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After a contentious election, Romania’s few Jews remain on guard against antisemitism

JL;DR SUMMARY Romania's Jewish community, once thriving with 800,000 members, now numbers only about 2,500 due to the ravages of the Holocaust and Communist policies, leading to mass emigration. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish HistoryHolocaustEducationJewsRomaniaCommunity ResilienceFar Right PoliticsVlad DraculDavid Blum

Places mentioned

Sighișoara, Mureş, Romania
"SIGHIOARA, Romania Only a 10-minute stroll down a maze of cobblestone streets from the birthplace of Vlad Dracul who inspired the fictional, bloodsucking Count Dracula sits an empty but remarkably well-preserved synagogue in a fairy-tale town that no longer has any Jews."
Iași, Romania
"In Iași alone over a three-day period in June 1941, more than 13,000 Jews more than a third of the citys Jewish population were massacred, marking one of the worst pogroms of World War II."
Bucharest, Romania
"Despite widespread discrimination, there were villages, towns, and cities with large Jewish majorities even villages established by ethnic Jews centuries ago, like Podu Iloaiei."
Brașov, Braşov, Romania
"A few may even offer a daily minyan perhaps in the cities of Brașov and Oradea but the Choral Temple is by far the most active synagogue in Romania."
Oradea, Bihor, Romania
"A few may even offer a daily minyan perhaps in the cities of Brașov and Oradea but the Choral Temple is by far the most active synagogue in Romania."
Podu Iloaiei, Iași, Romania
"Despite widespread discrimination, there were villages, towns, and cities with large Jewish majorities even villages established by ethnic Jews centuries ago, like Podu Iloaiei."
Haifa, Haifa District, Israel
"He grew up in the Israeli city of Haifa but came back to Romania, where he was born, at the age of 18, he said, because life was so hard there."

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Retrieved 2025-08-13 18:00:25 UTC
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