The history of the Jews in Transylvania dates back millennia to the Roman settlement of Dacia. The Transylvania region is predominantly in what is now Romania but has, over centuries, belonged to and bordered various nation-states and peoples, including the First Bulgarian Empire, Western Moldavia, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and others. Transylvania contains three historical regions: Banat, Partium, and historic Transylvania, all of which belonged to the eastern part of the Kingdom of Hungary until the 16th century when the Ottoman Empire defeated the Hungarians in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and divided Hungary between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. Under the Ottomans, Transylvania became an autonomous principality with Hungarian princes as rulers, before it eventually became a part of Habsburg-dominated Hungary. From 1867 until 1918, the region was a part of the Kingdom of Hungary; it was ceded to Romania on 1 December, 1918, a decision reinforced in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon.[1]
Throughout this, Jews have lived in Transylvania under official permission since 1623 by decree of Gabriel Bethlen.[2] Transylvanian Jewish communities underwent Magyarization in the 19th century, creating a language shift from Yiddish to Hungarian, an identification with Hungarian national causes, and a greater integration into Hungarian social and cultural life.[3] By 1910, over 182,000 Jews lived in Transylvanian, of which 70% were Hungarian speakers.[3]
A history of the Jews in Hungary during Ottoman domination: 1526–1686 (dissertation)
History
editEarly history
editA Jewish presence was recorded in the Roman province of Dacia and in the Roman city of Apulum.[1] This settlement was, however, sporadic and the archaeological record does not indicate a permanent community until the time of the principality in the beginning of the 17th century.
Sources from rabbis in towns such as Speyer and Mainz mention Jewish merchants mediating trade between Hungary and various German cities.[1] In the 11th and 12th centuries some Hungarian kings, such as Ladislaus I, Coloman, and Andrew II restricted the rights of Jews in the country; however following the Mongol invasions in the mid-1200s, King Béla IV issued a charter in 1251 that placed Ashkenazi Jews under direct royal protection, thus guaranteeing the security of their property and their personal freedoms, including travel across the country, the right to practice their religion freely, and the right to acquire property.[1][4][5] Béla's charter was an adaptation of an Austrian charter of the same privileges issues by Frederick II of Austria in 1238 and primarily concerned the items that could be used as collateral to secure loans (almost anything was acceptable, including real estate, but not church vestments).[4]
The ascension of Charles I abruptly and radically changed the situations for Jews in Transylvania. Charles and his successor Louis I expelled Jews from the territory, confiscated their properties, and prohibited them from working in financial trades, i.e. money-exchanging.[1][4] Jews were only able to return after 1367, in which time Christians who had outstanding debts to Jews used their expulsion to get rid of their debts.[4]
Jews in Ottoman Transylvania
editThe Ottomans recognized the Jews as dhimmi and granted them a millet within the empire. This both affirmed the autonomous status of the Jewish communities in intra-communal concerns and that Jews were second-class citizens, burdened with special taxes.[6] The Ottomans also partially resettled some Jews in Hungary and Transylvania into other parts of the Ottoman Empire.[6]
Jewish emancipation in Transylvania
editAt the encouragement of Abraham Sassa, a Jewish physician of Constantinople, Prince Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania granted a letter of privileges (18 June 1623) to the Sephardic Jews from the Ottoman Empire.[7][8] The prince had been suffering from dropsy; after being treated by Sassa, who was likely recommended by the Sabbatarian Chancellor Simon Péchi, he designated Alba Iulia as a place of settlement for Jews and granted them unrestricted rights to practice their faith and trades, did not impose additional taxation, and decreed that they had equal rights as other Christian minorities such as the Anabaptists.[9] This was then affirmed by the Transylvanian diet in April 1627.[9]
Alba Iulia became one of the most important Jewish cultural and commercial centres in Transylvania in the 17th and 18th centuries.[citation needed]
Haskalah in Transylvania
editWorld War I
editInterwar period
editAfter World War I, in 1918, Transylvania was ceded to Romania from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
World War II
editOn the eve of World War II in 1939, about 200,000 Jews lived in Transylvania, mostly in the north of the region and mostly of Hungarian descent.[10] Romania ceded Transylvania to Hungary in 1940; approximately 40,000 Jews living in southern Transylvania remained in Romania. Despite antisemitic persecution from Romanian authorities in 1940 and 1941, southern Transylvanian Jews were spared deportation thanks to efforts by Jewish leaders, the Romanian government, and some Christian supporters to undo planned liquidation by the Nazis.[10]
Germany occupied Hungary in 1944 and began the process of ghettoization and deportation to the Auschwitz concentration camp for Transylvanian Jews along with Jews elsewhere in Hungary.[10] In May and June of 1944, roughly 132,000 Jews were deported from Transylvania, making up a third of the 400,000 Hungarian Jews deported to Auschwitz.[10]
Transylvania was liberated from Nazi control in 1944.
Post-war
editReligious life
editThe Jewish communities of historic Transylvania were, on the whole, more urban and more middle class compared to Jews in northern regions such as the Pale of Settlement; they more often identified as Magyars of the Jewish faith.[11] Although Yiddish continued to be spoken, a split occurred between Orthodox Judaism and Neolog Judaism in Hungary and Hungarian-speaking regions, particularly in Arad and Timișoara.[11]
Culture
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e Attila, Gidó (2009). "On Transylvanian Jews: An Outline of a Common History" (PDF). WORKING PAPERS IN ROMANIAN MINORITY STUDIES. 17. ISSN 1844-5489.
- ^ Újlaki-Nagy, Réka Tímea (2022-09-05). Christians or Jews?: Early Transylvanian Sabbatarianism (1580–1621). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 28. ISBN 978-3-647-57331-1.
- ^ a b Gidó, Attila (2021-07-03). "Transylvanian Jewish loyalties in interwar Romania". Jewish Culture and History. 22 (3): 237–252. doi:10.1080/1462169X.2021.1956784. ISSN 1462-169X.
- ^ a b c d Weisz, Boglárka (2020-09-09). "Loan transactions in the Kingdom of Hungary up to the end of the 14th century". In Slavíčková, Pavla (ed.). A History of the Credit Market in Central Europe: The Middle Ages and Early Modern Period. Routledge. p. 28. doi:10.4324/9780429356018-3. ISBN 978-0-429-35601-8.
- ^ Pop, Ioan-Aurel (2010). "Testimonies on the Ethno-Confessional Structure of Medieval Transylvania and Hungary (9th-14th centuries)" (PDF). Transylvanian Review. ISSN 1221-1249.
- ^ a b Berend, Nóra (2015). "Jews and the Hungarian State - Integrative and Exclusionary Models from Medieval to Modern Times". S:I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation. 2 (1): 63–78. ISSN 2408-9192.
- ^ Büchler, Alexander (1904). "Hungary". In Singer, Isidore (ed.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls Co. pp. 494–503.
- ^ Studia Judaica. Gloria Publishing House. 1991. p. 44.
- ^ a b Bulboacǎ, Sorin (2014). "NEGUSTORI EVREI ÎN TRANSILVANIA ÎN EVUL MEDIU ÎNTRE TOLERANŢĂ ŞI DISCRIMINARE" (PDF). Studia Iudaica Aradensis (in Romanian).
- ^ a b c d Niewyk, Donald L.; Nicosia, Francis R. (2003-09-03). The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust. Columbia University Press. pp. 209–210. ISBN 978-0-231-50590-1.
- ^ a b Mendelsohn, Ezra (1983). The Jews of East Central Europe Between the World Wars. Indiana University Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-253-20418-9.