Jewish History of Romania

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Jewish History of Romania

(Special thanks to Eduard Popescu from Romania Jewish Tours for his help)

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Also: Moldavia; Romania (rep.); Romania

RUMANIA (Rum. Romania), republic in N.E. Balkan peninsula, S.E. Europe. Theterritory of present-day Rumania was known as Dacia in antiquity; Jewish tombstonesdating from early times have been found there. The Jews may have come as merchants orin other capacities with the Roman legions which garrisoned the country from 101 C.E.Early missionary activity in Dacia may have been due to the existence of Jewish groupsthere. Later the Khazars dominated parts of Dacia for a short time. The region was close

enough to Byzantium for some contact with its Jewry to be assumed. Another wave ofJewish immigrants spread through Walachia (a Rumanian principality founded around1290) after they had been expelled from Hungary in 1367. In the 16th century somerefugees from the Spanish expulsion came to Walachia from the Balkan peninsula. A fewserved as physicians and even diplomats at the court of the sovereigns of Walachia. Sinceit was on the trade routes between Poland-Lithuania and the Ottoman Empire manyJewish merchants traveled through Moldavia, the second Rumanian principality (in thenortheast), founded in the middle of the 14th century. Some settled there and werefavorably received by the rulers of this underpopulated principality. At the beginning ofthe 16th century there were Jewish communities in several Moldavian towns, such asJassy, Botosani, Suceava, and Siret. More intensive waves of Jewish immigration resulted

from the Chmielnicki massacres (164849). From the beginning of the 18th century theMoldavian rulers granted special charters to attract Jews. While still in Poland they weretold about the advantages offered (exemption from taxes, ground for prayer houses, ritualbaths, and cemeteries). They were invited either to reestablish war-ravaged towns (1761,Suceava) or to enlarge others (1796, Focsani). The newcomers were encouraged by thelandowners to found commercial centers, the so-called burgs. Among the privilegesoffered was the right to be represented on the local council. In some cases they undertookto attract other Jews from over the borders. When two counties of Moldavia wereannexed by their neighbors (Bukovina by Austria in 1775 and Bessarabia by Russia in1812), the Jews from these countries preferred to move to Rumanian Moldavia, wherethey were not harassed by the authorities and had both family and business connections.

Jewish merchants exported leather, cattle, and corn. Many of the Jews were craftsmen,such as furriers, tailors, bootmakers, tinsmiths, and watchmakers.
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From an early date one of the main components of anti-Jewish hatred in Rumania wascommercial competition. In 1579 the sovereign of Moldavia, Petru Schiopul (Peter theLame), ordered the banishment of the Jews on the grounds that they were ruining themerchants. In the Danube harbors it was the Greek and Bulgarian merchants who incitedriots against the Jews, especially during Easter. Anti-Jewish excesses which occurred in

the neighboring countries often extended to Rumania. In 1652 and 1653 Cossacksinvaded Rumania, murdering a great number of Jews in Jassy. Greek OrthodoxChristianity also preached intolerance toward Jews and shaped the first codes of law: theChurch laws of Moldavia and Walachia in 1640. Both proclaimed the Jews as hereticsand forbade all relations with them. With the exception of physicians, Jews were notaccepted as witnesses in trials. In the codes of 1746 and 1780 the Jews are scarcelymentioned. On the other hand, the first books of anti-Jewish incitement of a religiouscharacter appeared around this time: the "Golden Order" (Jassy, 1771) and "A Challengeto Jews" (Jassy, 1803). For the early history of the other regions which later made upRumania see Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Transylvania.

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Emerging Rumania

Trouble for the Jews began in 1821, with the first stirrings of Rumanian independenceand unity. In the course of the rebellion against the Turks, Greek volunteers crossedMoldavia on their way to the Danube, plundering and slaying Jews as they went (in Jassy,Herta, (now Gertsa), Odobesti, Vaslui, Roman, etc.). Between 1819 and 1834 Moldaviaand Walachia were occupied by Russia, which gave them a unifying constitution (the so-called Organic Law). From 1835 to 1856 the two principalities were protectorates ofRussia, through whose influence anti-Semitism increased. From then on the prevailing

attitude was that the Jews exploited the Christian population in order to enrich themselvesand so their immigration must be stopped. On the Russian model, Jews were forbidden tosettle in villages, to lease lands, and to establish factories in towns. Citizenship wasdenied to Jews. The corrupt Rumanian administrators used this legislation to add to theirincome by persecuting the Jews. The completions of the Organic Law promulgated in1839 and 1843 included special measures directed against the Jews. Its new provisionsconferred on the authorities the right to determine which Jews were useful to the country,the others being declared vagrants and expelled.

