Yeshua Tova: Bucharest’s Oldest Surviving Synagogue, Still at Prayer

On Strada Tache Ionescu, among the shops and offices of central Bucharest, stands a synagogue often described as the oldest still standing in the city. Yeshua Tova was not built as a monument, and it never became a museum: since the late 1990s it has been the home of Chabad Romania, and people still pray there.

One Synagogue, Two Founding Dates

The year most often cited is 1827. That is the date given in the Historic Synagogues of Europe database of the Foundation for Jewish Heritage and the Center for Jewish Art, as quoted in public summaries. The JGuide Europe heritage guide, however, dates the site to 1822. We found no primary source, such as the monument file or a publication of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania, that settles which year is right. Both versions agree on one point: this is an early-19th-century synagogue, older than the grand synagogues Bucharest built in the middle and second half of the century.

Several sources also call it “the oldest synagogue in Bucharest,” among them Chabad, which describes it as about two hundred years old. The title holds only in a limited sense: it means the oldest of the synagogues that survive. Many older prayer houses once stood in the city’s Jewish quarter and disappeared along with the quarter itself.

A Synagogue Outside the Quarter

For generations, most of Bucharest’s Jewish communal life was concentrated in the Văcărești–Dudești quarter southeast of the centre, where most of the synagogues stood. Yeshua Tova lies well away from it, in the northern part of the centre, near Piața Amzei and close to Bulevardul Magheru. The old quarter was largely demolished in the 1980s, and many of its synagogues were destroyed or converted to other uses. The synagogue on Strada Tache Ionescu survived, and it is still used for prayer on the same spot.

Visitors who come here after seeing the Choral Temple, the community’s showpiece synagogue, will find a completely different scale: a modest building that blends into the row of houses on the street, not one designed to dominate its surroundings.

Brick and Relief

The building is brick. Reliefs set into the façade, above the entrance doors and along its upper part, are its most striking feature. Public summaries describe its style as Moorish Revival, but we found no reliable architectural record of its building phases, so we cannot say how much of the present façade belongs to the original building. The synagogue’s name, Hebrew for “good salvation,” appears in Romanian sources in several spellings, including Ieșua Tova and Yeshoah Tova.

From a Weekly Minyan to Daily Prayer

A new chapter in the synagogue’s history began in 1999. That year the Jerusalem-born Chabad emissary Rabbi Naftali Deutsch and his wife, Risha, arrived in Romania, and soon afterwards Rabbi Deutsch became the synagogue’s rabbi. According to Chabad, services were at first held once a week, and over time more were added, until there were daily services. Chabad Romania’s website now presents it as “Yeshua Tova – Beit Chabad Bucharest,” the organisation’s synagogue in the city.

In recent decades a mixed congregation has formed around the synagogue: local Jews, Israelis who settled in Romania for work or study, and families from other countries. As early as 2007, Chabad estimated that about 10,000 Israelis lived in Bucharest. Chabad’s educational institutions operate alongside the synagogue: a kindergarten opened in 2002 and a primary school founded in 2007.

2007: “Yeshua Tova – Tiferet Dov”

In early 2007 the synagogue was rededicated after a renovation, under the expanded name “Yeshua Tova – Tiferet Dov.” According to a report from the time, hundreds of people attended the ceremony, among them Israel’s Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar and the philanthropist Lev Leviev. Rabbi Amar inaugurated two Torah scrolls, one of them dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust victims among the Jews of Romania and of the territories then under Hungarian rule. According to Chabad, the renovated building included a prayer hall, a kitchen, classrooms and a library, and it holds about two hundred people.

Visiting

The synagogue is at Strada Tache Ionescu 9, a few minutes’ walk from Piața Amzei and from the Piața Romană metro station. It is a working synagogue, not a tourist site. Entry is subject to security arrangements, and no regular visiting hours have been published.

• Shabbat services: According to Chabad Romania’s website, on Saturday morning there is a Hasidic study session at 9:30 and Shacharit at 10:00, followed by Kiddush. On Friday evening there are Kabbalat Shabbat and Maariv, followed by a Shabbat dinner. Times may change, so check before you go.
• Weekdays: Chabad reports daily services. Ask Chabad directly for the times.
• Visiting outside prayer times: Arrange this in advance with Chabad Romania or with the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FCER).
• Planning your route: The synagogue is far from the sites of the old Jewish quarter, so it is best visited on its own, for instance on Shabbat or for a morning service.