Zguriţa

Zguriţa or Zguritsa (Yiddish: זגוריצה, Russian: Згурица) is a village in the Drochia County of Moldova founded in 1853 on an area of over 1,000 acres rented by Jewish settlers in Bessarabia. It was the last Jewish agricultural settlement in Moldova. In 1878 the new Jewish owner canceled the lease of the estate and Zguritsa lost its status as a Jewish agricultural colony. From 1890 to 1903 further Jewish settlement in Zguritsa was prohibited by virtue of the May Laws issued on May 3, 1882.

In 1897 Zguritsa's Jewish population was 1,802, comprising 85 percent of the total population. Following the First World War, the village fell under Romanian control. Agrarian reform in Romania in 1922 granted plots of land to 150 Jews of Zguritsa. In 1925 the 193 members of the local loan fund included 40 farmers, 25 artisans, and 113 tradesmen. In 1930 there were 2,541 Jews in Zguritsa (83.9% of the total population), supporting a kindergarten and an elementary school both of the Zionist Tarbut organization.

In 1940, the Soviet Union annexed Bessarabia as the Moldavian SSR, closing privately-owned businesses, and religious schools. The agricultural community was collectivized. A year later, pro-Nazi Romanian forces reoccupied the village. On July 3, 1941, Jews who did not flee were rounded up and deported to Transnistria, where most of them died of starvation and disease.

Today, the population of the village is largely Moldovan, with some Russians and Gypsies. The Jewish cemetery is in ruins, and the former Tarbut school was expanded as a public school.

Famous prewar residents of Zguritsa included:
*Yiddish writer Svetlana Yakir
*Yiddish writer Mordechai Goldenberg
*Yiddish writer Yenta Mash
*Journalists Pedro and Mauricio Sprinberg

Source: "Encyclopedia Judaica" Keter Publishing House Jerusalem Ltd. 1972