Photo from 2016
The image in the volume of Rabbi Dr. Jakab Singer with the inscription legible
The oldest tombstone in the Jewish cemetery in Timisoara is that of Assael Azriel, a native of Thessaloniki, a Spanish Jew (Sephardic), in the old cemetery, row 31, no. 31. Rabbi Dr. Jakab Singer assumed that he was a rabbi and a doctor, information that is not explicitly mentioned in the text of the inscription. 3 other members of the Assael family are buried in the old cemetery: Johann, Josef and Susanna.
It is very likely that there were even older graves, as many were destroyed during the bombings of 1848-1849. It is a proof that the first Jews settled in Timişoara at the latest during the Ottoman administration.
Hebrew inscription
Alas, the remains of this valuable man, the scholar Azriel Assael, have been removed. Let him, a resident of Thessaloniki, rest in peace, to become (the city) more and more powerful. He died for the house of eternal life, on Friday, the 8th day of the month of Iyar, in 396 (1636), after the minor era, after Creation. Iyar, în 396 (1636), după era minoră, după Creație.
Sources
- Moritz Löwy, Oberrabbiner, Skizzen zur Geschichte der Juden in Temesvár bis zum Jahre 1865. Szegedin, 1890. Druck von Alexander Bába
- Dr. Jakab Singer, Temesvári Rabbik a XVIII és XIX-ik században, 1928, Wieder Jakab Könyvnyomdája, Seini
- Sándor Scheiber, Jewish Inscriptions in Hungary from the 3rd Century to 1686. English, Hebrew. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó; Leiden: Brill (January 1, 1983)