Tag #133644 - Interview #100685 (Jozsef Farkas)

There was a famous rabbi in Torda [in my childhood]: Dr. Albert Wesel. He later became the chief rabbi of Transylvania. Everyone expected the rabbi from Szatmar to be elected, because it was tradition, but Wesel was a very well-known scientist and in the end he was chosen. [The chief rabbi, Albert Wesel, who, by his wisdom, consideration and noble thinking took the lead of the official regional orthodox organization, i.e. he’s the president of the national orthodox organization since 1932, before assuming the leadership of the Transylvanian Jewish religious community, founded an association including ten counties from Transylvania. Machike Hadat, goals:deepening the religious life.He supported the Talmud Torahs of the poorer communities and the religious institutions.Imre Szabo, the Jews from Transylvania, Kadima publishing house, Cluj, 1938, p.224.] He died around 1943-44. He was the rabbi of Torda until then. His son-in-law, Adler, became rabbi after that; he married one of Wesel’s daughters. Another one of his daughters, Szarah or Szuri, tutored me in German, but she had a few more sisters and brothers. I used to go to their place; the rabbi’s house was in the yard of the synagogue. It wasn’t a big house: they had two or three rooms. She tutored several children. There were occasions when we were two or three at the same time. I think her parents pushed here to do this.We had to pay for this, of course.