Radu Cosaşu, (b. 1930), author and journalist, born as Oscar Rohrlich, in Bacau, Romania.
Following the establishment of the Communist regime in Romania, Cosasu became an admirer of the Soviet inspired Socialist-Realism style. However, after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, he changed his opinion in favor of what he called "the whole truth". As a result, he was fired from his workplace at a periodical and remained unemployed for more than ten years. Only in late 1960 he was permitted to publish again in a number of periodicals eventually becoming an editor at Sportul popular ("Popular Sport"), Romania's main sports newspaper, and at Cinema ("Movie Theater"), from 1967 to 1987. His novel Un august pe un bloc de gheaţă ("August on an Iceberg"), 1971, was awarded the Prize of the Romanian Writers Union. He continued his literary activity publishing over 3,000 articles and 15 books, among them Logica ("Logic"), in 1985; Supravietuiri ("Survivals"), 19731974; O viata cu Stan si Bran ("A Life with Laurel and Hardy"), 1981; Matusile din Tel Aviv ("My Aunts from Tel Aviv"), 1993; O supravietuire cu Oscar ("Surviving with Oscar"), 1997. After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, he was one of the founders of the periodical Dilema (1993-2004) and then he beacme an editor at Dilema veche ("Old Dilema").
Bacau
Town in Moldova, Romania.
A Jewish community is attested there in the 18th century. A chevra kaddisha (burial society) was established in 1774. In 1820 there were 55 Jewish taxpaying heads of families in Bacau. The Jewish population numbered 3,819 in 1859 and 7,902 (48.3% of the total) in 1899. From 1803 to 1859 Isaac of Botosani, who acquired renown as a miracle worker (ba'al mofet), was rabbi there. A Talmud torah was founded in 1828, the Po'alei Tzedek tailors' association in 1832, a Chevrat Gomelei Chasadim (mutual aid society; their minute books are in the Yivo archives) in 1836, and a Chevrat Mishnayot in 1851. When the Jewish autonomous organization lost its official status in Romania at the beginning of the 1860s, communal activity in Bacau also disintegrated.
After 1866 Bacau became one of the centers of anti-Jewish agitation in Romania, and the community suffered frequent persecution. During the last quarter of the 19th century secular education began to spread among the Jews of Bacau and at the end of the 1870s and beginning of the 1880s one-third of the pupils in general schools in Bacau were Jewish.
The main occupations of the Jews in Bacau were commerce and 563 (85.6%) were Jewish, and there were 573 (66.6%) Jewish artisans in 1901. The Jewish population numbered 9,593 (30.8% of the total) in 1930, of whom 50.8% declared Yiddish as their mother tongue. By this time the community had a well- organized communal framework. It maintained a kindergarten, two primary schools (for boys and girls), a hospital, an old age home, an orphanage, and a mikveh (purification bath), as well as 30 synagogues.
With Antonescu's rise to power, the Jews of Bacau were confiscated and a part of the Jewish cemetery was adapted for agriculture. When war against the Soviet Union broke out (June 1941), the Jews from towns and villages in the district were driven from their homes and sent to Bacau, whose Jewish community did its best to help. The community kitchen dispensed 1,000 meals a day, and 1,000 families received financial aid. The men were sent to Transylvania and Bessarabia on forced labor. In the spring of 1944, when the front was drawing near, the Jews were forced to dig defense trenches. Under Soviet occupation in the summer of 1944, all the local officials fled and the Jewish community took over municipal affairs, keeping law and order, burying the non-Jewish dead, running the municipal hospital, and paying the salaries of the municipal employees. Most of the survivors of the holocaust settled in Israel. In 1969 there were 600 families and two synagogues in Bacau.
Radu Cosaşu, (b. 1930), author and journalist, born as Oscar Rohrlich, in Bacau, Romania.
Following the establishment of the Communist regime in Romania, Cosasu became an admirer of the Soviet inspired Socialist-Realism style. However, after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, he changed his opinion in favor of what he called "the whole truth". As a result, he was fired from his workplace at a periodical and remained unemployed for more than ten years. Only in late 1960 he was permitted to publish again in a number of periodicals eventually becoming an editor at Sportul popular ("Popular Sport"), Romania's main sports newspaper, and at Cinema ("Movie Theater"), from 1967 to 1987. His novel Un august pe un bloc de gheaţă ("August on an Iceberg"), 1971, was awarded the Prize of the Romanian Writers Union. He continued his literary activity publishing over 3,000 articles and 15 books, among them Logica ("Logic"), in 1985; Supravietuiri ("Survivals"), 19731974; O viata cu Stan si Bran ("A Life with Laurel and Hardy"), 1981; Matusile din Tel Aviv ("My Aunts from Tel Aviv"), 1993; O supravietuire cu Oscar ("Surviving with Oscar"), 1997. After the fall of the Communist regime in 1989, he was one of the founders of the periodical Dilema (1993-2004) and then he beacme an editor at Dilema veche ("Old Dilema").
Bacau
Town in Moldova, Romania.
A Jewish community is attested there in the 18th century. A chevra kaddisha (burial society) was established in 1774. In 1820 there were 55 Jewish taxpaying heads of families in Bacau. The Jewish population numbered 3,819 in 1859 and 7,902 (48.3% of the total) in 1899. From 1803 to 1859 Isaac of Botosani, who acquired renown as a miracle worker (ba'al mofet), was rabbi there. A Talmud torah was founded in 1828, the Po'alei Tzedek tailors' association in 1832, a Chevrat Gomelei Chasadim (mutual aid society; their minute books are in the Yivo archives) in 1836, and a Chevrat Mishnayot in 1851. When the Jewish autonomous organization lost its official status in Romania at the beginning of the 1860s, communal activity in Bacau also disintegrated.
After 1866 Bacau became one of the centers of anti-Jewish agitation in Romania, and the community suffered frequent persecution. During the last quarter of the 19th century secular education began to spread among the Jews of Bacau and at the end of the 1870s and beginning of the 1880s one-third of the pupils in general schools in Bacau were Jewish.
The main occupations of the Jews in Bacau were commerce and 563 (85.6%) were Jewish, and there were 573 (66.6%) Jewish artisans in 1901. The Jewish population numbered 9,593 (30.8% of the total) in 1930, of whom 50.8% declared Yiddish as their mother tongue. By this time the community had a well- organized communal framework. It maintained a kindergarten, two primary schools (for boys and girls), a hospital, an old age home, an orphanage, and a mikveh (purification bath), as well as 30 synagogues.
With Antonescu's rise to power, the Jews of Bacau were confiscated and a part of the Jewish cemetery was adapted for agriculture. When war against the Soviet Union broke out (June 1941), the Jews from towns and villages in the district were driven from their homes and sent to Bacau, whose Jewish community did its best to help. The community kitchen dispensed 1,000 meals a day, and 1,000 families received financial aid. The men were sent to Transylvania and Bessarabia on forced labor. In the spring of 1944, when the front was drawing near, the Jews were forced to dig defense trenches. Under Soviet occupation in the summer of 1944, all the local officials fled and the Jewish community took over municipal affairs, keeping law and order, burying the non-Jewish dead, running the municipal hospital, and paying the salaries of the municipal employees. Most of the survivors of the holocaust settled in Israel. In 1969 there were 600 families and two synagogues in Bacau.