MOMENTS FROM THE LIFE OF IULIU BARASCH (1815–1863)

DOCTOR, PROFESSOR AND PROTECTOR OF HIS PEOPLE

Abstract

In 1842, at a time when Romanian society was taking its first steps towards modernization, a Jewish man from Galicia chose to settle in Wallachia. This man was a physician with a medical degree in “medicine and surgery” obtained at the University of Berlin, spoke two widely spoken European languages (French and German), and was concerned with diverse areas of knowledge, such as philosophy, natural sciences, law, and more. As an ethnic Jew, he made a remarkable career in Wallachia. He was a physician in the country’s medical service, professor, hospital director, journalist, and philanthropist. He founded the first children’s hospital in the country and two influential newspapers. He campaigned for the political rights of Wallachian Jews and the modernization of the synagogue cult. He gave public conferences in the country and abroad and translated and wrote several books. The physician’s name was Iuliu Barasch, and this study tries to reconstruct his life and medical activity between 1842 and 1863 in Wallachia, a period marked by social unrest, revolution, war, and cholera epidemics, but also unionist actions, political and social reforms. For this reconstruction, I researched documentary material in archives, the press of the time, journals, memoirs, and specialized literature.