The city administration of Gherla is taking over the management of the town’s long derelict synagogue, in order to restore it as a cultural venue.
According to local news reports, the city will administer the synagogue for 25 years, under an agreement with the Romanian Jewish Federation, which owns the empty building.
Jews settled in Gherla (which is in Transylvania) in the mid-19th century. The synagogue was built in 1903. Disused for decades, it is notable for its painted ceiling.
Around 1,500 Jews were deported from Gherla to Auschwitz in 1944. A community was reestablished after WW2, but most had emigrated to Israel by 1960. By 2002, only one Jew lived in the town, Holocaust survivor Zoltan Blum. (He moved away after 2016.)
Watch a video from 2012 about Zoltan Blum, who guides viewers to the synagogue and Jewish cemetery. (You can click the button for English subtitles):
A Holocaust memorial was dedicated at the synagogue in 2016, commemorating the approximately 1,500 Jews deported and killed in the Shoah. It lists the names of all the known victims.
The monument was financed through the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, with funds donated by survivors and their descendants via the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
A key force behind the project was Mike Klein, who was born and grew up in Gherla as the son of Holocaust survivors, but emigrated to the U.S. in his 20s. For years he spearheaded efforts to restore the synagogue.
Watch a video of about the inauguration of the monument (you can click for English subtitles):
Read a Centropa interview with Zoltan Blum, who was the last Jew to live in Gherla
See a photo documentation of the synagogue on the Center for Jewish Art web site