Zionism in Jassy: The Importance of History Today

In the period up until 1941, when the notorious Jassy pogrom took place resulting in the death of 14000 Jews, the movement helped to organize the community, build schools. libraries and educate the Jewish populace. It’s greatest accomplishment was aiding thousands of Jews to achieve aliyah, before they could be murdered. Unfortunately a great deal of Jews of Jassy did not leave for Eretz Israel as was the case of the rest of European Jewry.

You might be asking yourself what the reason for knowing all of this might be. Well to put it short by understanding small insular pockets in the greater narrative of European Jewish history, as Jassy, we can better form an understanding of the way Israel came to be in 1948, and more importantly an understanding to the necessity of moderated Zionism as a means to facilitate a cultural and national Jewish identity. Zionism is not nationalism, it is cultural and physical self-preservation. Jassy’s Jews used Zionism to ensure their survival as a community, and as a people.