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[Page 187]

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There were few Jewish leaders, political or spiritual, who tightly bonded with their people. They shared joys, troubles, and the difficult era of the war with their people. One of them was Rabbi Dr. Alexandru Şafran, Shlita^[1], who is currently the Chief Rabbi of the Jews in Geneva. Among Romanian Jews and the Jewish people as a whole, he is one of the personalities who stand out in their charismatic activities.

In 1940 when Rabbi Dr. Alexandru Şafran was only 29 years old, he was chosen as the Chief Rabbi of

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Romanian Jewry. He served in the days of the terrible storm that annihilated tens of millions of people. In his eight years of service – from 1940 until the end of 1947 – the most difficult events occurred which harmed the Jewry of central and eastern Europe. Millions of Jews, men, women, and children were killed and their traces disappeared. Hundreds of years of culture and tradition almost went completely extinct.

In the era of the Holocaust a part of the Jewish community in Romania was saved. Half of the Jewish population was lost in exile, in hard labor, and in extermination and extreme torture. Chief Rabbi Dr. Alexandru Şafran acted to save the Jewish people. It is due to his labor, bravery, devotion, and commitment that a large part of the Jewish population in Romania was saved.

The Holocaust era began a few months after he was chosen to serve.

At the beginning of July 1940, a pogrom was held in the city of Dorohoi, where 200 Jews found their death. A pogrom was held in Bucharest, the capital, in January 1941. By the end of June 1941, another pogrom was held in Iaşi where about 12,000 Jews were murdered. Men, women, elderly, and children found their death, some of them in the streets of the city and some in the death trains. The pogrom was carried out by the Romanian army and police, with the aid of the Germans. In those days many Jews from the area of Bessarabia and the northern provinces of Bukovina were murdered. 40,000 Jews were deported from their villages. On June 21, 1941, Romania joined the war beside Nazi Germany. By August 32 [sic], 1944 – the date of the overthrow of Antonescu's pro-Nazi regime – countless murders and crimes were committed against the Jewish people. Romanian Jewry was under the threat of extermination by Nazis for the entire duration of the war.

In this storm arose a hope for the Romanian Jews: Rabbi Dr. Alexandru Şafran. Even though he was a young man of around 30 years old! He worked hard and made an impact for the good of the Jews. With bravery he succeeded to persuade and extract promises from people close to the government that were kept for the most part. He did not hesitate to fall on his knees before the orthodox Patriarch of All Romania – the head of the Romanian church – and didn't hesitate to choose a group of people with whom he worked to save Jews in underground conditions. Supporting him was Queen Mother Elena as well as a number of Romanian public figures, who were not infected with the disease of antisemitism.

His wife helped him, who was like a character from an epic. She created a connection with key people whose aid he needed. When the war ended, his private war did not end. He was forced to open a new defense war: a war to save himself. A war against Jews who worked to establish the Communist regime, people of the “Jewish Democratic Committee.” He miraculously succeeded in saving himself at the last minute. The rabbi, his wife, his daughter, and his son were forced to leave Romania. 

Today he is the official Chief Rabbi of Geneva (Switzerland) and works in research and writing valuable books in Jewish Studies. He is included among the Jewish leaders of the world. He frequently visits the Land and works for the state of Israel. At Bar-Ilan University, a chair for the study of Kabbalah was established in his name.

Translator's footnote

1. Written in Hebrew as שליט”א, Shlita is an honorific for Rabbis that translates to “may he live many long and good days, amen ” שיחיה לאורך ימים טובים אמן Return

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Professor Moshe Gil from the University of Tel-Aviv considers himself as a native of Bacău, although he only arrived there with his parents at the age of five from Bialystok [Poland], where he was born in 1921. His dad was invited to Bacău as an expert on the textile industry. The Gitler-family was well-known in the city. Their house on the 15^th of August street was a center for Jewish and Zionist activities, and Moshe knew Hebrew from his childhood.

From the age of 14, the young Moshe was an active member of the organisation HaShomer HaTzair^[1], and at 19 he served as the secretary of the national movement. Because he intended to immigrate to Eretz-Israel as a pioneer, he didn't continue his academic studies in Romania, despite being among the top students of the public high school in Bacău. Only many years later did he fulfill his ambitions to study and attained the most senior degrees and positions in the academic world in Israel.

