The Jewish News of Northern California (August 1, 1986)
WASHINGTON (JTA) - The only remaining Sephardic synagogue in Eastern Europe was bulldozed in Bucharest last week, despite repeated assurances from Romania that the building would be spared, according to a Jewish community official.
Alfred Moses, a vice president of the American Jewish Committee, said he had been told by Romania's ambassador in Washington, Nicolae Gavrilescu, that a massive urban renewal project underway in his country's capital would not affect the 600-year-old building.
Romanian Embassy First Secretary Dan Dumitru told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week that he could not yet confirm whether the Spanish Synagogue in Bucharest had been demolished, and that he expected to hear something from his government "maybe next week.” But a U.S. State Department official said that the building had been razed.