NCSJ - Moldova page

Population: 4.4 million

Ethnic Composition:
65% Moldovan/Romanian, 13% Russian, 14% Ukrainian, 2% Bulgarian, 5% Gaugauz and other

Religion: 98% Eastern Orthodox Christian, 2% other (Baptist, Roman Catholic, Jewish)

Jewish population: 30-40,000
2002 Aliyah
(emigration to Israel): 537
2002 Emigration
to United States: 37

Size: 33,843 sq km
Capital: Chisinau (Kishinev)
Major cities: Chisinau, Balti, Bender, Tiraspol

Freedom House Rating:
Partly Free

Currency: 13.305 lei = $1 (October 3, 2003)

GDP: $1.6 billion (2002)
GDP per capita: $372 (2002)
GDP Growth: 1.1% (2002)

Head of State:
President Vladimir Voronin

Head of Government:
Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev

Foreign Minister:
Andrei Stratan

Ambassador to United States:
Mihail Manoli

U.S. Ambassador to Moldova: Heather M. Hodges

Chronology of all U.S. envoys to Moldova

SUMMARY

Moldova has progressed unsteadily toward democracy since its independence following the Soviet collapse. Historical disputes between Romania and Russia over Moldovan territories, particularly Transnistria, have contributed to prolonged ethnic conflict. Russia’s military presence in Moldova persists. These factors, together with rampant corruption, have severely hampered reform efforts.

The 2001 parliamentary elections reinstated Communist rule, reducing expectation for reform and straining relations with Moldova’s closest ally, Romania. Moldova’s economic ties remain strong with Romania, Ukraine, and Russia. However, a weak industrial infrastructure and high foreign debt render Moldova economically vulnerable and highly dependent on imports from abroad.

Moldova’s Jewish population has deep roots in the area, but in recent years has experienced high levels of emigration. Local organizations actively cooperate with Israeli and American organizations. Jewish community relations with the Moldovan government are good, though the national and local authorities have done little to restore confiscated properties to the Jewish community.

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REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

INTRODUCTION
POLITICAL SITUATION
    Transnistria
    Foreign Policy
ECONOMIC SITUATION
JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE & ANTI-SEMITISM
    History
    Community Development
    Anti-Semitism
U.S. POLICY

Moldova is a landlocked nation slightly larger than the State of Maryland, bordered by Ukraine and Romania. With a history of foreign domination dating back to the 15^th century, it was not called Moldova until 1940 – being formerly considered part of Bessarabia. Throughout the 19^th century and into the 20^th century, Russia and Romania struggled for control of the territory. During the interwar period, Bessarabia was part of Romania; however, in 1939 the Soviet Union forcibly annexed Bessarabia from Romania, giving Moldova its present borders (solidified in 1945). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, an independent Moldovan state was established on August 27, 1991.

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POLITICAL SITUATION

Moldova struggled for several years after independence as a presidential republic with an ineffective parliament, lacking a new constitution and undergoing separatist unrest in the regions of Gaugauzia (in the south) and Transnistria (in the west). A new constitution, adopted in 1994, granted Gaugauzia autonomy, and in 2000 the Parliament approved a constitutional amendment making Moldova a parliamentary republic. The constitution established a unicameral 101-member parliament (Parlamentul), a constitutional court, and a presidency. The Parliament elects the President and confirms the Prime Minister, a presidential appointment. The 1996 presidential election, considered free and fair by international observers, resulted in victory for center-left President Petru Lucinschi. In December 2000, after the parliament failed to elect a new president, Lucinschi dissolved it and called for new elections. In the 2001 free elections, the Communist Party won a majority of seats. The new parliament, in turn, elected Vladimir Voronin to succeed Lucinschi as president. The next presidential and parliamentary elections are scheduled for 2005.

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Transnistria

Immediately following Moldovan independence in 1991, ethnic Russians and Ukrainians in the area of eastern Transnistria (a small territory east of the Dniester river also called “Transdniester”) rebelled with substantial backing from Russia, fearing Moldova would attempt to merge into Romania. A bloody war of secession from Moldova ended in a 1992 ceasefire, and the secessionists declared the birth of the Dniester Moldovan Republic with Tiraspol as its capital. Transnistria’s predominantly Slavic population is ruled by an authoritarian government, which is backed by Russian troops stationed in the area. The region’s struggling economy is ruled by organized crime. The Transnistrian authorities have a poor human rights record and a history of aggression and abuse against the media, religious groups, and Moldovan/Romanian-speakers.

