Tag #122894 - Interview #101186 (Leizer Finchelstein)

There were almost 100 synagogues and prayer houses in Iasi. There was a street called Synagogues’ St. where the Great Synagogue still stands to this day. Each guild had its synagogue. These were according to trade: the shoemakers’ synagogue, the tailors’ synagogue, the butchers’ synagogue, even the musicians’ synagogue. Everybody had a synagogue of their own, which was almost not roomy enough on holidays, that’s how many people attended these synagogues. But people didn’t really attend the synagogues outside holidays. I couldn’t say that the Jews in Iasi were extremely religious, the men had to work in order to provide for their families, but not going to the synagogue on Friday night and on Saturdays was out of the question. There were a few rabbis in Iasi, and each synagogue had a cantor of its own.