The Jews of Mihăileni: A Border Town Founded by Jews

Mihăileni, a small town in northern Botoșani County on the historical border between Moldavia and Austrian Bukovina, was founded in 1792 under an agreement between Jews and the estate owner. For most of the 19th century it had more Jews than Christians, and before the Second World War it had nine prayer houses. In 1941 the whole community was deported, first to Dorohoi and from there to Transnistria. What remains of that world is a large cemetery among the fields.

A Town Founded by Contract

According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), the town, first called Vlădeni and Târgu Nou, was founded by Jews who signed an agreement with the owner of the estate. Prince Alexandru Moruzi of Moldavia confirmed the agreement by decree that same year. The founders received personal privileges and free use of land for a synagogue, a bath and a cemetery. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, at first only Jews from across the border could settle there, and the prayer house and ritual bath were tax-exempt.

When the town passed to Prince Mihail Sturdza, he tried to change the original agreement, and according to the Jewish Encyclopedia the inhabitants, especially the Jews, were persecuted in his time. An 1838 law, drafted by a commission that included seven Jewish representatives, exempted from rent the Great Synagogue, two small synagogues, a prayer house and the bath.

A Jewish Majority

The 1831 census counted 747 Jews in Mihăileni and only 72 Christians. In 1859 there were 2,472 Jews, 67.6% of the population, and according to the Jewish Encyclopedia the community peaked in 1886 at 2,855 people. Jews worked mainly in trade, especially in furs. In 1903, according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, there were 248 Jewish merchants in the town against 58 Christians. The Jewish carters, who served the whole area, kept a prayer house of their own.

In the early 20th century the community employed a rabbi and four ritual slaughterers. It had the Great Synagogue from the founding years and eleven smaller synagogues and prayer houses, a charitable society and a Zionist association. An organised community was founded in 1897, and a Jewish elementary school opened in 1899. The Haskalah-era Hebrew writer Marcus Strelisker lived and died in Mihăileni, and the Yiddish poet Jacob Groper (1890–1966) was born there.

“My Dear Shtetl”

Zisu Lebel, born in the town in 1922, who emigrated to Israel in 1973, wrote a memoir of Mihăileni in Haifa in 1998. According to Lebel, the town had nine synagogues, almost all on the “Bottom Street”. The first synagogue, built of wood, stood for more than a hundred years until a great fire destroyed it in 1934. He describes the main street, Carol Street, less than a kilometre long, with about two hundred houses, shops and workshops, and a Jewish-Romanian school that ran from 1920 to June 1941. Among the town’s sons he names the journalist and politician Idov Cohen, later a member of the Knesset.

Lebel describes a mixed town where Romanians, Jews, Germans, Ukrainians and Lipovans lived, and where Yiddish was widely spoken in the street. The first film was shown in 1930 in the Messinger family’s hall, which also served for weddings and touring troupes, and Zionist youth movements, among them Betar, were active in the 1930s. Among the town’s sons he also names the novelist Ury Benador and the poet Păun Pincio.

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1,490 Jews lived in the town in 1930. That year the “Jewish Party” won the local council election, but the authorities annulled the result.

1941: Dorohoi and Transnistria

Mihăileni belonged to Dorohoi County, which was attached to the Bukovina administration during the war, and its Jews shared the fate of the Jews of Bukovina. According to Lebel, on 21 June 1941, the day before the invasion of the Soviet Union, the entire community was expelled to the town of Dorohoi. In November 1941 they were deported from there to Transnistria; Lebel mentions Mogilev in this context. According to the Wiesel Commission, 9,367 Jews were deported from Dorohoi County. Many of the Jews of Mihăileni died in Transnistria, among them Lebel’s parents.

Few returned. In 1947, 680 Jews lived in Mihăileni and about 400 in 1950, and most emigrated to Israel. When Lebel visited in 1958, 31 Jews remained and three quarters of the houses he remembered were gone, and by 1969, according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, about ten families.

Visiting

• The Jewish cemetery: about 2 km from the town, on open farmland. According to a 2001 survey it measures about 250 by 80 metres and still holds hundreds of gravestones of marble, limestone and sandstone, with inscriptions in Hebrew, German and Romanian and reliefs of lions and deer. Most stones are toppled or broken.
• Access: the cemetery is fenced and its gate locked. The Federation lists it under the Dorohoi community, without an address, and no hours are published. Arrange in advance with the Jewish Community of Dorohoi.
• Nearby: Dorohoi, Siret, Rădăuți and Darabani, as well as Botoșani.