Bucharest, capital of Rumania. The community, consisting of merchants and moneylenders from Turkey and the Balkan countries, is first mentioned in the middle of the 16th century in the responsa of several Balkan rabbis. Toward the middle of the 17th century, a new community, now predominantly Ashkenazi, was established. Many of the Phanariot princes who ruled Walachia in the 18th century maintained close relations with leading Constantinople Jews and brought a number of them to Bucharest, where they attained influential positions. In the 18th century the Jews were concentrated in the suburb of Mahalaua Popescului, but as the community increased a number began to move to other parts of the city, where they even established synagogues; however, these were closed by the princes. The populace, afraid of Jewish economic competition, was intensely hostile toward the Jews, and in 1793 the residents of the Rozvan suburb petitioned Prince Alexander Moruzi to remove Jews who had recently settled there and demolish the synagogue they had erected. The prince ordered the synagogue to be closed (January 1794), but refused to have the Jews removed from the suburb, and a few days later even issued a decree affording them protection. In 1801 there were anti-Jewish riots following blood libel charges, and 128 Jews were killed or wounded. The community again suffered persecution during the Russian occupation of Bucharest from 1806 to 1812, and in particular during the Greek revolt under Alexander Ypsilanti and its suppression by the Turks in 1821. During this period, the Bucharest Jews, like those elsewhere in Walachia and Moldavia, were organized as an autonomous Breasla Ovreilor ("Jewish corporation") headed by a Staroste ("provost"). The head of the Bucharest community also acted as the deputy of the hakham bashi (chief rabbi) of Moldavia, whose authority extended over Walachian Jewry as well. In 1818–21, the Staroste of Bucharest seceded from the authority of the Moldavian hakham bashi and assumed the title independently. The few Sephardi Jews, whose numbers began to increase only at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, did not then constitute a separate community, although they had their own synagogue in a rented house in Mahalaua Popescului and in 1811 established their own burial society. In 1818 they were granted permission to build a synagogue. The Bucharest community grew rapidly in the 19th century through immigration. From 127 families registered in Bucharest in 1820 and 594 in 1831, the community grew to 5,934 persons in 1860 and 40,533 (14.7% of the total population) in 1899. Under the Capitulations system foreign subjects were free from the regular taxation and jurisdiction in Rumania. Hence the immigrants questioned the authority of the community leadership and refused to pay the tax on kosher meat, which constituted its sole income. The authorities, drawn into the conflict, at first upheld the traditional rights of the Breasla Ovreilor. However, following repeated complaints from both sides, as well as constitutional changes in the principality resulting from the promulgation of the Organic Statute in 1832, the community was given a new constitution in that year which severely curtailed its autonomy and placed it under the direct authority and close supervision of the municipality. The Ashkenazi community was again reconstituted in 1843, and the new statute, which further curtailed the community's autonomy, was confirmed with slight changes by the reigning prince in 1851; although never formally abolished, it fell into disuse in the second half of the century. In the meantime the Sephardi Jews (numbering about 150 families in 1854), had founded their own community. Within the Ashkenazi community, the conflicts between the native and foreign-born members continued. Finally, in 1851, the Prussian and Austrian subjects (about 300 families) were permitted to found a separate community. In 1861, a bitter conflict broke out between the native community and the Russian subjects because some articles had allegedly been removed from the Russian synagogue.

At that time, the Bucharest Ashkenazi community was also torn by violent strife between the Orthodox and Progressive wings . The controversy centered around the modern school opened in 1852 and a proposal in 1857 to build a Choir Temple and introduce certain reforms into the service. The dissension reached its peak when, in 1858, R. Meir Leib Malbim was called to the rabbinate. He placed himself at the head of the Orthodox wing and a fierce struggle ensued. The conflict also had a social character since the Progressives were drawn mainly from the well-to-do, while the masses were Orthodox. In 1862 the Progressives achieved success; the government deposed Malbim from the Bucharest rabbinate, and in 1864 he was arrested and expelled from the country. The Temple project was resumed in 1864; it was completed in 1867 and became the center of Progressive Jewry and the focus of a variety of cultural and educational activities. Continued quarrels within the community and repeated complaints to the authorities by each of the competing factions brought about in 1862 the government's decision (which applied to the whole country) not to interfere any more with the internal affairs of the Jewish communities and to withdraw from them their official status. This decision reiterated in 1866, led to the gradual disorganization and dissolution of the Ashkenazi community in Bucharest, which in 1874 had ceased to exist as an organized entity. Several attempts were later made to reconstitute the community, the most serious in 1908. However, it was only in 1919 that an organized Jewish community was again established in Bucharest. Until then various benevolent societies and organizations undertook educational and social welfare activities. Chief among them were the Choir Temple Congregation, formally constituted in 1876 as a separate and independent organization levying its own tax on kosher meat, and the Brotherhood Zion of the B'nai B'rith, founded in Bucharest in 1872 . These succeeded in setting up and maintaining a network of educational and charitable institutions, including, in 1907–08, 15 schools, filling the void created by the lack of an organized community. Cultural bodies were also established, and a number of Jewish journals and other publications made their appearance. Bucharest also became the center of Rumanian Jewry's political activity and the struggle for emancipation.