In 1942, when he organized the underground movement in Bacău, he was arrested, and in the trial, known as the “the trial of the guards”, he was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment with hard labour. In the Văcăre?ti prison he was the undisputed leader of the “prisoners of Zion” and participated in sharp discussions with the Jewish communist prisoners, who tried to recruit among the Zionist prisoners.

In order to boost the morale of his comrades, Gitler wrote a song in Hebrew, which became the anthem of the “prisoners of Zion.” The song opened with the lines: “The day will come, the day of spring/The sun will shine down upon us/And we will forget the evenings of siege/The likeness of the angel will escape”

With the liberation of Romania in 1945, Moshe Gitler was among the restorers of the Zionist movement, the head of the leadership of HaShomer HaTzair and secretary of HeHalutz, an umbrella organisation of the pioneering youth in Romania. He worked together with the envoys from Eretz-Israel on immigration, and at the end of 1945 he immigrated to Israel and settled in Kibbutz Reshafim in the Beit She'an Valley. In the 60's he undertook studies and had in 1970 already earned a masters degree in Jewish history from the University of Tel Aviv and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.

In addition to being a tenured professor at the University of Tel Aviv, Moshe Gil holds multiple other senior positions like Head of the School of Jewish Studies and Dean of Humanities. In 1989 he was elected as a fellow of the highly prestigious association in the United States, The American Academy for Jewish Research.

Prof. Moshe Gil is considered one of the greatest researchers of Jewish history in the Diaspora during the Middle Ages and in Eretz-Israel during the Islamic period. As Visiting Scholar at Cambridge University he often engages in research on the Cairo Genizah documents located there. Over the years he has published numerous articles and books in his area of expertise and even won prestigious prizes, among them the Arnold Wiznitzer Prize for his book^[2] on Eretz-Israel during the first Islamic period.

Through his Zionist activities in exile, his pioneering work in the kibbutz and his academic work, Moshe Gitler-Gil represents the contribution that Romanian Jews in general and those from Bacău in particular have made and continue to make to the State of Israel.

Prof. Gil is married to Mausie^[3], a nurse by profession, and together they have two daughters and grandchildren.

Translator's footnotes

1. “The Young Guard”; a Labour Zionist youth movement founded in 1913. Return
2. Published in Hebrew as Eretz-Israel During the First Muslim Period (634-1099) , in English as A History of Palestine, 634-1099 (1997) Return
3. His wife's nickname; her real name was Shoshana. Return

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Mrs. Landman, a poet who won a respectable place in Israeli poetry and the Romanian language, was born in Oneşti. She acquired a broad general education in her youth and learned to play piano and to sing, even in this field she was gifted with certain talents.

Mrs. Landman made aliyah to Israel in the year 1960 together with her family and lives in Netanya, where she resides even today. In Israel, she published her first collection of poems called “Bucurie şi Suferinþã” (“Joys and Sufferings” in Romanian).

Her poetry expresses enthusiasm and love for our people, thoughts and feelings, sorrow for our difficult past, and the great suffering that lasted with us for generations. She mentions the tragedy of the ship “Struma,” identifying with the Romanian Jews' agony [throughout their] torments during the time of the Shoah. In other poems she expresses the heroism of IDF soldiers in Israel's battles.

In another collection, “Twilight” (“Amurg” in Romanian), published in 1981 in Tel Aviv, she returns to the same topics close to her heart. She found more sources of inspiration in societal problems, faith, traditions of Israel, and Hasidism.

Devora Landman also wrote poems in the Yiddish language and sometimes also in Hebrew.

She was awarded several honors:

World Decoration of Excellence Medallion- American Biographical Centre, Cambridge, Mass.
The Certificate of Merit Commemoration Medal of Honor- American Institute Raleigh, North Carolina

Devora Landman married Rabbi David Landman from Netanya. Their daughter is Malka, a talented pianist and painter. In addition to her occupations painting and playing music, she studied in six languages: psychology, education, literature, [and] English. Devora Landman is a public activist in Netanya.

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