Orhei
65% Jewish by 1900, 15 survivors by 1943. Seven civilizations layered in the cliffs. Now Sumitomo's €30M factory bets manufacturing can replace diaspora remittances exceeding 15% of GDP.
In 1900, Jews comprised 65% of Orhei's population. By 1943, 15 remained. The city has been erased and rebuilt so many times that archaeologists document over 1,000 structures spanning 30,000 years in the nearby cliffs—each civilization building atop what the last abandoned, like hermit crabs inheriting shells.
The Răut River carved the limestone where 15th-century monks excavated caves that became Soviet grain depots, then tourist attractions. The Golden Horde city of Shehr al-Cedid ("New City") flourished here in the 14th century with bathhouses and caravanserais before medieval Moldovans rebuilt it as their eastern outpost in 1470. The city's name derives from Hungarian "Őrhely"—guard post—a function it served at Moldavia's frontier. Each succession represented a phase transition: not gradual change but rapid restructuring of the entire settlement.
The Jewish community that arrived in the 16th century built the commercial economy that defined Orhei for four centuries. The restored synagogue—now the Jewish Museum, opened January 2023—stands near the Holocaust Memorial marking where 4,000 people once lived, worked, and built institutions that shaped the city's character.
Orhei pioneered Bessarabia's tobacco industry in the 19th century. International Tobacco Ltd. still processes 205 million cigarettes annually. But the transformation reshaping the city is industrial: Sumitomo Electric Bordnetze invested €30 million in an auto-wiring factory targeting 4,000 jobs. Moldova showcased the result at Business Week 2025: 1.3% of cars produced worldwide contain Moldovan wiring systems.
The population of 22,000 today belies the diaspora connection. Like salmon delivering marine nutrients to natal streams, Moldovans abroad send remittances home while themselves remaining in EU countries or Russia. Moldova's remittances exceed 15% of GDP. Whether Sumitomo-style manufacturing can replace this dependency—or whether Orhei becomes another archaeological layer for whoever builds next—depends on the same calculation every population faces: is the cost of staying greater than the cost of leaving?