Jewish Communities in Moldova

The information below is adapted from the website of the Federation of Jewish Communities.
http://www.fjc.ru/Communities/instIndex.asp?cid=89094

Association of Jewish Communities
Semen Shoikhet

Synagogue
Chabad Lyubavich
str. 8
Kishinev, Moldova 270005
Tel.: (377 2) 54-10-23
Fax: (377 2) 54-10-20
Rabbi Zalman Abelsky

There is a Jewish Community Center Bieltsy.

There is a Jewish Community Center Kishinev.
http://www.manger.araxinfo.com/program_en.php?theme=museum

JCC Director, Anna Batsmanova
4 Diorditsa Street
2005, Kishinev Moldova
manger@araxinfo.com
The following organizations have also been established in Moldova since 1992:

• Kishinev Jewish Library
• Organization of Jewish Veterans of World War II
• Organization of Former Refugees
• Women’s organization HAVA
• Society of Jewish Culture
• Association of Former Prisoners of Concentration Camps and Ghettos
• Federation of Jewish Religious Communities
• Educational University of Jewish Culture
• TV program Af der Yiddisher gas (“On the Jewish Street”)
• Radio program Yiddish lebn (“Jewish Life”)

Two rabbis serve in Moldova, both based in Chisinau: Chabad Rabbi Zalman Abelsky is Chief Rabbi of Moldova and President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Moldova. He has been in Chisinau since the early 1990s. Rabbi Moshe Budilovsky, who is associated with Agudat Israel, arrived in 1997. He is widely admired for his outreach efforts.

Chabad Lubavitch maintains synagogues in Chisinau and Tiraspol and is active throughout Moldova. The movement runs one of the two Jewish day schools in Moldova – the 250-student Jewish School #15, a rabbinical school operated through the synagogue, and two pre-schools. In addition, Chabad runs several welfare and supplementary education programs and publishes a monthly newspaper, Istoky (“Roots”).

Agudath Israel, under the leadership of Rabbi Budilovsky, operates the yeshiva high school, Torat Emet, where up to 200 boys and girls are separated into two programs. The Yeshiva is located in the same building as the once famous synagogue and yeshiva of the pre-World War II era that was headed by Rabbi Leib Yehuda Tsirelson. Rabbi Tsirelson was killed on the first day of Germany’s invasion by a bomb. The Torat Emet stands across from a large sports stadium in which Jews were murdered during the Holocaust.

Jewish School #22, established in 1991, educates up to 300 students. This school was established by the Israeli government’s Lishkat Hakesher (Nativ) as part of its Maavar (Tsofia) program. World ORT established technology and media centers within the school in 2001. These Jewish schools are all funded in part by the Moldovan government and the Israeli Cultural Center. At least eight Jewish Sunday schools operate throughout Moldova – three in the capital, and one each in Bender, Soroky, Beltsy, Rybnitsa and Tiraspol.

The Israeli Embassy’s Israeli Cultural Center operates in Chisinau, and the Israeli Government and Moldovan Education Ministry jointly run a school to prepare children for aliyah. Jewish Agency For Israel also has a presence and runs Nesharim summer camps and winter seminars on Jewish history and tradition. Israel’s Open University, sponsored by JDC, is based in the capital, while Chisinau State University and the Academy of Sciences each have a Judaica department. More generally, Jewish programs are included in Moldovan university curricula, though a critical shortage of teachers and funding threatens these programs.

The Jewish Cultural Center
4 Diorditsa Street
Phone: 011-373-22-224-814

Gleizer Sheel (The Glaziers Synagogue)
8 Chabad Lubavitch Street
Phone: 373-22-541-052
Fax: 373-22-226-131
This was the only fuctioning synagogue under the Soviets. It is beautifully decorated, according to ancicent tradition, with painted signs of the zodiac. The Gleizer Sheel is led by Rabbi Zalman Abelsky of Israel.

The Ghetto Memorial
Jerusalem 3000 Street
Memorials take place every year here onYom Hashoah.

Contacts
Yeshiva of Kishinev
Shutafa 5 277001
Kishinev
Phone: 264-238, 264-331

Kishinev Synagogue
Yakimovsky per. 8 277000
Phone: 221-215

Teleneshty Synagogue
4 28th June Street