The books that form the Mediaș library were found in the Mediaș synagogue and Jewish community offices. The majority of the German and Hungarian-language volumes were catalogued by local high school students in the course of a project in 2016-2017. The volumes appear to be a mixture of private and communally-owned books. Though they are mostly religious books including siddurim and Jewish religious texts, some secular volumes were also found. In cases where owner information was inscribed or stamped in the book, a note was made in the catalogue record and, in general, a photo of the personal inscription was made. Please click on the individual titles below for more information.

Please note that this collection is being constantly updated. Please check back regularly for new additions. 

This folder contains a detailed report from the Jewish Democratic Committees of Mediaș regarding upcoming elections and activitities to prepare for the same.

This folder contains several hundred documents related to repatriated Jews from Bukovina and Transylvania. The material primarily deals with repatriated Jews residing in Mediaș, Timișoara, Buzău, and Bucharest. Most of the documents are charts and forms with names of those who received aid. The charts or forms generally include birth information, occupation, some deportation details, and assistance received.

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.

The collection includes the paperwork and material collected by the Sibiu county Securitate (Romanian Communist Secret Police) offices under communism. There are several folders with material related to control or surveillance of unnamed religious groups, but no folders have titles specifically dealing with the Jewish population or religion. At the time of the JBAT survey (2015), the inventory for this collection was accessible only at the physical location of the CNSAS and only in digital form on the computers of the CNSAS reading room. The inventory provided no indication as to the linear extent of the collection and gave no additional details as to its history, content, or the number of pages in individual folders.

This folder contains two charts. One is from the Sighișoara Jewish community and contains the names of individuals with permits exempting them from forced labor. The chart includes the names, company for which they work and position, number of family members, salary, and other comments. The second chart is from the Mediaș Jewish community and is a list of individuals with professional licenses/permits. It is not clear whether this term was meant to be synonymous with permits exempting them from forced labor. The information recorded is the same as the chart from Sighișoara: name, company, position, salary, family members, other comments, but the list is over three times as long (135 from Mediaș, 40 from Sighișoara), though the Jewish population of Mediaș was larger than Sighișoara.

This folder contains charts of forced laborers who received winter clothing from the welfare office of the Jewish community of Bacău. The charts are organized by group, for example, a group doing work for the C.F.R. (Romanian railway) or in various sites in Transnistria. There is also a group in Mediaș, but the men in this group do not appear to be originally from Mediaș. This is the only group working in Transylvania, the rest are in Transnistria, Bessarabia, or Moldova.

This folder contains lists of the men who were deported from Mediaș to Transnistria.

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.

This register is entirely Hungarian. It records marriages from throughout the region around Târnăveni, in fact the majority are from other villages or towns in the region. Unlike some of the older record books, in which the individuals were primarily from small villages near Târnăveni, in particular Adámos, in this book we begin to see towns appear including Medgyes, Segesvár, and Erzsébetváros, Dicső-Szt.-Márton, Marosvásárhely, Fogaras, Torda. Nevertheless, the majority of individuals still come from a very rural, small-village background. The handwriting in the latter half of this book is particularly clear and ornate.

This register appears to comprise several registers that were kept separately and aggregated at some point in time. Both the paper and print type vary. Part of the book is only in Hungarian and part of it is in Hungarian and German (titles). Entries are not sequential and it also jumps from births to marriages to deaths and back again. Most of the entries are from the villages surrounding Târnăveni. Some of the birth register pages record all the children of a couple, one after the other, so presumably this book was used as a register for community members, but did not necessarily record events sequentially. Some births recorded dates from the 1820s. One section of the book appears to be from Sângeorgiu de Pădure, but the majority of the material deals with the villages around Târnăveni. Like other civil record books, the information generally included in the records is: names; birth places and dates; death dates and place; wedding dates and place; place of residence; information on parents; profession; gender; marital status; officiants; witnesses.

This register is kept entirely in Hungarian. The birth dates overlap with another birth register from the Târnăveni area. It appears that this book became a sort of community register book - the births recorded rarely sequential and, in fact, the earliest birth recorded is 1812, but this was clearly entered much later, probably in the 1860s. Similar to the other birth register labeled as Târnăveni, virtually none of the births recorded here took place in Târnăveni, rather the families lived in the surrounding villages or, as it functioned as a register of community members, old and new, there are also individuals listed born in as far flung locations as Poland, Galicia, Timișoara. Local villages occurring with particular frequence are Adámos, Ersabetváros, Kis Kaján, M. Nemeti, Szasz Dánya, Erdőszentgyorgy, K. Szentmárton, Balavásár, Radnoth. The final page of the birth register is signed in Erdő Szentgyorgy (Sângeorgiu de Pădure), so this register must have moved locations several times. Information recorded includes: name and birthdate; gender; legitimate or illegitimate; father's name, place of resident and occupation; mother's name; father's place of birth; mother's place of birth; child's place of birth; midwife; circumcision or naming ceremony date, place, and officiant; death date (generally not completed); and other notes. Partway through, the book begins to record only individuals from the area around Sângeorgiu de Pădure and details as the parent birthplaces are no longer recorded. These pages appear to have been recorded at an entirely different time and by an entirely different hand, perhaps they were separated out from the book. The entries here begin in 1823 and end in 1886. The marriage register also does not contain any entries from Târnăveni, rather from villages and small towns throughout the region. The entries are not all chronological. Recorded here are: bride and groom names, birth dates, birthplace, and age; where and when the wedding was announced and took place; who officiated and witnessed; and other notes. These entries are of interest as the names and positions of local leaders begin to appear - officiants are rabbis, cantors, or butchers and often their place of residence is listed, ie. David Bäumel, rabbi of Mediaș. The death register section again appears to have been recorded in two different places, perhaps pages were removed and returned. Some pages record deaths from around Sângeorgiu de Pădure and others from around Târnăveni, though again all individuals are in fact from villages surrounding Târnăveni. Information recorded is: name of the deceased; profession; place of birth and residence; gender; marital status; age; cause or circumstance of death; date of death; place of death; name of surviving family members.

