The Jews of Roman: From a Destroyed Cemetery to the Death Train

Roman, the market town where the Siret meets the Moldova, was one of the largest Jewish communities in nineteenth-century Moldavia: in 1899 Jews made up 39% of its population. Here in 1867 the municipality destroyed the old Jewish cemetery, and here in July 1941 the “death train” from Iași stopped, and one nurse insisted on opening its wagons.

Legends and Documents

Roman’s community has ancient traditions: a Hebrew scroll claiming Jewish residence in 1491, and legends of Prince Alexander the Good visiting a wooden synagogue and Bogdan III donating a Torah scroll. Yad Vashem’s Pinkas HaKehillot states that the scroll is a forgery and presents the rest as legend. The real record begins in the 18th century: a document of 1709, from the reign of Prince Mihai Racoviță, sets the taxes of Christian, Armenian and Jewish merchants. A Hebrew document of 1752 mentions a synagogue, and the oldest tombstone in the old cemetery was dated 1746.

The 18th century also brought blood libels. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (1906), in 1714 two prominent Jews were hanged, and the real culprits were found only afterwards. Another libel was raised in 1842. The community grew fast: 416 Jews in 1820, 1,936 in 1838 and 6,432 in 1899.

Synagogues, Hasidim and Rabbis

In the 19th century Roman had 16 houses of prayer. The chief one was the “Great Synagogue,” also called the Tailors’ Synagogue. The church demanded its demolition, but the town council refused, since it had been built under a princely permit. Only in 1852 was it allowed to be fenced. Alongside it stood the study house of the Kosov Hasidim (1825), the Merchants’ Synagogue (rebuilt in 1835) and the Shoemakers’ Synagogue (1870). The craftsmen’s society Poalei Tzedek was active from 1794, and the hekdesh became a hospital in 1875.

The first known rabbi was Yitzhak ben Yehuda Leib, from 1792. Rabbi Yaakov Berish, “the Romaner Rov,” served from 1825 to 1840 and then settled in Safed. After him Rabbi David Isakson served for 68 years, from 1839 to 1907, and his grandson Shlomo Isakson became the town’s rabbi in 1910. The Talmud Torah’s report book survives from 1817. A modern school opened in 1866 and was closed by the police a year later. In 1893, when Jewish children were expelled from the state schools, the community opened a Hebrew school of its own.

1867: The Shattered Gravestones

The old cemetery lay in the centre of town, and the church demanded its closure as early as 1825. Prince Ioniță Sandu Sturdza refused. In 1846 the community bought a new plot, and in 1849 the old cemetery was abandoned. In 1866 the municipality stopped recognising the community’s ownership, and in 1867, by municipal decree, soldiers and firemen destroyed it: bones were scattered, and crosses were painted on the rabbis’ tombstones. According to the Pinkas, the act provoked protests abroad and the town council was dissolved. The remains and the old stones were moved to the new cemetery.

Between the Wars

In 1930 Roman had 5,563 Jews, 28% of its population. Before the Second World War the town had 18 synagogues, two elementary schools, a kindergarten, a hospital, an old-age home and a mikveh that doubled as the town’s only public bath. The Zionist branch published a fortnightly paper. According to the Pinkas, the Zionist lawyer Mișu Weisman of Roman briefly led the Zionist Organisation of Romania and later became Israel’s ambassador to Belgium. Antisemitism grew at the same time: in 1937 the bar refused to admit Jewish members.

The Death Train and Viorica Agarici

According to the Wiesel Commission report, shortly before 21 June 1941 the gendarmerie was ordered to “cleanse the land” in three places in Moldavia, Roman among them. On 1 July 1941, after the Iași pogrom, 160 community leaders, Rabbi Isakson among them, were taken hostage and held for three months in the central synagogue.

The next day, 2 July, the death train carrying the pogrom’s survivors from Iași to Călărași stopped at Roman station. According to the Wiesel Commission, perhaps as many as 5,000 Jews were loaded onto it, and only 1,011 arrived alive. Viorica Agarici, chair of the local Red Cross, heard the cries from the sealed wagons. With the help of the garrison commander she had the doors opened, handed out water and food and had the dead removed. According to the Pinkas, 53 passengers had already died by then. She was forced out of her post as a result. Yad Vashem recognised her as Righteous Among the Nations on 3 January 1983.

Later in the war 38 Jews from Roman were deported to Transnistria and 80 to the Vapniarca camp as “communists,” and more than 1,000 were sent to forced labour. In 1944 about 1,400 refugees arrived from Târgu Frumos and about 1,000 from Pașcani, and an order to set up a ghetto was cancelled with bribes. In spring 1944 the community brought 132 orphans back from Transnistria and placed them in Jewish homes. The community leadership stayed in place throughout the war, and most of Roman’s Jews survived.

After the War and Today

Emigration to Israel shrank the community decade by decade. Today, according to the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, it has about 50 members, including non-Jewish partners and affiliated members, with services on Friday evening, Shabbat and the festivals. The active synagogue stands at Strada Bradului 16. The Federation calls it the “Leipziger” and dates it to 1850. A 2010 report of the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad calls the building at this address the “Rintzler” (1880), and also lists the Tailors’ (Poalei Tzedek) Synagogue in the town, not in use.

The cemetery on Strada Bogdan Dragoș 184 is enclosed by a wall with a locked gate. According to the JewishGen survey about 15,000 stones are visible, inscribed in Hebrew, Yiddish, German and Romanian. More than three-quarters are toppled or broken, and the rear section has been damaged by floods of the Moldova river. It has a tahara house and a monument to Jewish soldiers, and, according to the US report, a monument to the victims of the death train.

Visiting

• Community office: Strada Sucedava 131, tel. +40 233 726 621, per the Federation’s website.
• Synagogue: Strada Bradului 16. Services on Friday evening, Shabbat and festivals; weekday visits by prior arrangement.
• Cemetery: Strada Bogdan Dragoș 184. Entry only with the community’s permission.
• Railway station: where the death train stopped. A bust and memorial plaque to Viorica Agarici are reported there.

No fixed opening hours have been published. Roman lies on the railway between Bucharest and Suceava, and is easily combined with a trip to Iași or Fălticeni.