| Total population | |
|---|---|
| From 205,600 [1] to possibly 450,000 [2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Northern District [3] | |
| Languages | |
| Hebrew (main language for all generations); Older generation: Romanian language, Yiddish | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism |
Romanian Jews in Israel refers to the community of Romanian Jews who migrated to Palestine beginning in the later 19th century, continued migrating to Israel after the formation of the modern state in 1948, and live within the state of Israel. The descendants of those who made aliyah in the 1930s, the wave of emigrants after World War II or after the fall of communism, with their children and grandchildren born in Israel, represent about 10% of the population. [4] According to the Association of Romanian Journalists Abroad, about 400,000 Romanian Jews live in Israel. [5] They have established several kibbutzim, moshavim and towns (Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Tiv'on, Rosh Pinna, Zikhron Ya'akov). Between 1882 and 1884, Romanian Jews in Israel already established nine localities.
Mass emigration to Israel ensued (see Bricha and Aliyah ). According to Sachar, for the first two post-war years, tens of thousands of Romanian Jews left for Israel; the Romanian government did not try to stop them, especially due to its desire to reduce its historically suspect and now impoverished Jewish minority. Afterwards, Jewish emigration began to encounter obstacles. In 1948, the year of Israeli independence, Zionism came under renewed suspicion, and the government began a campaign of liquidation against Zionist funds and training farms. However, emigration was not completely banned; Romanian Foreign Minister Ana Pauker, herself a Jew with a father and brother in Israel, negotiated an agreement with Israeli ambassador Reuven Rubin, a Romanian immigrant to Israel, under which the Romanian government would allow 4,000 Jews a month to emigrate to Israel; this decision was at least partially influenced by a large Jewish Agency bribe to the Romanian government. This agreement applied mainly to ruined businessmen and other economically "redundant" Jews. Around this time, Israel also secured another agreement with the Romanian government, under which Romania issued 100,000 exit visas for Jews and Israel supplied Romania with oil drills and pipes to aid the struggling Romanian oil industry. [6] By December 1951, about 115,000 Romanian Jews had emigrated to Israel. [7]
Throughout the period of Communist rule, Romania allowed limited numbers of Jews to emigrate to Israel, in exchange for much-needed Israeli economic aid. By 1965, Israel was funding agricultural and industrial projects throughout Romania, and in exchange, Romania allowed emigration of limited numbers of Jews to Israel. When Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power in 1965, he initially ended the trade in deference to the Eastern bloc's Arab allies. However, by 1969, he decided to exchange Jews for cash from Israel. Ceaușescu wanted economic independence from the Soviet Union, which was content to keep Romania a backwater and as nothing more than a supplier of raw materials, but to fund economic projects, he needed hard cash. As a result, from then until the Ceaușescu regime fell in 1989, about 1,500 Jews a year were granted exit visas to Israel in exchange for a payment of cash for every Jew allowed to leave, in addition to other Israeli aid. The exact payments were determined by the age, education, profession, employment, and family status of the emigrant. Israel paid a minimum of $2,000 per head for every emigrant, and paid prices in the range of $25,000 for doctors or scientists. In addition to these payments, Israel also secured loans for Romania and paid off the interest itself, and supplied the Romanian Army with military equipment. [6] [8]
As a result of aliyah, the Romanian-Jewish community was gradually depleted. By 1987, just 23,000 Jews were left in Romania, half of whom were over 65 years old. [9]
Romanian Jews in Israel have strong relations with Romanian culture. Moreover, there is an intense activity among writers of Romanian language. In Israel exist 11 associations of writers in foreign languages, including the Association of Israeli Writers of Romanian Language (Romanian : Asociația Scriitorilor Israelieni de Limbă Română). Likewise, there are publications in Romanian languages, weekly, monthly or quarterly, plus several local issues.
Romania has an embassy in Tel Aviv, three honorary consulates in Jerusalem, Beersheba and Haifa and a cultural institute in Tel Aviv. [10]
This is a highly incomplete list of Israeli people of Romanian Jewish descent: [11]
Golda Meir was an Israeli politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Israel from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government and the first in the Middle East.
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel or the Palestine region, which is today chiefly represented by the State of Israel. Traditionally described as "the act of going up", moving to the Land of Israel or "making aliyah" is one of the most basic tenets of Zionism. The opposite action — emigration by Jews from the Land of Israel — is referred to in the Hebrew language as yerida. The Law of Return that was passed by the Israeli parliament in 1950 gives all diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity.
Moses Rosen was Chief Rabbi of Romanian Jewry between 1948–1994 and president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania between 1964 and 1994. He led the community through the entire Communist era in Romania and continued in that role after the restoration of democracy following the Romanian Revolution of 1989. In 1957, he became a deputy in the Romanian parliament, a position he held through the Communist regime, and after 1989, in the democratic parliament. In the 1980s, the Romanian authorities allowed him to receive Israeli nationality and he was elected president of the Council of the Jewish Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv.
Yerida is emigration by Jews from the State of Israel. Yerida is the opposite of aliyah, which is immigration by Jews to Israel. Zionists are generally critical of the act of yerida and the term is somewhat derogatory. The emigration of non-Jewish Israelis is not included in the term.
The Patria disaster was the sinking on 25 November 1940 by the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah of a French-built ocean liner, the 11,885-ton SS Patria, in the port of Haifa, killing 267 people and injuring 172.
Shlomo is the English form of שְׁלֹמֹה, the Hebrew name of the Israelite King Solomon. It is a popular name among Jews, especially in the State of Israel.
The 1970s Soviet Union aliyah was the mass immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel after the Soviet Union lifted its ban on Jewish refusenik emigration in 1971. More than 150,000 Soviet Jews immigrated during this period, motivated variously by religious or ideological aspiration, economic opportunity, and a desire to escape anti-Semitic discrimination.
Israel–Romania relations are foreign relations between Israel and Romania. The two nations established diplomatic relations on 11 June 1948. Israel has an embassy in Bucharest. Romania has an embassy in Tel Aviv and a general consulate in Haifa, and 2 honorary consulates. The two have signed treaties and agreements and both are full members of the Union for the Mediterranean.
Samuel Brand was a German Jew who became officially the first immigrant to enter the State of Israel after its creation on 14 May 1948. He was also a survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp in Nazi Germany. Brand carried with him the first visa ever issued by the Government of Israel.
French Jews in Israel are immigrants and descendants of the immigrants of the French Jewish communities, who now reside within the state of Israel. They numbered over 200,000 as of 2012.
The following lists events in the year 2019 in Israel.
The emigration of Jews from Romania refers to the historic migration (aliyah) of Romanian Jews to the Land or State of Israel.
