Jewish families settled down along the river Mures already in the XVII. century in order to became the largest Jewish community in the next century in Transylvania after Alba Iulia. In Targu Mures live today about 200 well-respected, Jewish people. Previously, there where many more jewish people, in the middle of the twentieth century more than 6000 identified themselves as belonging to this religion. Between May-June 1944 7,700 Jews were deported from Targu Mures and the surrounding area, 5,900 of them never returned home. Many of the survivors fled to Israel, which was established after World War II, in 2006 only 210 Jews were registered in surveys.