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Presenter: Yitzchak Kerem

The First Jews and Sephardim came to Romania in 1496. The Romanian Sephardic communities historically were in Transylvania, Wallachia, & Moldova. The first recognized Jewish community in Wallachia was formed in 1730. Significant Sephardic communities also were in Craiova, Timisoara, Ploiesti, Iasi, & Giurgiu. Through the 1903 correspondence between Haim Bejarano & Spanish Senator Pulido, numerous Spanish & Portuguese Jewish male and female first names, as well as family names from Romania were revealed such as unique female names Delicada, Fermosa & Galana; male names Bueno, Donoso, & Querido; as well as rare Sephardic patronyms; Alhuete, Alpojarte, Cortez, & Todela. More popular Romanian last names were Benveniste, Campos, Eskenazi, & Bejarano. Other sources are the nearby Bulgarian Russe (Rustchuk) wedding register 1898-1929; Israel National library microfilms of archives of Sephardic communities of Craiova, Ploiesti, and Bucharest. Rarer smaller Sephardic communities from Cernauti, Calarasi, Turnu Magurele & Calafat will be discussed.