Kishinev's Jewish Community Marks 100th Anniversary of Bloody 1903 Pogrom

KISHINEV, MOLDOVA -- Five hundred people gathered in the bitter cold of April in Kishinev - site of the bloody and infamous pogrom of 1903 - to commemorate the 100th anniversary of that tragic event with a memorial stone dedicated by the Jewish community of Kishinev.

Kishinev was the capitol of Bessarabia (Moldova) where approximately half of the 125,000 residents were Jewish. There was a rumor that a Christian had been killed by Jews in a ritual murder. On Easter Sunday, mobs killed 49 Jews, wounded 500, looted over 1,000 homes and left 2,000 families homeless. Mass rallies were held around the world due to this brutality. Chaim Nachman Bialik, who became the Poet Laureate of the Jewish people, published "The City of Slaughter" after interviewing some of the survivors. His words became a "call to arms" to overthrow the Czarist regime and became a catalyst for Theodore Herzl to search for refuge for his people. (This paragraph is based on sermon delivered by Rabbi Wohlberg.)

Present at the unveiling of the inscribed memorial stone to mark the occasion were Moldova's President, Vladimir Voronin, Israeli Minister of Transportation Avigdor Lieberman (a native of Moldova), Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari and a host of other national and local officials.

JDC's Director of Operations in the former Soviet Union was also on hand and made the following remarks to those gathered:

"Next week Jews will around the world sit at the seder and celebrate Passover. One of the main points of the Hagaddah is that in every generation, there has been and will be an effort to exterminate the Jewish people. Ultimately, we're told salvation belongs to the Jewish people.

There are two ways to view this point. You can look at the string of tragedies that have befallen our people, or you can recognize the eternity of the Jewish people. I choose the latter. Here we are, 100 years after the Kishinev pogrom - part of a chain of efforts to eradicate Jewish people in this part of the world - and we witness the triumph of a modern Jewish community strong enough to commemorate the tragedy. After 100 years, we are here and the oppressors are not."

Indeed, with 5,000 people each week coming through the doors of the Jewish community center in Kishinev for activities in 32 separate programs ranging from Israeli folk dance to classes in ceramic art, the vibrancy of this community is a wonder. The center and its activities are financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).

The center's director, Anna, says that the Jewish community center is important to both the Jews and the non-Jews in Kishinev. ""We live in a turbulent place at a turbulent time. And while Kishinev may be at a political and cultural crossroads, we have never had a conflict erupt in our center." In fact, says Anna, the center has become a staple of local culture, winning recognition by the government as the leading cultural organization for three years in a row.

The center also houses a Jewish museum with a permanent exhibit on the 1903 pogrom. Museum Director Darina received a grant from JDC to do primary research on the pogrom. "The past and the present here are very closely tied. The graves of the 49 killed and the thousands injured in that pogrom are in our cemetery. You can't walk down Isiatske Street without feeling a chill run down your spine."

JDC began operating in the Jewish community of Kishinev in 1992 with the opening of a Jewish library.