The Process of Conversion of the Jewish Population of Bessarabia, into Christian from Mosaic Religion, in the XIXth Century
The Process of Conversion of the Jewish Population of Bessarabia, into Christian from Mosaic Religion, in the XIXth Century

Summary/Abstract: The problem of religious conversion has generated various studies in the western historiography. Unfortunately, this is not the case of Republic of Moldova. The phenomenon existed in the late XVIIIth century, but the number of apostates increased only during “Russian period”. In Bessarabia, which was annexed by Russian Empire in the XIXth century, there existed a special policy for the Jewish denomination, special laws developed by the Tsars. This became very hard for the Jewry for the reason that Jews were being a “tasty ingredient” for the Russian Empires “melting pot”. The number of Jewish population climbed from 20.000 in 1812 till approximately 200.000 people in 1897. This huge number gave a very specific color to the evolution of this region. The Tsars along the XIXth century tried to level Jewish population to other nations, in other words, to assimilate them. A great “machine” for this assimilation served the process of converting Jews into Christianity. It was a voluntary conversion, but it should be mentioned that Jews used to convert mainly due to some economic facilities and very rarely because of moral and religious causes.

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