jewish for a day.

on our first free day in which we have time to do homework, catch up on things, visit places, etc.

a group of us went around to all the jewish related things in iași on thursday.

and every taxi driver we encountered i think determined that we were jewish tourists,

because it seems that no one else ever really goes to these places.

because it's been 70 years this summer since the iași pogroms, there's an exhibit in muzeul unirii about them with photos and a video, and other items. i thought it was super interesting, and though i didn't understand everything because it was all in romanian, i still gleaned a fair amount. and it was still mind-boggling how this ever could have happened so recently. scary, really. most surreal of all is that this all happened on the streets i walked on and drove through while here in iași.

and let me add the detail that we were the only ones in that part of the museum/most of the museum in general.

we then walked up towards piața eminescu and got in taxis to take us to the cimitrul evreiesc, the jewish cemetery. it's a little bit off of a main road, and we had to drive through what looked like richer parts of iași--big houses, nice cars, etc. and then to a more secluded and abandoned looking area: the cemetery. we had to pay 10 lei to get in, which wasn't enormously ideal. especially because it was just an old lady and a bunch of dogs by the gate. it looked a little bit sketchy, but we survived. there was a big building outside the cemetery that the fence was attached to, but the building itself looked completely abandoned, though i'm sure must have been used at some point in the past. the cemetery was huge! and there was a special monument for the victims of the iași pogroms, as well as for a massacre that occurred in the woods just outside of iași. there's something about cemeteries that i find so peaceful and relaxing. and it was kind of nice that we had the whole cemetery to ourselves.

"in memoriam of the victims of the 1941 iași pogroms."

"to the 13,000 victims of the 1941 iași pogroms."

this yellow building is the one that looks big and nice, but seems abandoned.

the lady and the dogs.

the front of the building.

a lovely view of iași through the fence.

from there, most of the group went back home, but amanda, michael, and i continued on and went to sinagoga mare (the great synagogue). it's the oldest synagogue in romania, and the second oldest in all of europe! another sad sign about the culture here, however, was that it looked like it was abandoned as well. technically it was just under construction, but it looked more like a lost cause kind of construction with boards over everything and no trespassing signs. we were able to see, however, the monument honoring the victims of the iași pogroms, and then walked home realizing how close the synagogue is to where we live.

interesting and intriguing day? indeed it was.