This collection comprises civil registers recording births, marriages, and deaths. Originally the registers were kept by each respective parish, church, synagogue, etc. In the 1950s they were collected by the National Archives and made into this overarching collection. The collection is organized by locality and then religion. In addition to birth, marriage, and death records, some of the Christian registers record conversions, baptisms, confirmations, pastor or priest names, and other notes on the development of the community. The Romanian preface to a similar collection in the Mureș county archives notes that in 1784 the Jewish communities were made to record their civil records under the supervision of the Catholic priests. It is unclear whether this may indicate that 18th century Jewish records could be found within Catholic record books. In any case, there are no extant Jewish registers dating prior to the 1820s in the district of Alba in this collection, though births taking place as early as the early 1800s were recorded after the fact in some registers. All Jewish registers held at the Alba archives are described in detail below; please click on a title for more information.
The Jewish Communities of Romania Collection (sometimes also described by the Romanian National Archives as the Documents Collection of the Jewish Communities of Romania) contains documents created and received by Jewish communities and organizations functioning in Romania from the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century.
The documents until World War II are composed of a variety of items reflecting community life, including statutes, correspondence, reports, and membership lists. Documents from the World War II period generally address the plight of Romanian Jews during this period. This material includes reports on persecutions and expropriations, correspondence and other documents related to deportees, and emigration paperwork. The post-World War II material generally deals with the repatriation of Jewish deportees to the Romanian-organized camps in Transnistria, the welfare of survivors, emigration, and the activities of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania and of the Jewish Democratic Committee (communist Jewish organization). For the complete inventory list of the collection, please see this link (in Romanian only).
JBAT archivists surveyed folders containing material related specifically to Bukovina and Transylvania. For details on the contents of these folders, please see the list below and click on any link.
This folder contains correspondence with the central branch and the community branch in Târnava-Mică regarding census information requested by the central branch pertaining to marriages and divorces.
The folder contains various correspondence between the central office and local branches of communities in the counties of Târnava-Mica and -Mare regarding forced labor obligations. The towns of Mediaș, Sighișoara, Dumbrăveni, and Blaj are mentioned specifically.