Mitropolia Olteniei Publishing House, Craiova, 2024
This monograph, originally a doctoral thesis, attempts to capture as many elements as possible regarding the religion, history, anthropology and culture of the Jewish Community. from Craiova , starting from the beginnings of this people, with its specific unmistakable and traumatic stages, which in fact built the entire multi-millennium edifice.
I realized that I had to research as much information as possible from the existing archives in Romania, which refer to the Craiova community, such as: The National Archives of Romania (ANR); The National Archives of Romania SJAN Dolj; The National Archives of Romania SJAN Mehedinți; The National Archives of Romania SJAN Dolj Archives of the Center for the Study of the History of Jews in Romania “Wilhelm Fielderman” (ACSIER-WF); The Archive of the Jewish Community of Craiova (ACEC). All this archival research and documentation includes thousands of documents, which have offered us a view as strongly anchored as possible in the reality of the community, also finding truly unique information.
Also, several encyclopedic works have introduced us to the universe of Judaism, with all that its unmistakable ethos means. Among these remarkable works we mention: Encyclopaedia Judaica (Second Edition), The Brill Dictionary of Religion, Britannica Encyclopedia of Word Religions, Encyclopedia of Christian Theology, New Catholic Encyclopedia, Second Edition, Encyclopedia of Judaism, The Encyclopedia of Christianity, The New Encyclopaedia Britanica.
About the Jewish Community from Craiova, studies and articles have been written over time by: prof. univ. dr. acad. Corneliu Sabetay, prof. Alexandru Firescu, prof. Alexandru Zimbler, lect. univ. dr. Adi Shwartz, dr. Georgeta Gheonea, dr. Cătălin Croitoru, dr. Delia Balaican and last but not least, dr. Toma Rădulescu, who in turn enjoyed a special relationship with this community, publishing several studies in various specialized journals.
This thesis proposes to us the knowledge of a community that lived in harmony for over two centuries with the Orthodox of Craiova and that became an identity throughout its existence for this city. Now, after so much time of sharing values and mutual respect between Christianity and Mosaicism, we can speak of a real interreligious and intercultural phenomenon, which can truly become a model throughout Europe. Starting from these fundamental pillars of values, the vision of the thesis that I will try to share is that Mosaic spirituality and culture represent a universal heritage , which we can encounter right next to us, in this city, and which can relaunch tolerance as a model through respect for the values of this monotheistic religion. In other words, we could say that the foundation of this research is the discovery of the heritage represented by Mosaicism through the Jewish Community of Craiova, throughout its existence with the lights and shadows that built this edifice.