“Negresti” - Encyclopedia of Jewish
Communities in Romania, Volume 1
(Negresti, Romania)

46°50' / 27°26'

Translation from Pinkas Hakehillot Romania

Published by Yad Vashem

Published in Jerusalem, 1969



Acknowledgments

Project Coordinator

Robert S. Sherins, M.D.

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to put this material on the JewishGen web site.

This is a translation from: Pinkas Hakehillot: Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities, Romania,
Volume 1, pages 181-182, published by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, 1969

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(pages 181-182)
 

Negrest, Romania (Negresti)

By Theodore Lavi, Ph.D., Coordinator of Pinkas ha-Kehilot in Yad Vashem/Transnistria, Hargat

English translation researched and edited by Robert S. Sherins, M.D.

Translated by Ziva Yavin, Ph.D.

Translation donated by Robert S. Sherins, M.D.,
Richard J. Sherins, M.D., and Beryle Solomon Buchman

Negrest (Negresti) is a village in the Moldavia region, Vaslui district.

 

Jewish Population

YearNumber % of Jews in General Population
183872 (families) 
1930527 (persons)24.4%
191078517.1%
1941408 
1947195 

Until the breakout of WWII

In 1803 there were two taxpaying Jews in Negresti, by then a rural village. The village was established during the reign of Prince Mihail Sturza, in 1836. By 1838 there were 72 Jewish families, exempt from taxes according to special privileges as the village founders. In 1845, the owner of the estate, Eufrosina Rosetti, formulated a contract with the Jews, stipulating the amount of tax they had to pay her. They got permission to build houses and the right to vote a representative to the local municipality.

The burial society's notebook has been preserved since 1849. The congregation's institutes were a synagogue, a ritual bath and a cemetery.

In 1899 the population of Negresti was mostly Jewish, occupied in trading and handicraft.

In 1910, there were 88 traders, 11 tailors, 13 shoemakers, 6 tinsmiths and 84 with different professions.

A Zionist branch was also active in the village, “Neve Zion” (founded in 1902).

M. H. Schein was born in 1856 and became the head of the Zionist organization in Romania between the years 1908-1919. He passed away in 1932, in Galatz (Galati).

In 1907, the days of the farmer's rebellion, the uprising became violent and wild. On 7 and 8 of March the farmers broke into the village and destroyed and looted the Jewish houses. Several Jews, who tried to protect their homes, were beaten and one woman even died from her wounds. 173 families were left with nothing.

In 1914 the persecution was renewed. The person in charge of the sub-district instigated the farmers not to buy from the Jewish traders but he himself made sure that in the days of the fairs his order must be kept. The Jewish Organization in Bucharest turned to the interior ministry and a discussion was held in the Romanian Parliament about this persecution.

During the Holocaust

With the break out of war between Romania and the USSR, in June 1941, Negresti Jews were exiled to the district's city Vaslui.

After the war about half of the previous citizens returned to Negresti.

TL

The General Archive of The History of the Jewish People.

RM 160.
Yad Vashem Archive
IM 1220; 0--11/18--1; 157/24.

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