The Other Synagogues of Cluj: The Craftsmen, the Chevra Shas and What Was Lost

Visitors to Cluj today find one active synagogue, on Horea Street. Yet according to the testimony of Cluj native Bela Muller in the Centropa project, on the eve of the war the city had five large synagogues and another 15–20 prayer houses — most of them belonging to the Orthodox community, the largest in the city. Two of these buildings survived and found new lives: the craftsmen’s synagogue Poalei Tzedek, which became a centre for contemporary art, and the Chevra Shas, which now houses a university research institute for Jewish history.

The Prayer Map of Kolozsvár

The community’s first synagogue was dedicated in 1851, with dwellings beside it for the teacher, the rabbi and the shochet; according to research published by the Muzeon museum, it was enlarged in 1896. After the schism of 1868–1869 the main community remained Orthodox, and over time it divided into several sub-congregations. In 1875 the Hasidic congregation Beth Avrohom was founded; it first prayed in rented rooms and in a pavilion of the Central Park, and later built a synagogue on Morii Street (Malom utca). In 1921 the Hasidim organised as a separate community under Zalman Leib Halberstam. Alongside them stood the prayer house of the small Sephardi congregation.

Bela Muller lists the streets on which the five large synagogues stood: Papp, Mikes Kelemen, Malom (Morii), Horea and Barițiu. Only the Horea Street synagogue was Neolog; the others were Orthodox. In the student riots of December 1927 six synagogues in the city were broken into and wrecked, according to a dispatch from the US minister in Bucharest, and after the deportation of 1944 most were left without worshippers.

Poalei Tzedek: The Craftsmen’s Synagogue

At George Barițiu Street 16A, at the back of a courtyard near the bank of the Little Someș river, stands the former Poalei Tzedek synagogue (Poale Țedek). The name — “workers of righteousness” — was common among Jewish craftsmen’s associations in Central Europe, and according to the description of the Tranzit Foundation’s project in the Romanian architecture annual, the synagogue was built by the “Society of Little Jewish Craftsmen” at the beginning of the 20th century. The news site Actual de Cluj dates it instead to 1875 and attributes it to the Orthodox community, so the exact date of construction is unclear.

After the war and the departure of most of the community, the building fell out of use. Under communism it served as a warehouse and deteriorated badly. In the autumn of 1997 a group of artists moved in and founded Casa Tranzit — an independent centre for contemporary art and thought, the oldest of its kind in the city. The foundation holds exhibitions, concerts, plays and film evenings there, and in 2022 it marked 25 years of activity. The building keeps the shape of a synagogue, and a visitor at an event can still recognise the prayer hall.

The Chevra Shas and the Carmilly Institute

The Chevra Shas synagogue (Șas Hevra) — named after a Talmud study society, Shas being the acronym for the “six orders” of the Mishnah — was built in 1922 on Croitorilor Street (“Tailors’ Street”). According to Jewish Heritage Europe and Babeș-Bolyai University’s Philobiblon site, it now houses the Dr Moshe Carmilly Institute for Hebrew and Jewish History, founded in October 1990 as part of the Faculty of History and Philosophy, and the Library of Jewish Studies, opened in 1999. Carmilly-Weinberger, the city’s Neolog rabbi from 1934 to 1944, visited Cluj in 1988 and supported the founding of the institute. In 1999 JTA reported that 480 students had enrolled at the institute, most of them not Jewish.

What Was Lost

The Encyclopaedia Judaica records that in 1970 the Jews of Cluj still prayed in three synagogues. But in 1999 JTA reported that the only functioning place of prayer was a small room in an apartment building, and that on one Friday night exactly ten men gathered there. The Orthodox synagogue of 1851 still stands, according to Beit Hatfutsot, but only its exterior has been preserved, and it houses offices of media companies. The present state of the Hasidic synagogue on Morii Street and of the Sephardi prayer house is not known to us from a current source.

Nor is the community building at Strada Tipografiei 25 a synagogue, although some sources describe it as one: according to research by Muzeon, it was the 1892 home and offices of cement manufacturer Sámuel Pollák, which passed to the Orthodox community and served as workshops, a bakery, a slaughterhouse and a council hall. At the end of 2026 the Muzeon museum moves into it.

Visiting

Both buildings are in the city centre, within walking distance of the Horea Street synagogue. Casa Tranzit (George Barițiu Street 16A) is open to the public during events; check the Tranzit Foundation’s programme. The Chevra Shas building on Croitorilor Street can be seen from outside; visits inside are by arrangement with the institute at Babeș-Bolyai University. We found no published opening hours for either building. For a guided tour of the city’s Jewish heritage sites, contact the Jewish Community of Cluj or the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania.