| Group: | Sephardic Jews in Romania |
| Population: | <1,000 |
| Regions: | Bucharest |
| Languages: | Ladino, Romanian |
| Religions: | Judaism |
| Related Groups: | Sephardic Jews |
Sephardic Jews have played an important historical role in Romania, although their numbers in the country have dwindled to a few hundred, with most living in the capital, Bucharest. Antisemitic pogroms and economic strife lead to mass emigration out of the country in the 20th century.
Many Sephardic Jews began settling in Wallachia in the 16th century, then under Ottoman rule, although there is evidence they began settling in Romania as early as 1496 following the Spanish Inquisition and Alhambra Decree.[1] They arrived through the Ottoman Empire, which was more welcoming towards Jewish immigration than other countries in Europe at the time.
In 1730, following advice of Jews Daniel de Fonseca and Celebi Mentz Bali, the then-ruler of Wallachia, Nicolae Mavrocordat, formally allowed Sephardic Jews to organize themselves into communities. Since then, according to historian Iuliu Barasch, many Sephardim from the Ottoman Empire began settling in Romania. However, it was not until 1819 that the first synagogue was built in the capital, Cahal Grande, with reforms by Rabbis Eliezer Papo and Damascus Eliezer.
Since the establishment of said communities, the Sephardic community in Romania thrived, despite antisemetic measures taken by government officials Ion C. Brătianu and Dimitrie A. Sturdza. In 1934, there were large Sephardic communities in Bucharest, Craiova, Ploiești, Turnu Severin, Timișoara, Corabia, Calafat, Brăila, Galați, Tulcea, Constanța and Giurgiu.[2] [3] Sephardic Jews' situation worsened in 1937, along with the rest of the Jews in Romania, suffering from antisemetic laws established by Octavian Goga's government, as well as Miron Cristea's, but especially by the National Legionary State.[4] [5] During the Legionary Rebellion at the Bucharest pogrom, the Cahal Grande Synagogue was burned to the ground.
The establishment of the communist regime, Romanian Sephardic Jews emigrated en masse to Israel. Currently, there are several hundred Sephardic Jews left in Romania, the majority in Bucharest. They no longer have a synagogue exclusive to their community. There is a minute amount of Sephardic Jews who emigrated to Bucharest in modern times, mostly from Israel.