Haapalah

Bacău
Bákó
Barchau
Baków
Бакэу
בקאו

At the beginning of the 18th century, Bacau was a small town residing as an oasis on the river Bistrita, located in the path of the Turkish and Russian armies, which were fighting on Moldavian ground.
Iacob Psantir, an avid researcher of Jewish history, was first to write about the Jewish population Bacau.
In 1871, he published a book published in,in which he wrote: “The Jews must have lived in Bacau 200 years ago since I have found a tomb stone at the cemetery belonging to a Jewish person dated 167 years ago. Therefore, the Jews must have been here 30-40 years. before this date in order to bury their dead. In this cemetery there are many other tomb stones which cannot be read, since for some the letters are erased by time, while others are buried so deep that I could not dig them up to read. However, the one that I did find and could read has marvellous and legible letters, but somehow was never mentioned in any registry.”
Mr. Psantir refered to the cemetery on the former Cremenei Street.
Stories tell of a Jew named Lazar, who, in 1699, under the reign of the king Ioan Antohi, lived in Bacau or stayed there temporarily to solve a monetary conflict with a landlady of Gherghel Dumitrasco.
Documents show that in 1742, Constantin Mavrocordat, the ruler of Moldava, ordered the sheriff of the county of Bacau to assist two Jews, Avram and Boroh, in establishing themselves in Bacau.
“The Defence Book” (probably meaning passport) given to theAvram and Boroh stated: “I give this book to protect you two Jewish men, Avram and Boroh against anybody who tries to infringe upon your land by horse or carriage. I give them permission to establish themselves in Bacau.”
In 1742, the same ruler asked the mayor of Putna to order his employees not to collect taxes from the remaining family of Boroh who lived there.
At the end of the 18th century, the nobility, as well as the ruler of Moldava, promoted advantageous conditions for foreign merchants and tradesmen, many of them Jews, to come and establish themselves in the region.
The nobility was interested in populating the villages and small towns emptied by the wars, and the rulers encouraged the establishment of merchants and tradesmen in these cities as an important source of revenue.

In the spring of 1868, the government of I. Bratianu passed a discriminatory law, banning Jews from living and working in rural areas.
Leca, the anti-Semitic Mayor of Bacau County, drove away tens of Jewish families, many of whom were robbed, beaten and tortured.
The National Guard in Bacau exhibited the same anti-Semitic zeal, closing off synagogues and destroying the Jewish cemetery.
On April 9, 1868, the Jewish Community Committee in Bacau sent a letter to Baron Rothschild, in Wien, describing how: “hundreds of Jewish families in Bacau have been driven away barbarically from their residence at the order of the Mayor, with total disregard for losses, sorrow and needs.”

The Jews of Bacau supported the Independence War in 1877, but they were refused citizenship, which was granted only on an individual basis, after a very complicated procedure.
By 1900, in all of Romania, a total of 95 Jews had been granted citizenship.
In Bacau, only 5 people received their citizenship.
The Romanian Government implemented measures against foreigners, which really targeted Jews, banning them from owning land, taking part in elections, and discriminated against in public functions, state education or in the army.
Jewish merchants were required to register and pay dues to various corporations, but could not be elected as chairmen.

The Jews of Bacau became absorbed by the Zionist movement, and ideas of making Aliyah.
In 1882, together with Jews from Moinesti, the first group emigrated to Palestine.
In 1892, a second group left for Palestine.
The Jew of Bacau played an important role in the Zionist movement, and in the colonization of Israel, many being part of the legendary Fusgeyers, pedestrian emigration, and some were attracted by Baron de Hirsch's colonization project in Argentina.