Sibiu

1.
Jews from Central Europe arrived in Transylvania as early as the 16th century. They
settled in the region of Sibiu in the mid-19th century. At the beginning they faced big
hardships because they were not allowed to live in town. After 1850, they had the right to
settle at the outskirts of the town and in 1898 they were even allowed to build a synagogue.
While at the end of the Second World War there were approximately 1900 Jews in
Sibiu, in time their numbers dropped constantly and today the local Jewish Community only
has approximately 50 members.
The synagogue hosts occasional religious services and it may only be visited on
request.
City in central Romania, on the Cibin River. The records of a legal dispute in villages
near Sibiu (Ger., Hermannstadt; Lat., Cibinium; Hun., Nagyszeben) in 1357 include the
earliest reference to a Jew in Transylvania: Petrus Judaeus. In 1492, the king of Hungary,
Vladislav II, ordered the judge of Sibiu to arbitrate legal disputes between Jews and
Christians. In 1586, mention was also made of a Jewish organist by the name of Pantalone.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Jews in Sibiu maintained commercial links
with the Ottoman Empire and Poland. In the eighteenth century and the first half of the
nineteenth, the restrictive policy of the reeve of Sibiu prevented Jews from settling there.
However, during the Diet (legislative assembly) of 18371838, it was in Sibiu that the first
petition for the civil emancipation of Jews, drafted by the chief rabbi of Transylvania,
Yeh ezkel Paneth, was submitted to the legislative body of the principality. Nonetheless, the
city authorities, supported by the Saxon press in Sibiu, attempted to maintain restrictions on
the settlement of Jews even after 1850. An imperial resolution in 1851 then granted access for
Jews to all cities.
The Jewish community of Sibiu was formally established only after the civil
emancipation of 1867. The town followed an Orthodox orientation, under the leadership of its
first elected president, Mendel S. Rubinstein. When Rabbi Armin Horovitz (18901934) took
office, plans were made to build a synagogue, and it was established in 1899. The number of
Jews in Sibiu rose from 168 in 18691870 to 1,307 in 1890 (representing 4% of the total
population), and then remained essentially unchanged: there were 1,310 Jews in 1920 and
1,361 in 1941 (1.2%).
In 1873, the first book in Hebrew in Transylvania was printed in Sibiu; it was a
collection of poems by Aron Dornzweig, titled Nevel ve-kinor (Harp and Violin). A Jewish
school was opened in 1919, and in 1923 a Hasidic community was established under the
leadership of Rabbi Tsevi Hirsch Kinstlicher (19191949). From 1940 to 1944, Sibiu
remained under Romanian jurisdiction. The Antonescu regime passed anti-Jewish legislation
and allowed the seizure of community property, drafted Jewish men for forced labor, and
excluded Jews from participating in social and public life. Plans to deport Jews during World
War II were, however, not carried out. The community of Sibiu was reorganized after 1945,
and reached 2,020 members in 1947. As a result of immigration to Israel, though, most Jews
left Romania over the following decades, and in 1971 there were only 125 Jews left in Sibiu.
By the early twenty-first century the community had fewer than 50 members.

2.
SIBIU (Hung. Nagyszeben; Ger. Hermannstadt), capital of Sibiu province, Transylvania,
Romania; until the end of World War I part of Hungary. By the end of the 15th century some
Jews had commercial or other connections with Sibiu. Permanent Jewish settlement began
there after the restrictions in Hungary on Jewish residence were abolished in 1848; however,
there is also information about Jews trying to establish themselves in Sibiu from the middle of
the 17th century. There were 478 Jews living in Sibiu (about 3% of the total population) in
1850. A permanent minyan was organized in 1860, and organization of community
institutions began in 1876. In 1868 the community declared itself Orthodox. The first
synagogue was built in 1878; a second large, handsome synagogue was opened in 1890. In
1881 there was a case of blood *libel in Sibiu. The Jewish population numbered 1,307 (4% of
the total) in 1890, and 1,310 in 1920. The Orthodox rmin Horo witz (18691934) was the
rabbi of the community from 1890. A Sephardi community was organized in 1923. Zionist
activity in Sibiu commenced immediately after the first Zionist Congress and grew rapidly in
the period between the two world wars. A Jewish school was founded in 1919. The
community also supported a Hebrew nursery school. The community numbered 1,361 (1.2%)
in 1941, and 2,020 in 1947. The majority of the Sibiu Jews were speakers of German, and
only some of them learned Hungarian and Romanian (the latter mostly after World War I).
During World War II the community's institutions were liquidated, and under Romanian-
Fascist rule the Jews in Sibiu were persecuted and their communal property was confiscated.
Early in the war the city served as a district mobilization center for forced labor among Jews
and, from August 23, 1944, as a refugee center. There were about 125 Jews living in Sibiu in
1970. Friday night and holiday prayers were still held in the great synagogue.