The Jews of Câmpina: the synagogue of an oil town

In Câmpina, the oil town between Ploiești and the Prahova valley, stands a small neoclassical synagogue of 1904, restored and rededicated in 2016 by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania. The community was never large — 279 people in the 1930 census — and besides the synagogue it left a cemetery with inscriptions in Hebrew, German and Romanian.

An oil town on the road to the Prahova valley

Câmpina lies about 34 km north-west of Ploiești, on the main DN1 road and the main railway line that climb from Bucharest into the Prahova valley. In the late 19th century it became a centre of oil extraction and refining. According to a historical and architectural study prepared with the support of the Pro Patrimonio Foundation (2024–2025), the Steaua Română company was founded in Bucharest in 1895 with mostly Austro-Hungarian capital, and its refinery in Câmpina began operating on 1 October 1897. In 1902 the majority stake passed to Deutsche Bank, and in 1904–1906 the works were greatly expanded.

In the same years the small Jewish community grew too. According to census figures given by JewishGen’s cemetery project, Câmpina had 63 Jews in 1899 and 279 in 1930. We found no authoritative source describing their occupations or community institutions beyond the synagogue and the cemetery.

The synagogue of 1904

The synagogue stands at Strada Dreptății 5. According to the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FCER), which includes it in its list of synagogues, it was built in 1904 in a neoclassical style, on a plot of about 155 m². The Federation describes it as modest in size but well proportioned and unified in appearance, a notable part of Câmpina’s townscape.

In 2016 the building was rededicated after restoration. In the September 2016 issue of Realitatea Evreiască, the Federation’s journal, its president Dr Aurel Vainer listed the synagogues of Șimleu Silvaniei, Dorohoi and Câmpina among those rededicated in the past year “through the care of the Centre for the Administration of Real Estate Heritage (CAPI)” of the Federation. The Romanian news agency Agerpres reported the rededication of the restored synagogue on 22 July 2016, under a headline describing it as a synagogue in a town where no Jew lives any more.

The war years

Câmpina lay in the “Old Kingdom” (the Regat) under Romanian rule, not in Northern Transylvania, which was annexed by Hungary. According to the Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania (the Wiesel Commission, 2004), plans to deport Romania’s Jews to the Bełżec death camp were never carried out, but the Jews of the Regat suffered anti-Jewish legislation, expropriation under “Romanianization” and forced labour: 84,042 Jews aged 18 to 50 were registered for forced labour. The report also mentions the removal of Jews from villages to county towns.

We found no authoritative source documenting what happened to Câmpina’s own Jews in 1940–1944, so we give no details. The war did strike the town: according to the Pro Patrimonio study, the Steaua Română refinery was bombed on 1 August 1943, in the US Army Air Forces’ Operation Tidal Wave, and again in May and August 1944.

The cemetery

According to a survey by the historian Lucian Nastasă in 2001 for JewishGen’s cemetery project, the Jewish cemetery was founded in the 19th century; its oldest known gravestone dates from 1898 and its last known burial from 1996. It measures about 130 by 60 metres and holds 100 to 500 stones; more than three-quarters are toppled or broken, but all are in their original places. Inscriptions are in Hebrew, German and Romanian, and there are memorials of marble, granite and sandstone, some with portraits and metal railings. According to the survey the cemetery is fenced with a locked gate, and entry is by permission. These data are more than twenty years old, and we do not know its present condition.

The community today

In the Federation’s contact list Câmpina is not an independent community but an “obște” — a small congregation attached to the Jewish Community of Ploiești. The 2001 JewishGen survey put the number of Jews in the town at fewer than ten, and the 2016 Agerpres headline already describes a town with no Jews left. We found no current source on regular services in the synagogue or on any exhibition inside it.

Visiting

• The synagogue: Strada Dreptății 5, according to the Federation. No opening hours are published. Arrange in advance with the Jewish Community of Ploiești (Str. Basarabilor 12, according to the Federation), to which Câmpina is attached, or with the Federation.
• The cemetery: according to the 2001 survey the gate is locked and entry is by permission; we found no address in a current official source. Ask through the Ploiești community.
• On the way: Câmpina is on the DN1 road and the railway between Ploiești and the Prahova valley — Sinaia, Predeal and Brașov — and makes a short stop on the drive from Bucharest to the mountains.
• Nearby: Ploiești; Brașov and the Prahova valley.