CAMPULUNG MOLDOVENESC

CAMPULUNG MOLDOVENESC (Rom. Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Ger. Kimpulung), town in Bukovina, N. Romania; summer resort and center of the timber processing industry. Jews were living there in 1684. They engaged in trade and agriculture, and some kept hostels. In 1769, 21 Jews were forced to leave the town. After the Austrian conquest of Bukovina in 1775, the situation of the Jews deteriorated; the Austrian authorities restricted their economic activities. In 1785 the community of Campulung Moldovenesc was placed under the jurisdiction of the community of Suceava, situated 42 miles (67 km.) away. A request in 1794 for permission to form an independent community was refused, and the community did not receive independent status until 1859. From the end of the 19th century the number of Jews in Campulung Moldovenesc increased. They played an important role in trade, crafts and banking, and later in the professions. When Bukovina was annexed by Romania in 1918 the Jews were subjected to the same restrictions as the rest of Romanian Jewry. Zionism gained many adherents. The community numbered 49 in 1789; 799 in 1880 (14.4% of the total population); 3,500 in 1913; 1,488 in 1930 (14.9%); and 1,681 in 1941. During World War II the Jews at first suffered from economic restrictions. Trading licenses were canceled, their real property was confiscated, and their belongings looted. In 1940 the valuable Judaica library of Rabbi Joseph Rubin was dispersed and nearly totally destroyed. The synagogues were also pillaged. Jews were sent to do forced labor. In 1941 they were deported to Transnistria with the rest of the Jewish population of the region. By 1942, after the deportations, only 28 Jews remained in the town. After the war the survivors returned. The Jewish population numbered 1,350 in 1947 and 270 in 1970. In 2004 there were 18 Jews in Campulung Moldovenesc. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: C. Gelber, in: H. Gold (ed.), Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina, 2 (1962), 88–90. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Avny (ed.), Sefer Zikkaron le-Kehillat Yehudei Kimpolong-Bukovina ve-ha-Sevivah, 2 vols. (2003); V. Barladeanu and S. Schieber (eds.), Viata si martiriul evreilor din Campulung-Bucovina, 2 vols. (1997); D. Schaary, Yehudei Bukovina bein shetei Milḥamot h-Olam (2004), index; FEDROM-Comunitati evreiesti din Romania (Internet, 2004). (Yehouda Marton / Lucian-Zeev Herscovici (2nd ed.)