RÎBNIȚA (ro) / RYBNITZA (ru) / RYBNITZ (yid)
Rîbnița was first mentioned in mid 17th century as a town at the outskirts of the Commonwealth. Jews are believed to appear there about early 19th century. In 1847 the Jewish community of Rîbnița listed 163 members, in 1897, Jews constituted 1574 of 4029. The first synagogue was built by mid 19th century, by 1889 there were two, by 1914 5 synagogues. Prior WW1 Rîbnița had a lot of Jewish secular institutions, schools and businesses. In 1939, the Jewish population of Rîbnița numbered 3.216 people. Rîbnița was occupied by the German troops in early August 1941; in early September 1941, the ghetto was established with a Jewish population of over 3.000, half of them deportees from the Târgul Vertiujeni and Mărculești camps. Between November 1941 and February 1942, most of the ghetto residents were murdered in mass Aktions or died of starvation or typhoid fever. In Rîbnița ghetto Jews from all around, including 650 Romanian Jews from Regat, were kept. Rîbnița ghetto and postwar Jewish Rîbnița is connected with the figure of Rybnitzer Rebe Haim Zanvl Abramovitch.
In Rîbnița we should visit the old Jewish cemetery, spectacularly set on a hillside, Holocaust memorial, the neighborhoods of the ghetto,and the places related to Rybnitzer Rebe life.
© Jewish Heritage Moldova (Maghid NGO) Research, Education, Guiding