Itinerary

Day 1

Bucharest

Welcome in Bucharest, the capital of Romania

• Arrival on Otopeni airport, meet SELECTOUR guide

• Transfer to your hotel

• On the way, short sightseeing tour of Bucharest

• Accommodation in Bucharest

Day 2

Bucharest– Curtea de Arges – SIBIU

In the morning, sightseeing tour of Bucharest, visiting the most important Jewish sites: the ‘Choral Temple', one of the nicest synagogues in Romania, built in 1845, followed by a visit to the ‘Great Synagogue' with Rococo paintings, now the Jewish Museum with a most fascinating collection, inaccessible until recently, of ritual objects, collected by Rabbi Rosen during his period as Chief Rabbi of Romania. Of particular interest are the fine parochot (Torah curtains), and Torah crowns, pointers and rimonim (Torah Finials), some of which are characteristic of the local style. This museum traces the history of the Jewish people in Romania from AD 1000 through World War II. Time permitting, visit to ‘Yeshua Tova' synagogue and the Lauder School and Kindergarten opened in 1998.

Leave for Sibiu via Curtea de Arges. Stop at Curtea de Arges, which was Vlad-the Impaler's (Dracula) capital in the 15th century. Later on, another prince, Neagoe Basarab, built here an outstanding monastery. Its unique architecture impressed the popular imagination, giving birth to a ballad, the ballad of Master Manole. The monastery is the burial place of the Romanian royal family.

• Visit Choral Temple and the Great Synagogue

• Departure to Sibiu.

• Stop at Curtea de Arges to visit the Arges Monastery

• Overnight in Sibiu

Day 3

NOT MON - Sibiu – Medias - Sighisoara – Tg. Mures – BAIA MARE

Walking sightseeing tour of Sibiu, visiting the Main Square, the Small Square, the Liars Bridge and The Great Synagogue.

On the way to Sighisoara, stop in the town of Medias, to visit neo-Romanesque Temple Synagogue built at the beginning of the twentieth century, as well as a small collection of ritual objects.

Two hours drive from Sibiu there is one of the most important European monuments, Sighisoara, ancient cradle of the Romanians, ‘the museum town' located in Transylvania, in a landscape of peculiar beauty in the Tirnave Plateau. Thick walls surround the citadel, having inside round 150 houses all of them inhabited. The citadel walls have 14 towers; each of them had been built and watched by a guild. Outside visit of the Synagogue in Sighisoara.

Drive to Targu Mures. Sightseeing of Targu Mures including the Great Temple - built during the rabbinate of Dr. Samuel Marcusz, between 1899-1900.

Overnight in Baia Mare.

• Walking sightseeing tour of Sibiu

• Visit neo-Romanesque Temple Synagogue in Medias

• Visit of Sighisoara citadel

• Short visits of Tg. Mures and Bistrita

• Accommodation in Baia Mare

Day 4

NOT MON – Baia Mare - Sighetu Marmatiei – Valea Izei – Borsa – CIMPULUNG MOLDOVENESC
The region of Maramures lies in the north-western corner of Transylvania, in the Carpathian Mountains. The home of a largely Hasidic community, the prominent language of this region was Yiddish. The Jews in Maramures are from Bukovina and Galicia and were very different culturally from the Jews of the central and southern areas of Romania. Few Jews remained in this region but there are enough material remnants of this once large Jewish community.
Further north, near the border the Ukraine stands the little town Sighetu Marmatiei, the birthplace of Elie Wiesel. The man, who coined the word 'Holocaust,' is Elie Wiesel. Here in Sighetu there is the house where he was born and lived until he was deported with his family at the age of 15. He won the Nobel Prize for literature for his novel ‘Night' about his father and his ordeal in the Nazi extermination camps. Sighetu Marmatiei was one third Jewish before the Nazis marched them to extermination camps.
The Maramures County ends on the Iza Valley. But your trip continues through a magnificent panorama to Barsana village with its old church made of big logs on 1364. Next, you'll visit the wooden church of Rozavlea, build to evoke the battles against the Tatars on 1717. The trip continues crossing the Carpathians by Prislop Pass to Cimpulung Moldovenesc.

• Visit to the house where Elie Wiesel was born, in Sighetu Marmatiei

• Visit to the Memorial of Sighet

• Visit of Barsana, Rozavlea wooden churches

• Accommodation in Campulung Moldovenesc

Day 5

Cimpulung Moldovenesc – Voronet - Suceava – Botosani – Hirlau – IASI

The morning begins with the visit to the Great Synagogue, with its neoclassical elements, in Cimpulung Moldovenesc and continues to Suceava. On the way, stop in Gura Humorului to visit to the Jewish Cemetery and the painted monastery of Voronet, the ‘Sistine Chapel of the Orient'. It is a fairyland world painted on a patch of sky, which thrills even the great lovers of Quattrocento art. Hundreds of paintings ranging from the frail child – the symbol of the soul in the scene of the Last Judgment, to the immense composition ‘Jesse's Tree', everything develops amid an explosion of blue. In Suceava, sightseeing the Citadel of Stefan cel Mare and visit to the Gah Synagogue, founded by the Semilut Hasidim. The tour continues to Botosani to visit the 300 year-old unique ‘Hoiche Shil' Synagogue, an ornate wooden aron kodesh from the mid 19th century, and important wall paintings colored in a special technique, in which the paint was applied to fabric attached to the walls. Stop at Hirlau to visit an early 19th century synagogue with a wooden cupola, important because its construction is reminiscent of earlier, now-lost, synagogues. The wall paintings in Hirlau synagogue are noteworthy for their unusual motifs, among them, a painting of the burning bush.

