Vylock, Ukraine - Budapest, Hungary - Bucharest, Romania - Falticeni, Romania - Escape from Romania
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Bucharest, Romania
This is the portion of my journey in Bucharest in September 2003. This documents my travel there and portions of Herbert's (my father), Jay (my brother) and Idon (my relative from Israel ). We were in Bucharest a few days before going on to Falticeni , Romania . However, I hope the information is useful to others that may wish to make the journey.
9-19-03 Friday Romania
Breakfast at the Sofitel Hotel
Met Aniella (a young lady we met with her father, who was our driver, on our trip five years earlier) with Idon, Jay and dad.
Cab ride to Synagogue
Walked by former synagogue
Walked to Palace and took tour.
Palatul Parlamentului What is without doubt Romania's most infamous building, the Palace of Parliament (known as House of the People before 1989) was built during the worst period in Romania 's recent history. Nicolae Ceausescu wanted the building to symbolise the complete victory of socialism in Romania . The size of the building is astonishing, but cannot be appreciated from street level as much as you might think. Work started in 1984 (Orwellian coincidence?) and continues, in spurts, to this day. Standing 84m above ground level on 12 floors, the structure is nearly as deep underground as it is above and is reputed to have a nuclear bunker (never proven) big enough to have housed the government.
Walked to history Museum (page 47 of booklet) and toured
The beautiful and grand neo-classical exterior hides a museum that is in urgent need of restauration and revitalisation. Once inside, you'll find exhibits - all poorly presented - that go into detail about the country's history over the past two million or so years. Plenty of skeletons, jewellery, weapons and tools to see, but all arranged in a rather confusing manner. There are also ancient imports from Greece and Rome are placed in context by exhibitions on the empires that crafted them, and separate halls are devoted to the revolutions of 1821 and 1848. The best exhibits are downstairs: the Lapidarium features a plastercast of Trajan's column (perhaps the world's first cartoon history). Admission is 30,000 lei; 15,000 lei for students; 10,000 lei for children and you may well find yourself the only visitor. Calea Victoriei 12 Tel: 311 33 56
Cab ride to Casa Dorna
Walked to hotel through park
Note: Jewish sites or offices close by 1:00 on Fridays. Friday night service at 7:00 in September 2003.
There are three Jewish Cemeteries in Bucharest
Giurgiu Cemetery Baraf Marinel is the Administrator of the Cimitir Giurgiu . He is the one that showed us the two grave sites. There is a charge to go into the cemetery. We also gave a gratuity to the administrator for taking the time to walk the cemetery and show us the graves. This is a huge cemetery. It is enclosed by walls. It is so large that it is divided by a railroad track.
Cemetery for Sephardim which is near the Giurgiu Cemetery . We did not visit this one.
Filantropia Cemetery (Filantropia cemetery of Bucharest ) This one is located B-Dul Ion Mihalache and is also a large cemetery.
Relatives of whose graves we found that are buried in Bucharest
1) Solomon Goldstein (1875- to 10-13-1947) Giurgiu Cemetery or Graveyard
G Soc -12-5 In cemetery Group G Sector Row 12 grave 5
4973 death certificate #
Sector 3 - Where they issued the death certificate in Bucharest .
Book A-K 1941-1965 Aug.
2) Anda Berkowitz (Their records show Bercovici) December 17, 1945 (Daniela' sister died between 6 months to one year) Giurgiu Cemetery or Graveyard
Think it was Sector or Group 437 Row 12 grave 1
Found on page 20 of the ledger book 1941 – 6 situg book ????
Found – no headstone
The Bucharest Jewish Federation is located in the same compound as the synagogue at 9-11 Sfanta Vineri Street . It is in the building behind the synagogue.
Gentleman at Romanian Jewish Federation that helped us with cemetery records –
Joseph Cotnareanu
3141924 phone on his desk
Str. Sf. BVineri Quill, Bucharest
He speaks English pretty well.
I suggest you make a contribution to the Federation for any assistance you may receive. The Federation can certainly use the money. It is also not a bad idea to provide a gratuity for any personal help you receive in the process.
The Federation and the Cemeteries have the cemetery records in ledger books. If you ask, the Federation also has the records on computer and can do a search by last name at the Federation. Meti (phonetic spelling). This man does the computer records.
The Synagogue that the Federation of Jewish Communities shares the compound with is called The Choral Temple and is located at 9-11 Sfanta Vineri Street . The telephone number is 312 21 96. It was inaugurated on July 18, 1867. It is well worth the time to visit. (click on for brochure)
The synagogue has approximately 40 Torah scrolls. It sits 300 on the main level and 300 seats in the two tier balcony. Services are Saturday at 8:30 in the main sanctuary. There is a small synagogue in the back which is used for daily services at 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m.
In 2003, there are 12,000 Jews in all of Romania with 5,000 of them living in Bucharest .
Temple Unirea Sfanta which is now The History Museum of The Romanian Jews ( 3 Mamulari Street ) and the phone number is 311 08 70. It is open as of September 2003, when we visited, as follows:
Monday 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Thursday 10 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Sunday 9 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
The museum is well worth going through. There are three levels of Exhibits to look through. They also have books and postcards at very reasonable prices.
The lady at the Museum at Temple Coral on 9/23/03 that gave us the tour was
Hilda Grunberg
STR Frumoasa ?? 28
Bucharest , Romania
Telephone 65073
The other synagogue is the Sinagog Mare and is known as the Jewish Martyrs' Memorial Exhibition. (click to view brochure) It is located at 11 Vasile Adamache Street . We did not make it to this Synagogue on this trip due to time constraints.
While Bucharest has a subway system and buses, we used cabs for our means of transportation. I would suggest checking the fare before you get in and make sure they have a meter and it is on. If they go by the meter, a cab ride was fairly inexpensive. We got ripped off by a few cabs. If they ask if you are there for tourist or business, say business. If you say tourist, you are likely in for a round about ride. It is also a good idea to know where you are going so that they do not take you the long way.
On Saturday 9 - 2003, I stopped by a travel agency to check on trains to Falticeni from Bucharest . My brother wanted to stay another day in Bucharest , basically because there did not seem to be a great deal of night life in Falticeni. I did not blame him. The travel agent was very helpful and provided me information that the train leaves at 9:08 p.m. that night with one train switch and arrives in Falticeni at 5:03 a.m. Sunday. However, I had to go to the train station to purchase the ticket and I traveled on to Falticeni , Romania .
© October 2003 Philip M. Goldstein