Interested in Jewish history and culture in Moldova but don’t have the opportunity to travel there? The Jewish community in Moldova recently launched an online Jewish museum — the “On the Trails of History” Virtual Museum of Judaica in Moldova.
It includes a wealth of digitized photographs, documents and Judaica items, as as well as images of tombstones and Jewish cemeteries, art objects and curios, videos, books, and more.
Work on the project took place in 2013-2014. The aim, according to the Jewish community, was: the creation of the electronic catalogue of the Judaic objects from regional centers of the republic, developed in accordance with state and European standards, with user-friendly interface for saving and rendering to the younger generation of the rich Jewish heritage of Moldova.
The project team carried out on-site research in Soroca, Balti, Tiraspol, Rybnita, Orhei, Chisinau and the villages Rascov and Ciuciuleni.
In implementing the project, the Jewish community cooperated with other institutions such as the I. Manger Chisinau Jewish Library; the historical museums of the cities of Balti, Soroca, Chisinau, Bender, Rybnita; the Holocaust museum in the ORT lyceum; the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova; the Chisinau Jewish Community Center KEDEM; the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova; the web-portal www.oldchisinau.com; and the Republican Volunteer Center, as well as private family collections, experts, Jewish schools and volunteers.
The Jewish community also maintains a physical museum in Chisinau — the Jewish Heritage of Moldova Museum — which was reopened in December 2014 after its exhibition was revamped and reorganized.
The museum is located in KEDEM (the Kishinev United House of the Jews in Moldova), Chisinau’s Jewish community, cultural and welfare center, which opened in 2005. The museum is located in a historical part of the campus, originally built in 1835 as the “Lemnaria” (wooden or wood-cutters’) Synagogue, so named because of the wood shops and stockpiles around it. Until the Choral Synagogue was built in 1913, it was the largest synagogue in the city. It was nationalized in 1940, and though returned to Jewish ownership decades later, by that time only the facade and basement remained of the original structure.
6 comments on “Virtual Jewish Museum — Moldova”
My father Chaim Kiperman was born in 1903 in Balti Moldova. Father Menachem Mendel, mother Sima. They died when he was 3 years old.
Went to live at his uncle’s home, Naftoli Kiperman. There was another uncle who lived in Broklyn named Hyman Kuperman whom I met in 1951.
Any more information will be appreciated. I changed officially my last name to Kipperman (2 P’s).
I am searching for any information on Goldie Rosenfeld. I have been told she was from either Rumania or Lithuania. She came to the U.S. at age 14 on a tramp steamer ( perhaps from Breman). She arrived about 1890 with two or three sisters. Ida, Anna, and Rebecca Levin.
In 1892 she married Eli (Ellis) Stein and had nine children. ( My Mother was the eldest, born
1893.) Goldie arrived in Baltimore,Md. and lived there until her death. January 2,1954.
The name of her Father was Abba. I believed that was an error, but it was Abram. Her Mother may have been Rachama. Any help would be appreciated
Dear Rita – Shalom!
I found that you wrote to the Jewish Museum in Kishinev, Moldavia, to your grandmother Goldie Rosenfeld, who married in the United States in 1892 with Eli Stein, who is your grandfather in my understanding,
I’m interested in your grandfather, Eli Stein, whether he happens to be from Odessa, so what do you know about him and his family?
best regards
eli zahavi-goldman,
Israel
I am seeking information about my maternal grandmother, Raise Leventhal Schectman. I know very little about her. I believe she was from Moghilev -Podolsky in Ukraine, but lived most of her adult life in Ataki, a Bessarabian village in the north, right on the Dnieste river. She was married to Yehudah Leib Schectman and had at least six children. My father, Avrum, came to New York in 1909 under the name Abraham Simon (he either bought a ticket or visa from a Mr. Simon and kept that name in the US.) I just recently learned that my grandmother’s maiden name was LEVENTHAL, and am very interested to know about any Leventhals in that part of Bessarabia (now, of course, Moldova). She died in 1917.
I am interested in any information you can share with me about Camenca, a shtetl on the Dneister River. My grandfather, Tobias, Schlaffer, was from there. Thanks you!
I am interested in any information you have on the GOITMAN family who lived and worked in, emigrated from and died in Kishinev. Thank you.