Dorohoi (Romanian pronunciation:[doroˈhoj]) is a cityinBotoșani County, Romania, on the right bank of the river Jijia, which broadens into a lake on the north. The city administers three villages: Dealu Mare, Loturi Enescu, and Progresul.
Dorohoi used to be a market for the timber and farm produce of the north Moldavian highlands; merchants from the neighboring states flocked to its great fair, held on the June 12. The settlement is first mentioned in documents from 1408, where a treaty was signed between Moldavian voievode, Alexandru cel Bun, and the King of Poland and Hungary.
Dorohoi was bombed by the Russians during World War I.[3]
Dorohoi used to be the capital of Dorohoi County, but was degraded to a municipality when the Soviet Unionoccupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in late June 1940. On July 1, 1940, units of the Romanian Army attacked local Jews in a pogrom. These military actions against the Jews were not endorsed by the Romanian Government. When the conspiracy against the Jews was discovered by the military command, troops were sent to end the abuse.[4]
The northeastern town of Dorohoi witnessed deaths during the night of June 28–29, 2010 as floods rose to just over 1 metre (3.3 ft) in some places. Several roads into Dorohoi remained either washed away or under water.[5] The heavy rain that had been falling for close to a week had forecasters warning that it would continue in northeast Romania.[5] The unusually heavy rain killed 6 people, most in the town of Dorohoi on the 29th.[6]
Jews first settled in Dorohoi in the 17th century. It was set up as a Jewish Guild under Moldavia. Jews suffered here during World War I:
There were 600 Jewish families in Dorohoi in 1803.
3,031 people in 1859 (roughly half of the population).
6,804 in 1899 (more than half of the population).
5,800 in the 1930s.
The Jewish population actually increased after the Holocaust as a result of refugees settling there. In 1947, there were 7,600 Jews living in Dorohoi. Following the establishment of Israel, the Jewish population of Dorohoi steadily decreased, due to emigration. In 1956, there were 2,753 Jews; in 1966, there were 1,013; and by 2000, there were only 49 Jews left in Dorohoi.
A little to the Eastern outer limits of the city, on the way to Broscăuți, tourists may find Saint Nicholas Church, an edifice built by Ștefan cel Mare in 1495. Exorcisms have been officiated here until the late 2000s.
