Jewish families from Vaslui, Romania

This project seeks to collect the Jewish families from Vaslui, Romania.

Vaslui, a city in eastern Romania, is the seat of Vaslui County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia. Archeological research indicate that the territory of Vaslui was inhabited since the Neolithic. From the 14th century onwards, it developed as the provincial town of Vaslui, with a population that fluctuated considerably in the following centuries. The peak of Vaslui's importance was in the 15th century, when it was a second-rank capital of Moldavia, during the reign of Stephen the Great (r. 1457-1504) and its population approached that of the neighbouring Iași. In 1475, Prince Stephen won his greatest battle against the Ottoman Empire in the Vaslui area.

There once was a fairly large Jewish community in the city of Vaslui. Its arrival from Galicia during the second half of the 19th century gave a new impetus to local economic development. In 1899, Jews formed 37% of the population, and Vaslui was home to the Vasloi Hasidic dynasty. However, waves of pogroms, associated with the Holocaust as well as emigration to Israel during Romania's communist period decimated this population.