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17 Shevat 5759 - Feb. 3, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Synagogues and Religious Artifacts Preserved in Romania

by S. Fried

In the summer of 1997, a research team from the Center for the Study of Jewish Art of the Hebrew University went to Romania, where it conducted a survey of that country's Jewish art.

The team discovered preserved synagogues which still have aronot kodesh and sifrei kodesh.

Romania is currently comprised of regions which are very divergent from each other, and which in the past were under different governments, such as Turkey, Austria, Hungary and independent Romania. Romania's Jews also stem from different origins. Some of its communities were initially comprised of Sephardic Jews from Turkey. Others were comprised of Jews who stemmed from Galacia, and some were made up of Jews of Austro- German or Hungarian bents.

As a result, before the Holocaust, certain regions of Romania had Chassidic communities, and others had Orthodox communities which battled against the Reform communities that had spread throughout Romania.

Many of the artistic treasures of Romanian Jewry were collected by Rabbi Moshe Rosen, who served as the Chief Rabbi of Romania between 1948 and 1994. These treasures were preserved in the Jewish Museum of Bucharest.

The Walachia region had a large Sephardic community which originated from the Balkans and from Turkey. Toward the 19th century, Ashkenazic Jews from Galacia and Russia arrived in the region.

The researchers found large collections of religious artifacts in Polisti and Karyova. Transylvania was an independent country, which was later on swallowed up by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its first Jewish community was located in Alba Ulia, where Jews had lived from 1591. Migration did not increase in large proportions, because the number of Jews permitted to enter was restricted.

In Transylvania, the influences of various cultures are evident. Brashov, where 130 Jewish families currently reside, has a well preserved synagogue. Alba Yulia has a structure dating back to 1840 comprising a school, a beis din and, of all things, a local prison.

The Jewish community of Satu-Mara (Satmar) which was founded in the middle of the 19th century, once numbered 22,000 residents. It had 16 Orthodox synagogues. Today, only three of those synagogues remain, one of which is still active and has approximately 1000 sifrei kodesh. The aron kodesh is made of wood, and is 10 meters high. A smaller synagogue, built in 1923, is situated beside the larger one.

The Jewish community of Oradia (Arad) was the most active during the days of the Austro-Hungarian empire. In 1944, its 25,000 Jews were sent to their deaths. Today it has 300 Jews. A Reform temple stands in the city's center, but the Orthodox community built two synagogues and a communal center at the city's outskirts.

Hundreds of years ago, the Jews of Timishora (Tamashvar) located on the Balkan border, originated from Turkey. Later on Ashkenazic Jews came, and in 1726, two synagogues were built an Ashkenazic one and a Sephardic one. Today, approximately 1,000 Jews live there, most of them elderly, and all of them observant.

Marmorosh, which is located in the Carpathian mountains was once a large Chassidic bastion, and Yiddish was its spoken language. Jews arrived there from Bukovina and Galacia, and were very unlike the Jews of Romania. Today, there are no Jews there, and all of its synagogues were destroyed during the Communist regime, or were unrecognizably changed and used for different purposes.

Moisi, still has a mikveh located beside the river. However the mikveh currently serves as a public bathhouse.


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