Despite negotiations under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), movement toward a settlement of the conflict has been slow. In 1997, Moldova and Transnistria agreed to remain one country, and in 1998 Russia reduced its forces. Negotiations with the OSCE at the 1999 Istanbul Summit resulted in a December 2001 deadline for the evacuation of the remaining Russian troops and arsenal. After a succession of partial and postponed withdrawals, Russia stated in January 2003 that it would maintain its military presence in the region for “security” purposes.

OSCE-backed negotiations on the status of Transnistria and Gaugauzia have led to proposals that the two regions become states within a federated Moldova. However, the Transnistrian regime has continued to obstruct both the negotiations to resolve Transnistria’s status and the Russian military withdrawal, leading the increasingly frustrated European Union (EU) and United States to impose a travel ban on the region’s leadership in March 2003. Transnistria imposed a reciprocal entry ban on 14 Moldovan government officials, including Prime Minister Tarlev. The Ukrainian and Russian parliaments both voted in late-2002 to establish embassies in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria.

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Foreign Policy

Since its early and ill-fated attempt to unify with Romania, Moldova has pursued a moderate foreign policy and built positive relations with its neighbors. While unification is unlikely in the near future, ethnic and linguistic affinity has bolstered the two countries’ close political ties.

Relations with Ukraine have been strained over border regulations, as the Transnistrian-Ukrainian border is considered a portal for illegal arms and drug smuggling. Moldova’s adoption in 2001 of a customs stamp regulation led to accusations that Chisinau was attempting an economic blockade between Tiraspol and Ukraine. Moldova is still heavily dependent on Ukrainian energy imports. Moldova likewise remains heavily dependent on trade with Russia, despite friction over Russia’s support of Transnistria. Moldova’s election of a Communist government in late- 2001 strengthened bilateral relations. A December 2001 law mandates Russian language education in all universities and schools, beginning in the second grade. The move prompted broad domestic protests and was harshly criticized by Romania. Although Moldova’s Ukrainian and Russian minorities are concentrated in Transnistria, Russian is widely spoken in Moldova’s cities. Moldova has sought to participate in multilateral frameworks for regional cooperation. It is a member of the GUUAM (Georgia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova) regional alliance, and a member of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States), an eleven-member security organization of post-Soviet successor states. The organization’s October 2002 summit, held in Tiraspol, focused on cooperative crime fighting and forming a consensus on international military action against Iraq.

Moldova is a member of NATO’s Partnership for Peace and Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and is a signatory to the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. In November 2002, Moldova established a National Commission on European Integration to facilitate closer relations with the EU.

Moldova’s relations with Israel are cordial, though bilateral trade is limited. Moldova maintains an embassy in Tel-Aviv, and Israel has stationed a consulate in Chisinau. Israel’s ambassador to Ukraine serves as non-resident ambassador to Moldova. Then-President Lucinschi made an official visit to Israel in 1999. In April 2003, Israeli Ambassador Anna Azari attended a ceremony in Chisinau where President Voronin unveiled a memorial commemorating the Chisinau pogrom on the 100th anniversary of the massacre. In July 2003, Israeli President Moshe Katsav visited Chisinau and met with President Voronin.

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ECONOMIC SITUATION

Never heavily industrialized, Moldova’s economy is based on agriculture and food processing. It was seriously affected by the Soviet breakup, the civil war and Russia’s 1998 economic crisis, and only began to recover in 2000. Moldova remains Europe’s poorest country but continues to make economic progress. Most Moldovan industries and farmland have been successfully privatized.

About two-thirds of all Moldovans live below the poverty line. Nearly 600,000 Moldovan citizens – one-third of the workforce – live and work abroad, transferring funds to their families in Moldova.

As Moldova’s largest trading partner, Russia wields considerable influence over the Moldovan economy. Moldova’s near-total dependence on outside sources for industrial inputs and energy has been its major economic challenge.

