(Medias, Romania). Incorporations-Buch der Mitgleider der Chewra Kadisha Medias.

(PINKAS).

Medgyes, Austro-Hungary

1927

Printed forms, with manuscript additions. 105 full-page membership-entry details (of 200). Text in German, Hebrew and Yiddish, written in a fine calligraphic hand.

Mediasch is situated in Sibiu County, Transylvania. Following the revolutions of 1848 and the resulting loosening of residency restrictions, many Jewish families gradually moved to Mediaș and the community was officially founded. Around this time R. David Bäumel arrived from Wolfersdorf, Bohemia to become the community’s first rabbi. By the turn of the 20th century the community was well established and had constructed a large synagogue on the edge of the medieval city walls. Officially the community was German-speaking, in line with the majority population of the Saxon town. Following the death of R. Bäumel in 1899 a new rabbi, Moshe Reich of Budapest, assumed rabbinical responsibilities. In the 1920’s the president of the community, Benjamin Czitron, financed the construction of a Jewish school building and a new mikvah adjacent to the synagogue. The opening page of this volume is dedicated to him.