03 - 1918-1941

After the incorporation of Bessarabia into Rumania in 1918, the Jews there automatically received Rumanian citizenship, in accordance with the commitments of Rumania under the Treaty of Paris. However, as a result of the Nationality Law of 1924, many Bessarabian Jews who could not fulfill its requirements were deprived of Rumanian nationality, and defined as aliens. According to a count taken in 1920 there were 267,000 Jews in Bessarabia. As in the other parts of Rumania, they encountered popular hostility, anti-Jewish measures and suspicion on the part of the government, and petty administrative harrassment. In 1938, 21,844 Jewish heads of families in Bessarabia were deprived of Rumanian nationality (according to official statistics). The economic situation of Bessarabian Jewry also deteriorated. The separation of the region from its former Russian markets, the drought which struck Bessarabia three times during this period, the world economic crisis, and the government's policy of exploitation, resulted in a severe crisis in the agricultural economy. Assistance from abroad was provided principally by the American Joint Distribution Committee and ICA. The savings and credit cooperatives set up before the war supported by ICA also played an important role in this period. In 1930 there were 41 savings and loan banks operating in 39 localities with a membership of 30,202, i.e., two-thirds of Jewish breadwinners in Bessarabia. Of these 12% were farmers, reflecting the development of Jewish agriculture in this period. At the time of the agrarian reform in Bessarabia (1920–23) between 4,000 and 5,000 Jews received seven to ten acres of land each—altogether approximately 120,000 acres were cultivated. In Bessarabia agriculture as a Jewish occupation ranked second after Erez Israel. In 1935, about 3,000 families cultivating a total of approximately 20,000 hectares were supported by ICA. Two new agricultural settlements were established with assistance from ICA. Under Rumanian rule, Jewish communal life flourished and leadership revived. A number of political parties, prominent among them the Zionist movements, were active, as well as other organizations. The first conference of Bessarabian Zionists was convened in 1920 in Kishinev, and a central office for the Zionist Organization of Bessarabia was set up in Kishinev. On the basis of the minority treaties signed by Rumania, a ramified network of Jewish elementary and secondary schools with instruction in Yiddish or Hebrew was established in Bessarabia at the beginning of Rumanian rule. In 1922 there were 140 Jewish schools with 19,746 pupils (105 giving instruction in Hebrew with 16,456 pupils). A teachers' seminary was established in Kishinev. However, by the end of 1922 government policy changed. Many of the schools were deprived of their Jewish character and converted into Rumanian schools. By 1929–30, there remained 64 Jewish educational institutions in 30 localities (15 kindergartens, 37 elementary schools, 11 secondary schools, and one vocational school) with 6,381 pupils and 312 teachers. Social welfare institutions in Bessarabia during this period included 13 hospitals, a sanatorium for tubercular patients, societies for assistance to the sick in 25 localities, 13 old-age homes, and four relief institutions for children. From 1923, the OSE society was also active in Bessarabia where it maintained stations in eight localities. After the entry of the Red Army into Bessarabia on June 28, 1940, life for Jews in Bessarabia was gradually brought in line with the general pattern of Jewish existence under the Soviet regime. On June 13, 1941, a comprehensive "purge" was carried out throughout the region. Thousands of Jews—communal leaders, active members of the Zionist movement, businessmen, and persons suspected of disloyalty to the regime—were arrested and deported to internment camps or exiled to Siberia.

[Eliyahu Feldman]

Source:
www.heritagefilms.com

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* History: Moldova