Moldova, plagued by a high poverty rate and external debt of nearly $987 million, is part of the CIS-7 initiative, created in 2001 by international lending organizations to reform the financial structure of new loans. Since 1992, Moldova has received over $459 million in World Bank aid and over $200 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The World Bank approved a new $30 million program in July 2002 to promote public sector, energy, infrastructure and anti-smuggling reforms. EBRD aid since Moldova’s independence totals $318 million, and has focused on fostering private enterprise, fiscal sector and infrastructure reforms. An additional $12 million in projects are planned for 2003.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) disbursements since 1993 topped $350 million by 2002. The IMF suspended dealings with Moldova in February 2001, following the Communist sweep of the presidential and parliamentary elections. Progress on reforms resumed in 2002, prompting the resumption of IMF assistance on a three-year, $147 million debt reduction and poverty assistance loan.

In June 2001, Moldova joined the multilateral Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, which has given $5.4 billion in aid to that region. In July 2001, Moldova acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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JEWISH COMMUNAL LIFE & ANTI-SEMITISM

History

In the 15^th century, Sephardi Jewish merchants began using Bessarabia as a trade route between the Black Sea and Poland. Jews settled in the region, prompting a growth of communities in northern and central Bessarabia. In 1812, an estimated 2,000 Jews lived in the area. The population continued to grow as tensions with Moldova’s populace mounted, culminating in massacres of Jews in 1903 and 1905. Under the Russian Empire, tsarist authorities either encouraged or allowed the local population to attack the Jewish population during April 6-7, 1903, spurred by a blood libel that had been printed in a national newspaper. 49 Jews were killed, 500 were wounded and hundreds of Jewish homes and businesses were severely damaged in the attacks. News of the event reverberated throughout Europe, and thousands of Moldovan Jews emigrated. The United States reacted with public condemnations and trade restrictions against Russia. Massacres during the 1905 Russian Revolution, only two years later, resulted in the death of hundreds more Jews in towns across Moldova.

By 1920, the Jewish population in Moldova numbered about 267,000. After the German-led invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, nearly 100,000 of these Jews died in mass shootings, deportations, ghettos and camps on Bessarabian and Ukrainian territory. While many Moldovans are believed to have collaborated with their German and Romanian occupiers (Romania joined the Axis powers in late-1940), Israel has recognized 53 Moldovans as “Righteous Among the Nations” for risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

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Community Development

Today about 20,000 Jews live in Chisinau, 2,500-3,000 in and around the city of Beltsy, and over 2,000 in Tiraspol (the capital of Transnistria). Substantial communities also exist in Bender, Soroky, Rybnitsa and Orgei, with smaller communities in at least 45 villages across Moldova. One-quarter to one-half of the community is elderly, and nearly 80 percent of Moldovan Jews report significant economic hardship.

The Jewish population of Moldova has decreased substantially since independence due to the high percentage of elderly Jews and high levels of emigration. Thousands of Transnistria’s estimated 12,000 Jews left after the outbreak of hostilities in 1991, most making aliyah; thousands more left Moldova proper at that time. Communal institutions continue to be centered in Chisinau.

The Moldovan Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities is the primary umbrella for the Jewish community; it runs programs such as the Moldova-Israel Friendship Association, the Moldova-Israel Foreign Trade Association, the Jewish Museum, and the monthly Nash Golos (“Our Voice”) Jewish newspaper.

The Union of Jewish Organizations of Chisinau (SEVROK), an umbrella group in Chisinau, was created from the Moldovan Cultural Center. The Religious Jewish Community of Moldova also operates in the capital. Chisinau’s Jewish Community Center, an outgrowth of SEVROK, is housed in the Manger Children’s Jewish Library. The Center and the Library are both supported by The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC/ “Joint”). There are five other JCCs in Moldova – in Beltsy, Bendery, Rybnitza, and Soroki, and a combined JCC/Hesed in Tiraspol. A Hillel chapter is based in Chisinau.

Chabad Lubavitch maintains synagogues in Chisinau and Tiraspol and is active throughout Moldova. Chabad Rabbi Zalman Abelsky is Chief Rabbi of Moldova and President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Moldova. The movement runs one of the two Jewish day schools in Moldova – the 250-student Jewish School #15, a rabbinical school operated through the synagogue, and two pre-schools. In addition, Chabad runs several welfare and supplementary education programs and publishes a monthly newspaper, Istoky.

Agudath Israel, under the leadership of Rabbi Moshe Budilovsky, operates the yeshiva high school, where up to 200 boys and girls are separated into two programs. Jewish School #22, established in 1991, educates up to 300 students. World ORT established technology and media centers within the school in 2001. These Jewish schools are all funded in part by the Moldovan government and the Israeli Cultural Center. At least eight Jewish Sunday schools operate throughout Moldova – three in the capital, and one each in Bender, Soroky, Beltsy, Rybnitsa and Tiraspol.

