HISTORY

The Bright History

Târgu Frumos is a small town in the Moldavian region of Romania, near Iaşi. The town was always a multicultural community, even today 20% of the population is represented by Russian and Rroma ethnics. Back in 1763, the Moldavian ruler, Grigore Callimachi, decided to develop the town, so he excepted Jewish inhabitants from taxes. In time, Târgu Frumos was probably a good place to live for the Jewish community because in 1899, the number of Jews grew to 2123 people. In 1930, the town had 4986 citizens, and 32% of them were Jews. 

The Jews of Târgu Frumos were mainly engaged in crafts and trade. The historian Moses Schwarzfeld appreciates, reading documents from the beginning of the 19th century, that the Jews (from Târgu Frumos) had an active role in public life. They were many times empowered by the people to represent their causes in relation with public entities, facts that prove the esteem and the confidence they enjoyed as citizens of the town. 

In a statistic of craftsmen quoted by Neculai Darnga, it can be seen that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Jews are well represented in all trades: dyers, bakers, furriers, shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, blacksmiths, mechanics, printers, butchers, tinsmiths etc.