Jews in Bukovina

Bukovina was conquered by the Austrian Archduchy in 1774. It developed into one of the most diverse provinces in the Archduchy and later in the Austrian Empire; it was also the province with one of the highest Jewish populations.[1]

The first Austrian census reported a population of 526 Jewish families. As immigration from Galicia, Moldova, and Ukraine grew, the Austrian authorities began to deport the newcomers.[2] Some laws against Jews were revoked in the 1810s.[3] There was a gradual elimination of discrimination of Jews after the 1848 revolution, leading up to all laws against them being removed in 1867.[2] Many of the Jews in Bukovina, along with Germans, immigrated to North America in the late 19th and early 20th century.[4] Despite this, Austria's census reported over 12% Jewish population in Bukovina. When Austria-Hungary collapsed in 1918, Romania took control of Bukovina.[5] In the early 1920s, state posts began to require native Romanian language skills. This law served to legitimize further anti-Semitic legislation.[1] In the late 1930s under Romania, their citizenship was revoked in order with Germany's anti-Semitic policies. Like Germany's Jews, they were additionally sent to forced-labor camps.[6]

The Soviet Union occupied the northern part of Bukovina on 3 July 1940. As Romanian troops retreated from the area, they carried out a pogrom against the local Jews in Dorohoi.[7] Many were deported to Siberia from that region following the takeover, including a disproportionate amount of Jews.[1] A year later, the Axis invaded the Soviet Union and Northern Bukovina was reoccupied in June-July 1941. This reoccupation had a disastrous effect on the Jewish population, as the invading Nazi and Romanian soldiers immediately began to massacre Jews. The survivors were forced into ghettos, awaiting their transfer to work camps in Transinistria. 57,000 had arrived there by November 1941,[8] including about 3,000 from Dorohoi.[9] In October 1943, the law forcing Jews to wear the Star of David was revoked, and Jews were allowed to move freely around the capital city. By the time Bukovina was retaken by Soviet forces in February 1944, less than half of the entire Jewish population in the region had survived.[1] Most of them went to Romania after the war, where the more liberal policies allowed emigration to Israel.[8]

An organization of Jews from Bukovina, known as Landsmannschaft, was founded in Tel Aviv in 1944 by Manfred Reifer. They adopted radical Zionist beliefs. Bukovinian Jews living in the United States helped to create the Museum of Bukovinian Jewry in 2008.[1]

• Emigration of Jews from Romania
• History of the Jews in Bessarabia