe uncovered the original gilding beneath a layer of bronze paint.

The First Night of Hanukkah, 2018

On the evening of 3 December 2018, during Hanukkah, the synagogue was rededicated. Attending were Orthodox Metropolitan Teofan of Moldavia, Catholic Bishop Petru Gherghel, community president Abraham Ghiltman, Rabbi Rafael Shaffer and Mayor Mihai Chirica, and the President of Romania sent a message. The restoration was funded by the Ministry of Culture and Iași City Hall, and the mayor announced that the building would serve both worshippers and visitors.

The Memorial in the Square

In the garden in front of the synagogue, on the square named Romanian-Israeli Friendship Square in 2015, stands an obelisk to the victims of the Iași pogrom of June 1941. The first obelisk was placed there in 1976 and was replaced in 2011 by one of black marble. A visit to the synagogue is also the first stop on the way to the pogrom memorial sites.

Visiting

The synagogue stands on Strada Sinagogilor in the old Jewish quarter of Târgu Cucului, a 15–20 minute walk from Piața Unirii. It is an active synagogue with no published opening hours. Visits are arranged in advance through the office of the Jewish Community of Iași, Strada Elena Doamna 15 (tel. +40 232 313 711). A small community museum operates near the synagogue.