The commune of Santău, located in the central part of Satu Mare County and consisting of the villages of Santău, Chereușa (Érkőrös), and Sudurău (Érszodoró), is a settlement with a long history, documented as early as 1213 in the registers of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oradea. Situated in a fertile agricultural area crossed by the Santău River, the locality gradually developed into a multicultural space where, over time, Romanians, Hungarians, Roma, and, for more than two centuries, a small yet well-organized Jewish community lived together.
The First Jewish Settlements in Santău
The presence of Jews in Santău is documented before 1727, one of the earliest known residents being Judas Benjamin. This makes Santău one of the first villages in the Tășnad area where Jews found favorable conditions for settlement. The community grew slowly but steadily: 60 Jews were recorded in 1847, and by 1880 their number had reached 136. At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1901, the village was home to 87 Jews, and in 1937, out of a total population of 2,365, 55 were of Mosaic faith.
Community Life and Economic Activities
Although small in number, the Jewish community of Santău was well structured and visibly integrated into the local economy. Historian Abraham Fuchs, in his volume Tășnad. A Historical Monograph in Memory of the Jewish Community of Tășnad (Transylvania). The Talmudic School (Yeshiva) of Rabbi Mordechai Brisk, notes that approximately fifteen Jewish families lived in Santău during the interwar period. Surprisingly, he observes, the community did not grow larger despite its long-standing presence and the local opportunities.
The Jews of Santău engaged in diverse economic activities that significantly contributed to village life. Among the local landowners were the families Ionasch Nitzi, Friedman József, Gutman (with estates managed by Hoffman), and Kandel. Katz Iotzi and Grossman operated the flour and oil mill, while Rabbi Shmuel Zvi Peretz owned two stores – a general store and a luxury grocery shop. Other families, such as Klein Nitzi, Klein Manush, and again Ionasch Nitzi, operated small grocery stores, while Friedman József owned the kosher butcher shop.
The community also included a Jewish pharmacist and several craftsmen: Pasternak, the carpenter, and Struli Jenő, the blacksmith.
Religious Organization
During the interwar period, the Mosaic community of Santău was fully organized from a religious perspective. It maintained:
- a synagogue,
- a ritual bath (mikva),
- a large and old cemetery,
- a ritual slaughterer (shohet),
- a religious teacher.
The synagogue was administered alternately by Rabbis Shmuel Zvi Peretz and Nahum Klein. The sons of Rabbi Peretz studied at the renowned Talmudic school in Tășnad; two of them, Simha and Aizik, later emigrated to Israel, where they continued the family’s rabbinic tradition.
One of the most respected figures of the community was the ritual slaughterer, Rabbi Israel Hersch Banat, known for his erudition and deep knowledge of Torah study.
Interethnic Relations and the Dissolution of the Community
Until the early 1940s, relations between the Jews of Santău and the rest of the population were normal, characterized by coexistence and cooperation. The situation changed with the intensification of official antisemitism after 1940, under the Horthy regime. In 1942, several young Jewish men were sent to forced labor battalions, often even before reaching the age of conscription. Among them was the young Aizik Peretz.
The tragic end came in the spring of 1944, when the Jews of the county were ghettoized. The community of Santău was concentrated in the ghetto of Șimleu Silvaniei, from where they were deported to Auschwitz. Among the victims was a man from Santău named Koyain, killed by a German soldier on the train during transport.
No members of the community returned to the village after the war.
Traces Today – An Almost Vanished Past
Today, no Jews live in Santău. After the disappearance of the community following the deportations of 1944, the spaces once associated with Jewish religious and social life gradually fell into oblivion, lost in the rhythm of postwar transformations. The most visible – and indeed the only – remaining material testimony is the Jewish cemetery located on the outskirts of the village, now in a state of near-total ruin.
The cemetery, which once held dozens of gravestones, was a sacred place where generations of families laid their dead to rest, following mosaic rituals passed down from father to son. Lack of maintenance, vandalism, and the passage of time led to the near-complete destruction of the gravestones – some originally adorned with traditional Jewish funerary symbols such as the kohen’s hands, the Levite’s pitcher, or floral motifs.
Today, the cemetery resembles an anonymous field. Only two or three fragments of stone still protrude from among the overgrown vegetation, silent witnesses of a vanished world. Although few, these remnants represent the last physical trace of a community that shaped the economic and social life of the village for more than two centuries.
Villagers sometimes recall, through stories heard from their grandparents, the “Jews of long ago,” but these memories are fragmentary. The houses they lived in, the stores they ran, or the synagogue that once brought the community together no longer exist or cannot be identified.
In the absence of monuments or commemorative plaques, the cemetery remains the sole place where the past of the Jews of Santău can still be sensed — albeit faintly and almost completely erased.
Conclusion
By bringing the history of the Jews of Santău back into the public eye, we do more than commemorate a lost community; we reaffirm a fundamental principle: that every village, no matter how small, carries within its deep layers a heritage that deserves to be known and preserved. And as long as these stories are written, spoken, and passed on, they remain alive – and with them, the memory of a community that will forever be part of Santău’s history.
Project authors: Diana Kinces, Andrei Kinces, Paula Por