The Medias Jewish Community Collection contains material spanning the life of the community, with documents dating from the late 19th century until the end of the communist era as well as general administrative paperwork into the 1990s (when the community, for all intents and purposes, no longer existed). The bulk of the material is from the mid-20th century (1940s-1970s) and of administrative or financial nature. Several extensive items of particular historic significance have been digitized and are available below in Series III: the 500-page book of meeting minutes covering board member and community meetings from 1930-1947 (Box OS21); hundreds of registration forms created by the Jewish Council (Centrala Evreilor) during the war which recorded an individual's family background up to the grandparents (names, birthplaces and date) (Box OS18 and OS19); the burial registry with details on tombstone location, date (and sometimes cause) of death and accompanying index of names (OS13); and the cemetery map (last item in Series III). The original statutes of the community, in Hungarian from 1894, as well as later German and Romanian versions, are also digitized and can be found in Series V (SD2/folder 2). The material in this collection may be of interest to those researching Jewish life, identity, and culture in southern Transylvania before and during World War II and Jewish life under the Romanian communist government. For additional details on the contents of each series, please see the comprehensive container list below. The collection is arranged by series and chronologically within each series.

Register, apparently kept by the rabbi or community book keeper in Mediaș, recording various requests by members of the Mediaș Jewish community relevant to vital records. Each entry lists the date, the object of the request (typically formulated something like “David Smith came to the office to report the birth of a daughter”), the resolution of the request, and additional comments. Although most of the requests are relatively straightforward, typically involving reports of births, marriages, and deaths, or requests for the issuing of a certificate of birth, etc., some cases involve more complex matters.

Death register with entries listing name, age, and profession of the deceased, as well as date, location, and cause of death, and names of the deceased's parents, often including their place of residence, profession, and the mother's maiden name.

This large register is mostly blank, with entries arranged in approximate chronological order. Names and birthplaces of bride and groom are listed, along with name and address of parents, often listing mother's maiden name. Location and date of wedding are provided, as is the name of the officiating rabbi and of any witnesses.

This register is arranged in approximate chronological order listing names of bride and groom, along with names and addresses of their parents, often including the mother's maiden name. In addition, date and location of the wedding (only a few weddings took place outside of Mediaș), as well as name of officiating rabbi and witnesses are provided. Some later notes in Romanian are inserted. The register is notably tailored to a Jewish context and provides columns for entries of dates in the Hebrew calendar.

This register is arranged in approximate chronological order listing name, birthplace, birth date, profession, address, and age of the deceased, along with the date, cause, and location of death, and the location of burial. A few burial sites outside of Mediaș are listed, including Alma and Blăjel.

This register is arranged in approximate chronological order listing name of child, date of birth, names and residence of parents, name of midwife and rabbi performing circumcision, name of godparent or witness, and date of circumcision or naming. Notably, the register was designed specifically for a Jewish context and contains columns specifically for circumcision and for a listing of the birthdate in the Hebrew calendar. Later notes and amendments in Romanian are inserted. Although the majority of the entries record births in Mediaș, there are also entries for nearby villages like Alma, Șmig, and Dârlos, as well as a few for larger municipalities like Sighișoara.

This item consists of register booklets arranged by year and then by topic – births, marriages, and deaths. Births list name of child, often with their Hebrew name as well, date of birth, sex, names and birthplaces of parents, as well as the father's profession. Additional entries appear to list date of circumcision or of naming, as well as midwife and godfather. There are columns for date of death and additional remarks. In the marriage registers names and addresses of the bride and groom are given, along with names and residence of their parents, often including the father's profession and the mother's maiden name. Location of wedding is also provided, along with the name of the officiating rabbi. The death registers list name and birthplace of the deceased, date, cause, and location of death, and names and residence of parents, often with mother's maiden name. Notably, these registers record births, marriages, and deaths not just in Mediaș but also in nearby smaller localities.

This collection contains birth, death, and marriage records for approximately 142 locations throughout the pre-World War II boundaries of Sibiu county. For details as to the records for Jewish communities, click on any title in the list below.

Postcard of the city of Mediaș.

The photograph collection consists of various photographs and postcards donated to the National Archives branch of Suceava. For information on individual items within this collection of potential interest to those researching regional Jewish history, please see the below.