YIVO Archives – Recent Accessions: Maros Ludas Appeal

In memory of Herbert Offen, the Offen family has donated a rare Hungarian-Hebrew document to the YIVO Archives. The Jewish community of Maros Ludas, located in Transylvania near the Maros River, had only 53 Jewish families. They could not afford to build their own synagogue and had been praying in rented quarters. In 1886, because of their limited financial means and their desire to have their own synagogue, they formed a Building Committee and distributed a fundraising appeal to more affluent Jewish communities and individuals throughout Hungary. To prevent fraudulent fundraising, only those who personally received the signed form and were in possession of it were authorized to raise funds, and each donation had to be certified by the officials of the Maros Ludas Jewish community. On the reverse is a form for recording donations and names of donors. This particular form was sent to the Hungarian Jewish community of Szeged, in South Central Hungary in the hope that that community would contribute funds.

According to Wikipedia, Maros Ludas means “Goosey on the Maros.” (See page on Luduş at JewishGen.) In Hungarian “Lud“ means “goose“ and “Maros“ refers to the Maros River. Maros Ludas is in present day Romania, c. 25km SSE of Torda, which, in turn, is c. 25km SSE of Kolozsvar. Before World War I, Maros Ludas was located in Hungary.