The
history of the Jews in Romania concerns the
Jews both of
Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is present-day Romanian territory. Minimal until the 18th century, the size of the Jewish population increased after around 1850, and more especially after the establishment of
Greater Romania in the aftermath of
World War I. A diverse community, albeit an overwhelmingly urban one, Jews were a target of
religious persecution and
racism in Romanian society – from the late-19th century debate over the "
Jewish Question" and the Jewish residents' right to
citizenship, to the
genocide carried out in the lands of Romania as part of
the Holocaust, during which 280,000 to 380,000 Jews were killed. The latter, coupled with successive waves of
aliyah, has accounted for a dramatic decrease in the overall size of Romania's present-day Jewish community.