Jewish epigraphy: new discoveries in the Republic of Moldova

Jewish ethnology of modern post-Soviet Republic of Moldova is a young science. Over the past thirty years, it has had to catch up with world ethnological science, filling gaps in the study of Jewish history, including the Pogrom and the Holocaust, and in Jewish education, and in Jewish philosophy, and in archivism, etc. Field research practically remained outside of scientific interests and opportunities. And only in recent years this line of research has become more active, primarily in projects for mapping and studying Jewish cemeteries held by the authors. During the period 2019–2022, findings that significantly clarify the history of the Jews in Moldova were made in Chisinau, Soroca, Onițcani (Criuleni), Iagorlâc, Gherșunovka (both – the left bank of Dniester River), and others. Each of these finds, most of which are dated back to the 18th century – a period, much less studied from a Jewish point of view – opens a new page in the Jewish history of Moldova and gives impetus to new research, both historical and field, epigraphic.