The Jewish Cemeteries of Brașov: Crișan and Cloșca Streets

The Jewish community of Brașov has two burial grounds, on Strada Crișan and Strada Cloșca, both run by the community and still in use. They are less known than the synagogue in the old town, and their documentation is thin: this article sets out what can be verified and marks plainly what is still unknown.

Two Cemeteries, Two Streets

The website of the Jewish Community of Brașov publishes two telephone numbers for cemetery administration: one for Strada Crișan 3 and one for Strada Cloșca 20. JewishGen’s Cemetery Discovery Project also documents two sites, the “Closca Street Cemetery” and the “Crisana Street Cemetery”, based on photographs by Charles Burns from June 2016. The JGuide Europe guide lists the Jewish cemetery of Brașov at Strada Crișan 1, and the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University catalogues a “Neolog Jewish Cemetery in Braşov”.

The two cemeteries probably reflect the split of the community itself. According to the Archives of Jewish Bukovina and Transylvania at the Leo Baeck Institute, after the congress of Hungarian Jewry in 1868–1869 the community divided into Orthodox and Neolog branches, each with its own rabbi, synagogue and cemetery. The community website notes that alongside the Orthodox synagogue there were a ritual bath and a “central cemetery (on Strada Cloșca)”. The Crișan Street cemetery is therefore probably the Neolog one, but we found no source that says so explicitly.

When Were They Founded?

We found no authoritative source giving a founding year for either cemetery. What is known is that Jewish burial in the city was organised almost from the start of settlement: in Mircea Moldovan’s survey of hevra kadisha registers in Romania, Brașov appears with the year 1807, the year in which, according to the community website, the first Jews settled permanently in the city.

According to the ANU Museum’s Synagogues 360 site, there was once a small Jewish burial ground for plague victims near the Catherine Gate (Poarta Ecaterinei), and the remains buried there were recently moved to the Jewish cemetery. We found no second source for this either.

The 2010 survey of Jewish heritage sites in Romania by the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad (USCPAHA) summarises eight Jewish cemeteries in Brașov County. According to the survey, the oldest stone dates from the nineteenth century at six of them and is unknown at two. The survey summarises the county as a whole and gives no figures for individual sites, so it tells us nothing about the city itself.

Gravestones and Memory: What Is Still Unknown

We were unable to verify a list of notable graves from an authoritative source. Nor did we find an authoritative source documenting a First World War memorial or a Holocaust memorial stone in the cemeteries. Since the Jews of Brașov themselves were not deported during the Holocaust, the city’s remembrance ceremonies are held today at the Beth Israel synagogue: in November 2025, for example, Transilvania University’s Holocaust remembrance day opened with a ceremony there.

It is reasonable to assume that the cemeteries hold the graves of the community’s rabbis and presidents, among them the rabbis listed by the Leo Baeck Institute archive, such as Lajos Papp, Ernő Deutsch and David Sperber. However, we have not verified where any of them is buried, and some may have been buried outside Brașov. Visitors looking for a particular grave should contact the cemetery administration in advance.

Working Cemeteries

Neither site is an abandoned relic. The community, which counted 281 Jews in the 2011 census, runs both, sets their opening hours and publishes telephone numbers for their administration. Their closing days follow Jewish law and community custom: the cemeteries are closed on Shabbat, Rosh Hodesh and festivals, and for the whole month of Nisan, when it is customary not to visit graves.

Visiting

According to the community website (October 2026), the cemetery is open Monday–Thursday 09:00–19:00, Friday 09:00–14:00, and Sunday 09:00–19:00 by prior arrangement only. It is closed on Shabbat, Rosh Hodesh, festivals and throughout the month of Nisan. To arrange a visit with the cemetery administration:

• Strada Crișan 3: +40 732 255 114
• Strada Cloșca 20: +40 742 909 211

It is best to arrange your visit in advance, especially if you are looking for a particular grave, and you can also do so through the community office at Strada Poarta Schei 27 (+40 757 570 803). A visit pairs naturally with the Beth Israel synagogue; the history, the synagogue and the split between the congregations are covered in separate articles in this section.