Dusk waits for you in the beautiful city of Iasi, almost on the border between Romania and Republic of Moldavia.

• Visit to the Great Synagogue in Cimpulung Moldovenesc and the Jewish Cemetery in Gura Humorului

• Visit of Voronet Monastery, the ‘Sixtine Chapel of the Orient'

• Visit of the 1st capital of Moldavian feudal State, Suceava including the Citadel and the Gah Synagogue.

• Stops in Botosani to visit ‘Hoiche Shil' Synagogue and at Hirlau to visit the 19th century Synagogue

• Departure for Iasi, the 2nd capital of Moldavian feudal State

• Accommodation in Iasi

Day 6

Iasi – Piatra Neamt – Roman - Bacau – BRASOV
Iasi, the capital of Moldavia where before the Second World War lived the largest Jewish population in Romania. Your tour will begin at the Great Synagogue, built in 1670 on the initiative of Rabbi Nathan Hanover, the oldest monument of Judaic religious architecture style, still standing in Romania. The synagogue is noteworthy for its unusually large and beautiful aron kodesh, which takes up the entire eastern wall. The tour includes Jewish Cemetery and the monument of Iasi pogrom victims too.
On the way to Piatra Neamt stop in Roman to visit Leipziger Synagogue built in 2nd half of the 19th century, with its late Volk-Baroque wooden aron kodesh, elaborately decorated with floral and animal motifs. The cemetery in the town Roman is memorable for its decorated tombstones employing local motifs based on the community insignia.
Travel to Piatra Neamt where we visit the wooden synagogue dating from 1766 associated with the Ba'al Shem Tov. It has a wooden aron kodesh from 1835. In the same court yard there is the Leipziger Temple, built in 1839. Both went through the same destiny: pulled down, wrecked by fire and rebuilt again. Several tombstones dating from 1677, discovered at Piatra Neamt, are strong evidence of an old Jewish community in the area.

On the way to Brasov, stop in Bacau to visit at the Grain Merchants' Temple, which is the only Jewish sanctuary left in town, out of 22 synagogues in 1920; then visit the Synagogue of R. Avram Arch Rosen, so called after the father of Dr. Moses Rosen, a long time Chief Rabbi and the Leader of R.J.C., the Jewish school.

• After breakfast, sightseeing tour of Iasi visiting the Great Synagogue, Jewish Cemetery and the monument of Iasi pogrom victims.

• Stop in Roman to visit the Jewish cemetery

• In Piatra Neamt visit of the wooden synagogue and Leipziger Temple

• Visit to the Grain merchants' Temple in Bacau

• Accommodation in Brasov

Day 7

NOT MON, TUE - Brasov – Bran - Sinaia – BUCHAREST

In the morning visit to the Jewish Community in Brasov, where there are over a hundred Jewish families today. The Temple Synagogue built in 1898, in the neo-Roman/Moorish style by architect Leopold Baumhorn. Its style is typical of the large Neolog synagogues, which were built throughout Austro-Hungary in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Temple was partially destroyed between 1940-1944 and it was rebuilt after on the initiation of Zitrom Aladar - the leader of the Jewish community using the work and the money of the community members. The sightseeing tour of Brasov includes the Black Church, the most popular historical monument of the city.

Leave Brasov for Bran. High above the Bran pass, where the waters hollowed their way in the rock stands the Bran Castle. Here Vlad the Impaler, Dracula spent some frightful days, on his way to Transylvania.

Through a short cut we arrive in Sinaia, the Royal Pearl of Carpathians. Stop for a visit to the spectacular Peles Castle. Set amidst sculpture gardens and fountains, Peles Castle was the summer residence to many of Romania's king. Inside you'll see valuable collections of mediaeval weaponry, stained glass, silk rugs and furniture.

• After breakfast sightseeing tour of Brasov, visiting the Temple Synagogue and the Black Church

• Visit of Bran Castle

• Visit of Peles Castle in Sinaia

• Accommodation in Bucharest

• Evening: Attend performance at the Yiddish Theatre, if open

Day 8

Good-bye, dear friends

If time permits, we invite you to do your last shopping at the famous UNIREA SHOPPING CENTER

• Transfer to the Otopeni Airport

Extra Information

Inclusions -

Visits

Exclusions -

Meals, other than breakfast

Extras -

The price is PER PERSON, sharing a double room and for a group of minimum 4 persons. For other arrangements, kindly contact us.