Telenești

In the 19th Century, the town of Telenești in the Orhei District of Bessarabia was known for its large Jewish community. The town lay in close proximity to the village of Telenești, which was later renamed 'Teleneștii Vechi' (Old Telenești) and incorporated into the town of Telenești. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the town of Telenești served as an important hub of commerce. In 1897, it was home to 3,896 Jews, who made up 89 percent of its total population. Many of them were traders and artisans, but some were farmers engaged in viticulture and tobacco cultivation. In the period 1918-1940, when Bessarabia was part of Romania, the town of Telenești was known as Telenești-Tîrg. The census of 1930 recorded 2,811 Jewish residents, who constituted roughly 74 percent of the town’s population. In summer 1940, Bessarabia was annexed to the Soviet Union, and Telenești was officially designated an urban-type settlement. In July 1941, following the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the Romanian army occupied Bessarabia, and the Jewish community of Telenești was decimated. On July 18, when the Romanian authorities arrived in the town, some 300 Jews (almost all of them women and children) were shot in the courtyard of the local resident Itta Shteimann. Apparently in the same month, 150 Jewish men from Teleneşti were shot in a ravine near the village of Budǎi. Later, some Jews, both individuals and families, who had been caught hiding in the town and its vicinity were shot outside Telenești, near the household of Filipp Kasirov. Telenești was liberated by the Red Army in April 1944.