The Israeli Embassy’s Israeli Cultural Center operates in Chisinau, and the Israeli Government and Moldovan Education Ministry jointly run a school to prepare children for aliyah. JAFI also has a presence and runs Nesharim summer camps and winter seminars on Jewish history and tradition. Israel’s Open University, sponsored by JDC, is based in the capital, while Chisinau State University and the Academy of Sciences each have a Judaica department. More generally, Jewish programs are included in Moldovan university curricula, though a critical shortage of teachers and funding threatens these programs.

International organizations have provided significant aid to Moldovan Jewry. In addition to funding renovation of the Community Center, JDC has distributed medicine, clothing and educational materials to the community, and funds the Hesed Chana welfare center in Tiraspol. JDC works closely with The United Jewish Federation (UJF) of Pittsburgh and local leaders through the Spectrum Seminar, a strategic planning program for local and national community development. UJF Pittsburgh has worked with JDC on a number of welfare programs. In 2003, JDC launched a major program to feed low-income children under age 16. Work has begun on a JDC-sponsored Jewish Campus in Chisinau. This new community center will also house the JCC, a synagogue, Hesed, and a new Holocaust museum. JDC runs the Ofek Jewish book festival through Moldova’s JCCs.

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Anti-Semitism

Moldova has a history of virulent anti-Semitism, including widespread local collaboration in the Holocaust. While today no policy of anti-Semitism exists at the state level, incidents do occur on a societal level. In 1999, a Holocaust memorial in the capital was desecrated, and other incidents of street beatings and bigotry against Jews have occurred. During Passover of 2002, two teenagers destroyed almost 50 tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Chisinau. The police arrested these teens but claimed that their crime was not anti-Semitic. The police later arrested several skinheads suspected of bombing a Tiraspol synagogue in April and June of 2002. Local groups such as the Youth Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly have made efforts to protest such anti-Semitic incidents. In June 2003, a municipal radio station decided to suspend a controversial call-in show in which callers had expressed anti-Semitic views.

Government relations with the Jewish community are reported to be normal. After construction in a Chisinau suburb revealed a mass grave from the Holocaust, the community alerted the government, which halted the construction and erected a memorial. A larger Holocaust memorial is prominently located near the national government offices in Chisinau. In April 2003, President Voronin unveiled a monument commemorating the Chisinau pogrom on its 100th anniversary. Voronin has condemned anti-Semitism in speeches to Jewish audiences.

Prospects for the restitution of communal property remain uncertain. Moldova has no general statute on restitution, and the Jewish community has achieved restitution of only two of the many communal properties seized during the Soviet period. In conjunction with the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, the Moldovan and U.S. governments have signed a Declaration of Cooperation to establish frameworks for the protection and preservation of cultural sites. In February 2002, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council signed an agreement with the Moldovan government, giving the Council free access to World War II-era government intelligence archives.

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U.S. POLICY

The U.S. Embassy in Chisinau opened in 1992, and U.S.-Moldovan relations are generally considered good. The United States, the largest bilateral donor to Moldova, provided nearly $42 million in aid in FY2002. Aid has been falling steadily over the past few years (it had been $64.2 million in 2000), and much of that funding was allocated for the withdrawal of Russian forces from the region. U.S. assistance programs are active in a number of areas, including privatization, legal reform, democracy, and health care.

After President Voronin visited President Bush in December 2002, the two issued a joint statement supporting peace in Transnistria and a peaceful withdrawal of Russian troops from the region. The United States has participated in negotiations with Moldova, the OSCE and Russia over the fate of Transnistria. The United States has lent its support in talks on the OSCE-sponsored federalization proposal of February 2003.

The United States has identified Moldova as the largest source of persons trafficked for the sex trade and as a lead supplier of illegal-organ harvesting for Europe and Israel. To augment its anti-trafficking information campaign, in 2001 the U.S. State Department established Chisinau’s Center for Prevention of Trafficking in Women. A branch office was opened in Uenghi in July 2002.

In June 2003, Moldova’s cabinet approved the participation of a military contingent in post-conflict humanitarian operations in Iraq. Although a specific number has not been decided upon, Moldova will send doctors and engineers to the region. Troops will not partake in any military action, and all will be volunteers.

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