The Municipality of Alba Iulia, Romania, has prepared a video about the town’s Jewish heritage sites — synagogue and Jewish cemetery — focusing in particular on the large and historic cemetery the city’s current efforts and future plans for its preservation and restoration.
Established in the 18th century and still used by the town’s tiny Jewish community, the cemetery is believed to be the oldest Jewish cemetery in Transylvania and one of the oldest in Romania. Extending over about 21,500 square meters, it includes 2,038 graves and 1,960 stones. It was used both by the initial Sephardic community but also by the Ashkenazi community, which over time became the majority in the town.
Tudor Drambarean, who works for the municipal administration, presented the film at the recent cross-disciplinary conference on Jewish cemeteries October 25-28 in Vilnius.
Among other things, the film details research that has been carried out on the cemetery led by Dr. Daniel Dumitran and funded by the Alba County Council, which employs new technology such as laser scanning to document stones and make a complete inventory of the oldest section of its historical section, accessible via a GIS web application.
Dumitran has summarized the work, begun in 2014, as
“cleaning of the vegetation, inventory of the funerary stones in conformity with the observation sheet, cadastral measurement of the cemetery, photographic documentary and conservation interventions (for 14 funerary stones of the same cemetery). In the year 2015 we are currently organizing a restoration camp in which the interventions over 14 stones are being finalized and over 28 others are being focused for further actions. In perspective we are intending to extend the conservation and restoration operations, recover the inscriptions on the stone tombs and arrange the Jewish cemetery of Alba Iulia in order to be integrated in the cultural landscape of the city.”
11 comments on “Romania: Film about Jewish cemetery restoration in Alba Iulia”
I would like to find out about the grave of my grandfather Moshe Menachem (or Moshe Mendel) Schwartz
Thank you for your amazing work
Did you find the grave of your grandfather Moshe Menachem Ben Yitschok Eiziek Scwarts ?
I am interested in finding out more information about the cemetery. I am searching for the grave of Rabbi Shlomo Ficsher He was the rabbi of the place Until 1932 and I wish wisit his grave
THanks
Hannah
I am interested in buying the film of the Jewish cemetery in Alba Iulia. My grandmother,
Roshikau Simon died in 1924. I would like to visit
her grave as well as Lunca, where my mother was born. Please email me at:
[email protected]
I look forward to hearing from anyone who lives in Romania or anywhere else who can help me with planning my trip and I would be very happy to
see the film and pay for it.
Thank you.
Roseline Glazer
Hello My name Lilly Buzgau and my great grandparents are born and died there. I would like to get in touch with someone that can help me to get more information about them. Their names were Gavrila and Varvara Dumitras. Thank you very much and appreciate if someone can give me some information about them
Dear David, we checked the registers starting from 1936 and there are about 14 persons with the name Weiss and 7 with Weisz. Among them 11 are men. For the women there is no first name as Regina/Rifka or, in some cases, the name of the husband appears.
Could you give us some more information, such as: name of the husband, date of burial, etc.? Many thanks!
Best regards,
Tudor D
I am interested in finding out more information about the cemetery. I am searching for the grave of REGINA (RIFKA) WEISS (OR VIESZ).
thank you for sharing, they are doing some awesome work in Alba Iulia
Fascinating film. What, per chance, is the Jewish population of Alba Iulia today?
18 personnes!
Merci.