Iasi Jewish Cemetery

The Iasi Jewish Cemetery is located on Sos. Pacurari (Aleea Cim. Evreiese) and has a large arch above the entrance. The road winds past the arch about a mile to the actual cemetery. The original cemetery records are kept at the Iasi Jewish Community but the very oldest ones are written in Aramaic. The Hebrew characters on the flat markers are practically impossible to read due to erosion. The standing headstones are in fairly good condition. The whole cemetery is very overgrown with weeds and shrubs. In the newer sections most of the headstones have both Hebrew and Romanian on them. In the older sections the headstones are almost exclusively in Hebrew.The cemetery houses approximately 80,000 graves and is quite impressive, although its records are disorganized. The site dates back only about one hundred years. An earlier cemetery was destroyed, although a few of its gravestones were brought to the