The Jews of Timișoara: From Sephardi Temesvár to the Deportation That Was Shelved

The Jewish community of Timișoara began with Sephardi merchants from the Ottoman Empire, grew under the Habsburgs into three separate congregations, and came through the Second World War without deportation. In 1942 its Jews were due to be the first deported from Romania to Bełżec, but the plan was shelved. After the war more than 13,000 Jews lived here. Today a few hundred remain.

Sephardim under Ottoman rule

From 1552 to 1716 Temesvár was an Ottoman administrative centre. According to the Leo Baeck Institute archive (JBAT), Jews came from the Balkans, at first as merchants staying for short periods, and settled permanently in the 16th century. The Jewish Encyclopedia (1906) describes Sephardi Jews settling here in this period, welcomed by the Turkish authorities. The oldest gravestone found in the Jewish cemetery dates from 1636 and belongs to Azriel Assael of Salonica. A formal community probably took shape around that time.

Under the House of Habsburg

In 1716 Prince Eugene of Savoy captured the city. According to JBAT, Jews could choose to leave for Ottoman territory or stay under Austrian rule, and twelve Sephardi families, 144 people, stayed. In 1718 the authorities ordered the Jews out on charges of spying for the Turks, but the order was not strictly enforced. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Jews were protected by Moses Lopez Pereira, Baron Diego d’Aguilar, regarded as the founder of the renewed Sephardi community. In 1736 Meir Amigo of Constantinople received permission to settle in the city with four more Sephardi families.

In 1739 the city counted 139 Ashkenazim and 81 Sephardim. According to JBAT, the first known synagogue, ritual bath and slaughterhouse were built in 1762 in the “Jewish Court” (Judenhof) in the fortress. Maria Theresa’s Jewish Ordinance of 1776 restricted the Jews of the city, and conditions eased only under Joseph II (1780–1790). The Ashkenazi community was led by rabbis of the Oppenheim family: David Oppenheim and his son Zvi Hirsch, who served until 1859.

Three quarters, three congregations

In the 19th century most Jews left the Jewish Court for the industrial quarter of Fabric, where a synagogue was consecrated in 1848. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Jewish population grew from about 1,200 in 1840 to 4,870 in 1890 and 5,788 in 1901. The Hungarian Jewish Congress of 1868–1869 split the community. The Inner City community, in the fortress, joined the Neolog movement, and most of Fabric’s Jews chose the Status Quo position. In 1871 an Orthodox community was founded in the Iosefin quarter, and in 1901 it elected Bernát Schück as chief rabbi. The Sephardi community remained independent until the end of the Second World War.

Each quarter had its own large synagogue. The Fortress synagogue, and the synagogues of Fabric and Iosefin, are covered in separate articles. According to JBAT, Hungarian spread quickly in the community: in 1880, 27% of the city’s Jews were Hungarian speakers, and by 1910, 65%.

Between the wars

After the First World War the Banat passed to Romania, and between the wars about 13,000 Jews lived in the city, according to community president Luciana Friedmann. In the 1930s the violence of the Legionary movement grew. On 26 November 1938 two grenades were thrown from the balcony of the municipal theatre into an audience that had come to see the Jewish actress Sidy Thal. According to JBAT, two people were killed. According to the newspaper Evenimentul Zilei, four were killed and 72 wounded. The organisers were arrested in January 1939, and seven Legionnaires were executed that February.

The Second World War: the deportation that never happened

In the summer of 1940 Northern Transylvania was handed to Hungary, but the Banat stayed in Romania. So the Jews of Timișoara were not among those deported to Auschwitz in 1944, when the Jews of Northern Transylvania were murdered. Even so, life in the city was hard. According to JBAT, the city’s Jewish population rose from 10,950 in 1940 to 11,788 in 1942, as Jews from elsewhere sought refuge there. In 1941–1942 community property was seized. The Jews of the Banat were forced into labour, and anyone who did not report faced criminal penalties, according to the Elie Wiesel Institute. The National Archives hold files of Timișoara Jews who applied for exemption from forced labour in 1942–1943.

The greatest danger came in the summer and autumn of 1942. According to the historian Ottmar Trașcă, in August 1942 the Antonescu government approved the deportation of all Romanian Jews, beginning with those of Timiș, Arad and Turda counties. Documents published by the historian Jean Ancel record a conference in Berlin on 26–28 September 1942 that set trains of 2,000 people each, bound for their final destination: Bełżec. According to JewishGen, the order to deport the Jews of Arad was rescinded on 11 October 1942. Historians cite several reasons: the argument of the community leader Wilhelm Filderman that deportation would weaken Romania against Hungary over Transylvania, interventions by Romanian public figures, a US note of October 1942 threatening reprisals, and above all the turning point at Stalingrad. In September 1944 the Red Army entered the city.

After the war

In 1947 more than 13,600 Jews lived in Timișoara, according to JBAT. The Communist regime forcibly merged the three congregations and what remained of the Sephardi community. In 1948–1949 the Jewish schools and hospital were nationalised. Zionist activists were put on trial, and among the prisoners was Ezra Fleischer, later a scholar of Hebrew poetry and Israel Prize laureate. The numbers fell with each wave of emigration: 6,700 in 1956 and about 3,000 in 1971. In 1949 Ernest (Ernő) Neumann became chief rabbi, and he served until his death in 2004.

The community today

According to Friedmann, in 2022 about 300 elderly Jews remained in the city, with about 400 family members, and reports from that year speak of a community of about 600. The Fortress synagogue reopened in 2022, and the Fabric synagogue was handed to the city for restoration. In 2023, when Timișoara was European Capital of Culture, the synagogues hosted events from the year’s programme.

Visiting

The office of the Jewish Community of Timișoara is at Strada Gheorghe Lazăr 5, tel. +40 256 201 698, per the Federation of Jewish Communities’ website. Visits to the synagogues and the cemetery are arranged through the community. A heritage walk can follow the three historic quarters: the Fortress, Fabric and Iosefin.