# Iași <table class="place-meta"> <tr><td>Yiddish</td><td dir="rtl">יאס</td></tr> <tr><td>Local name(s)</td><td>Iași (Romanian), Jassy (German/English historical)</td></tr> <tr><td>Region (today)</td><td>Iași County, Romania</td></tr> <tr><td>Coordinates</td><td>47.1622 27.5889</td></tr> </table> <table class="place-meta place-eras"> <tr><th>Era</th><th>Town name</th><th>Country / jurisdiction</th></tr> <tr><td>16th century–1859</td><td>Iași/Jassy</td><td>Principality of Moldavia</td></tr> <tr><td>1859–1881</td><td>Iași</td><td>United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia</td></tr> <tr><td>1881–1947</td><td>Iași</td><td>Kingdom of Romania</td></tr> <tr><td>1947–present</td><td>Iași</td><td>Romania (Iași County)</td></tr> </table> ## Overview Iași (Jassy; Yiddish יאס, Yas) was the center of Jewish life in Moldavia for centuries, with Sephardi Jews documented from the late 16th century and an old cemetery inscription possibly dating to 1610; it was home to the world's first professional Yiddish theater, founded by Avrom Goldfaden in 1876. Before World War II about 50,000 Jews lived there, roughly half the city's population. The Iași pogrom of 28–30 June 1941, launched by Romanian governmental forces under Ion Antonescu (with German involvement), killed an estimated 13,266 people — about a third of the Jewish population — in the city and in the sealed 'death trains' that followed. It was one of the worst pogroms of the war, and the community never recovered its former size. <small>Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ia%C8%99i_pogrom, https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/1868, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Ia%C8%99i</small> ## People with events here | Person | Event | | --- | --- | | [[Itic Veksler (b.1863)]] | Born 01/10/1863 | | [[Noach Veksler (b.1864)]] | Born 10/11/1864 | | [[Șloime Veksler (b.1874)]] | Born 03/10/1874 | | [[Leiba Veksler (b.1875)]] | Born 12/27/1875 | | [[Avram Veksler (b.1878)]] | Born 01/24/1878 | | [[Iosep Veksler (b.1878)]] | Born 01/24/1878 | | [[Tziporah Faiga Milgrom (b.1941)]] | Born 07/21/1941 |