An Unbreakable Bond

Chapter 1: Târgu Mureș and Its Jews
Târgu Mureș – or Marosvásárhely in Hungarian – is the seat of government of Mureș County in Northern Transylvania, Romania. It has seen many changes of ruling countries, including Hungary, Austria and Turkey. It became part of Romania after the First World War. In 1940, it was ceded back to Hungary and in March 1945, it came under Romanian control again and has remained so since. Between 1947 and 1989, it was under Communist rule.
The first Jewish families settled along the banks of the River Mureș during the 17th century. By the following century, Târgu Mureș had the second-largest Jewish community in Transylvania, after the one in Alba Iulia. The first communities were established in Nazna and Sâncraiu de Mureș.
The admittance of Jews into Târgu Mureș was based on the 1850 laws. Before then, Transylvanian Jews lived in surrounding villages. They didn’t have the right to enter towns or stay in them overnight. If a Jew came to Târgu Mureș to attend to any business, they had to leave before sundown.
Gradually, the Jews appeared in the city, and in 1829 there were two Jews, József Vojtitz and Izsák Schwartz, officially registered living there. Although the city council still prohibited the settlement of Jews in the city, a census from 1850 showed that out of the 8,719 people who lived at the time in Târgu Mureș, 249 were Jews.
The first person to receive citizenship rights for Târgu Mureș was József Moricz who, in a request to the magistrates, said that he had been living there for 30 years and had settled as a citizen, paying all levies and duties. The first rabbi of Târgu Mureș, Rabbi Moses Furst, settled in the city around 1850 and served until 1870.
A revolution from 1848-1849 brought a favourable improvement in the lives of the Jews who, for the first time, assumed a collective role in the local society. In 1867, Hungary signed a political partnership with Austria, which included recognising the Jewish religion as equal to the other religions. These new civil rights led to the division of the community into two religious movements: Orthodox and status quo ante (more liberal-oriented). The separation included two different synagogues, each of them with its own rabbi. This situation continued until 1944. As more civil rights were obtained, voluntary assimilation grew. The Jewish population chose either Hungarian or German as the everyday language used.
The first synagogue was built in 1862 and the first Jewish public school in 1880. On 2 February, 1889, the building of the Great Synagogue, which serves the community today, began. It was designed by the Austrian Jewish architect, Jakob Gartner. The location selected for it was on Școlii (School) Street. It opened in 1900. Thanks to funds received from the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FedRom), the building was restored in 2000.
In 1850, the Jews lived mainly in the areas assigned to them, which at the time were undeveloped plots of land at the end of Sâncraiu Street and in neighbouring streets. Most of the Jewish businesses – mills, factories, shops and pubs - were in this area. After the first synagogue was built, two or three others were established in the following years. After 1944, the only one that remained operational was the Great Synagogue.