Capital city of the Republic of Moldova. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, Kishinev (officially, Chişinău; Yid., Keshenev) was in the principality of Moldova (Moldavia), which was annexed to the Russian Empire in 1818 and called Bessarabia. In 1918–1940 and 1941–1944 it was in the Kingdom of Romania and, in 1940–1941 and 1944–1991, it served as capital of the Moldavian SSR. The earliest documentation of a Jewish presence dates to the beginning of the eighteenth century.
