Obj. ID: 10102
  Funerary Art  Jewish cemetery in Craiova, Romania

"The Jewish cemetery in Craiova has existed since the late eighteenth century. It is located in the western part of the city and is surrounded by a fence with a magnificent entrance gate built in the 1930s. The site includes a cemetery chapel dating from the early twentieth century and a caretaker house built in 2012.

A Heroes’ Sector at the center of the cemetery includes a monument to the Jewish soldiers of the Romanian Army from Craiova killed during the Second Balkan War and World War I, several graves of Jewish soldiers and officers from 1916–1921, and a “soap grave”. A symbolic gate with the Star of David leads to the sector.

The cemetery is divided into two parts: the old one and the new one. The old part was cleaned a decade ago and since then has become overgrown by bushes and hardly accessible. The visible tombstones are dated to the first half of the twentieth century, although there are older graves as well. One of them, dated 1889, marks the grave of Aser (Asher Abraham) Eschenasy, a member of a prominent family of local bankers. The family is Sephardi and the epitaph on his tombstone is written in Ladino. The only mausoleum in the cemetery is also Sephardi and belongs to the Benvenisti Family."
[Levin, 2025, pp. 5-6]

Cemetery chapel in the Jewish cemetery in Craiova, Romania

Jewish cemetery in Craiova, Romania - Heroes' sector

Jewish cemetery in Craiova, Romania - Mausoleum of Isaac Abraam Benvenisti

Jewish cemetery in Craiova, Romania - photos of 1997