Jews are first recorded there in 1717. Regulations for the burial society were drawn up in 1750. Jewish occupations during this early period were mainly connected with alcoholic beverages and the grain trade. The small community became important after 1789 with the election as rabbi of Aaron Chorin, who officiated until his death in 1844. Under his leadership, Arad became a center of the nascent reform movement in judaism. He initiated the construction of a synagogue in 1828, established a small yeshivah, and set up an elementary school. He also encouraged jewish youth to enter productive occupations. Due to his efforts, there were about 100 highly skilled jewish artisans in Arad in 1841.
Even after Chorin's death, the community in Arad long remained a bastion of extreme reform. At the end of World War I, however, a considerable number of orthodox jews settled there, and established a community. The rabbis in arad were early supporters of magyarization among the jews; already in 1845 r. Jacob Steinhart delivered a sermon in Hungarian. The zionist movement found support in Arad, and the "jewish party" also obtained many votesin the elections for the Romanian parliament.
Arad jews shared the fate of the jewry of Romania between the two world wars, suffering from increasing anti- semitism. The community however survived World War II. The Jewish population numbered 812 in 1839; 4,795 in 1891; 6,430 in 1920; 7,835 in 1941; and 9,402 in 1942 (this last increase was due to the enforced concentration in arad of jews from the villages and country towns of the area by the rumanian fascist authorities in 1941-42). They numbered 13,200 in 1947. Subsequently, there was a progressive decrease due to emigration from the country, mainly to israel. In 1969the jewish population numbered 4,000. Pk romanyah, 279-85.
This cache was created during an Erasmus+ Youth Exchange project “Uncover to Discover”.