Jewish Roots Travel

The Jewish Museum of Odessa was set up in 2002 in a former apartment, where in Soviet times 4 families, of which 3 Jewish, lived together. The museum is not big, but it is a true gem. We will visit it on our tours of Odessa.

Our new research trip to the Ukraine starts in Odessa. Can't be too bad, if you start with a shakshuka!

Jews settled in the Danube port of Galati in the 16th century. The community grew especially in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. In 1930 there were almost 20.000 Jews living in Galati, 20 % of the total population. The town had 28 synagogues and a prosperous community. The only surviving synagogue in Galati is Templul Meseriasilor (Craftsmen's Temple) built 1875. Here are a few photos from its interior. We revisited it yesterday.

The Holy Union Temple (Ahdut Kodesh) in Bucharest was built in 1836 by the tailors guild. It was reshaped in 1910 and again after the progrom and devastation of January 1941. Since 1978 it was used as a Jewish Museum. During the last few years the former synagogue was restored to its former glory. For the moment, it houses a temporary exhibition and different events. The main exhibition will be back in a few months. But the building itself and the arts exhibition are definitely worth a visit.

The Beer family, this particular Beer family, originated in Czernowitz, nowadays Chernivtsi in the Ukraine, back then (late 19th century) in Austria-Hungary. One of the Beer brothers, Leib Beer born 1870 was deported from Vienna and killed in the Holocaust, another brother, Chaim vanished and we are still looking for his life story. This grave belongs to the third brother (no other siblings after going through all the Czernowitz Jewish births registers), Salomon, who died shortly after arriving in Vienna to study medicine. He was born 1867 in Czernowitz, graduated the Imperial Highschool in his hometown in 1889 and came then to Vienna. He died of mielitis at age 22 in the former hospital in Alserstraße 4. It was late autumn when we found his grave in the Zentralfriedhof in Vienna. May his memory be a blessing