The Jews of Mediaș: The Synagogue and Its Rediscovered Archive

Mediaș — Mediasch in German, Medgyes in Hungarian — is a fortified Saxon town on the Târnava Mare river, less than sixty kilometres north of Sibiu. Its Jewish community was small and relatively young, but it left behind an intact synagogue, a walled cemetery and an archive rediscovered in 2008 that turned the empty building into a centre of research and cultural activity.

From the villages to the town

Like Sibiu, Mediaș was founded by Saxon settlers in the 12th century, and here too Jews settled late. According to the JBAT archive of the Leo Baeck Institute, by the mid-19th century numerous Jewish families lived in the surrounding villages and a few in the town itself; the Kappel family, among the town’s prominent residents, had lived there since at least the late 18th century. After the revolution of 1848, as residence restrictions eased, many families moved from the villages into town, and the community was officially founded.

The figures cited by JewishGen’s cemetery database show the pace: 15 Jews in the 1838 census, 24 in 1850–1851, 197 in 1880 and 702 in 1930. It was never a large community like those of Brașov or Târgu Mureș, but it had its own rabbi, school, mikveh and cemetery.

Rabbis and benefactors

The community’s first rabbi, David Bäumel, came from Bohemia and died in 1899. By 1905 Moishe Reich of Budapest had taken over the rabbinical duties, and he served until his death in 1945. In the 1920s the community president, Benjamin Czitron, financed a Jewish school and a new mikveh, built next to the synagogue. All three buildings — synagogue, school and mikveh — still stand.

The synagogue by the town wall

The synagogue was built at the edge of the medieval town walls, on Strada Kogălniceanu. Sources differ on the date: the tourism site Turist în Transilvania dates the original building to 1896, a photo caption in the JBAT archive gives “circa 1894”, and JBAT’s own text says only that it was built by the turn of the century. Two side rooms were later added on either side of the vestibule.

The style is eclectic, with strong Romantic and Moorish influences: lace-like mouldings, massive pilasters and tall arched windows. The prayer hall, 18 by 11 metres, is framed on three sides by a women’s gallery; the bimah stands in the centre and the Torah ark on the eastern wall. The architect is unknown; according to Turist în Transilvania he probably drew on Viennese and Budapest models and adapted them to local needs.

War and emigration

In the partition of Transylvania in 1940 Mediaș remained on the Romanian side, and its Jews were not deported. According to JBAT the community came through the war “relatively unscathed”, but emerged changed: Rabbi Reich died in 1945, prominent members emigrated, and Jewish refugees arrived from Bukovina and northern Transylvania. Most Jews left in the 1950s and 1960s, chiefly for Israel, and by the fall of Communism only a handful remained; a survey made in 2000 speaks of fewer than ten Jews. A native of the town is the journalist Iosif Klein Medeșan, who worked for Voice of America, the BBC and Radio Free Europe.

The rediscovered archive

In 2008 a large collection was found in the synagogue: the community archive, from the late 19th century to the end of the Communist period, and a library of prayer books, festival prayer books and communal volumes, alongside secular literature. Between May 2014 and April 2015 the archive was catalogued and digitised, funded by an anonymous donor and supported by the Mihai Eminescu Trust; the material is kept today in the community’s former office building next to the synagogue, and part of it is available online through JBAT.

Around this work grew the initiative “The House by the Synagogue”, led by the researcher and archivist Julie Dawson, which aims to turn the building into a museum, community centre and cultural space. Between 2016 and 2019 it hosted workshops for students and community events as part of the TRACES project, funded by the European Commission.

The cemetery

The Jewish cemetery is at Strada Tușnad 4, on a hillside about two kilometres from the synagogue. According to the 2000 survey by the US Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, as reproduced by JewishGen, it was founded in the 19th century and served Orthodox and Neolog Jews alike; it measures about 130 by 60 metres, is enclosed by a wall with a locked gate, and has a tahara house, an ohel and a Holocaust memorial. Between 100 and 500 gravestones were counted, inscribed in Hebrew, German, Romanian and Hungarian, and the last known burial took place in 1993. The same survey noted that more than 75% of the stones were toppled or broken — a situation that may have changed since.

Visiting

The synagogue is not used for worship, and we found no current, reliable source for opening hours. Visits to the synagogue and the cemetery must be arranged in advance, through the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania or the nearby Jewish Community of Sibiu (tel. +40 269 216 904 per the Federation’s website). Mediaș is about an hour’s drive from Sibiu and fits easily into a journey on to Târgu Mureș.

• The synagogue façade on Strada Kogălniceanu
• The prayer hall and the women’s gallery
• The school and mikveh buildings next to the synagogue
• The cemetery on Strada Tușnad