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Communal Institutions

In 1719 a hakham bashi, Bezalel Cohen, was first appointed for Walachia and Moldaviaby the suzerain, the sultan. He resided in Jassy and he had a representative for Walachiain Bucharest. The hakham bashi's function was hereditary and included the right of

collecting taxes on religious ceremonies and contributions from every head of a familycomprising 30,000 taxpayers altogether in the two principalities in 1803as well asconferring exemption from taxes and tolls. Yet his prestige was slight, and learned rabbiswere considered by the Jews as their real spiritual leaders. The growing Russian andGalician element in the Rumanian Jewish population at the beginning of the 19th centuryopposed the hakham bashi, since such an institution was unknown to them and many ofthem were followers of Hasidism and led byzaddikim. As they were foreign subjects theyasked their consuls to intercede, and in 1819 the prince of Moldavia decided that thehakham bashi should have jurisdiction only over "native" Jews. Because of permanentstrife among the diverse groups of Jews and their complaints to the authorities, the latterdecided in 1834 on the abolition of the hakham bashi system. Under this system there

was also a Jews' Guild, one of 32 guilds set up according to nationality (Armenians,Greeks, etc.) or profession, which took care of tax collection proportionately to thenumber of persons organized in it. For the Jews the guild was really the legal body of thecommunity. The collective tax was paid from the tax on kashermeat, the expenses of theinstitutions (talmud torah, hekdesh, cemetery) being covered by the remainder.

The center of the guild was in Jassy and its head was namedstaroste ("senior"; Heb. roshmedinah). In Bucharest this function was carried out by the representative of the hakhambashi. When the hakham bashi system was abolished (1834), the Jews' Guild disappearedas well; the result was the disintegration of the Jewish communities. The collective tax,formerly fixed by the guild, was now imposed by the government. The functions of the

community devolved on the various prayer houses and the artisans' guilds and sometimeson the hevra kaddisha or the Jewish hospital (in Jassy).

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Independent Rumania

Both in the 1821 revolt against the Ottoman-appointed rulers as well as in the 1848 revoltagainst Russia, the revolutionaries appealed for the participation of the Jews andproclaimed their civic equality. Some Jews took part in the 1848 revolt, which was putdown by the Russians. The peace treaty of Paris (1856), which concluded the CrimeanWar and granted the principalities a certain autonomy under Ottoman suzerainty,proclaimed inter alia that in the two Danubian principalities all the inhabitants,irrespective of religion, should enjoy religious and civil liberties (the right to ownproperty and to trade) and might occupy political posts. Only those who had foreigncitizenship were excluded from political rights. The leaders of the Moldavian andWalachian Jews addressed themselves both to the Rumanian authorities and to the greatpowers, asking for the abolition of the discriminations against them. However, theopposition of Russia and of the Rumanian political leaders hindered this. The two
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principalities united in 1859; Alexandru Ioan Cuza, who was a member of the 1848revolutionaries' group and not anti-Semitic, became their sovereign. The number of Jewswas then 130,000 (3% of the total population). In 1864 native Jews were granted suffragein the local councils ("little naturalization"); but Jews who were foreign subjects stillcould not acquire landed property. Political rights were granted to non-Christians but only

parliament could vote on the naturalization of individual Jewsbut not a single Jew wasnaturalized.

In 1866 Alexandru Ioan Cuza was ousted by anti-liberal forces. A new sovereign, Carolof Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was elected and a new constitution adopted. Under thepressure of demonstrations organized by the police (during which the Choir Temple inBucharest was demolished and the Jewish quarter plundered), the seventh article of theconstitution, restricting citizenship to the Christian population, was adopted. Eventhe visit to Bucharest of Adolphe Crmieux, president of the Alliance IsraliteUniverselle, who delivered a speech in the Rumanian parliament, had no effect.

In the spring of 1867 the minister of interior, Ion Bratianu, started to expel Jewsfrom the villages and banish noncitizens from the country. In the summer of the sameyear Sir Moses Montefiore arrived in Bucharest and demanded that Prince Carol put astop to the persecutions. But these continued in spite of the promises given. Hundreds offamilies, harassed by humiliating regulations (e.g., a prohibition on buildingsukkot),were forced to leave the villages. Local officials regarded such persecution as an effectivemethod of extorting bribes. Neither the repeated interventions of Great Britain and Francenor the condemnatory resolutions in the parliaments of Holland and Germany had anyeffect. The Rumanian government reiterated that the Jewish problem was aninternal one, and the great powers limited themselves to protests.

At the Congress of Berlin (1878), which finalized Rumanian independence, the greatpowers made the grant of civil rights to the Jews a condition of that independence in spiteof opposition by the Rumanian and Russian delegates. The Rumanian representativesthreatened the delegates of the Jewish world organizations, as well as the representativesof the Jews of Rumania, by hinting at a worsening of their situation. Indeed, after theCongress of Berlin other anti-Semitic measures were introduced, and there was

incitement in the press and public demonstrations organized by the authorities on

the Russian model, in order to prove to the great powers that the people were

against Jewish emancipation. Their aim was also to create an anti-Semitic atmosphereon the eve of the session of parliament which was to decide on the modification of thearticle in the 1866 constitution concerning Jewish naturalization. Prince Carol, openingparliament, declared that the Jews had a harmful influence on economic life and

especially on the peasants. After stormy debates parliament modified the article of theconstitution which made citizenship conditional on Christianity, but stated that thenaturalization of Jews would be carried out individually, by vote of both chambers ofparliament. During the following 38 years 2,000 Jews in all were naturalized by thisoppressive procedure; of those, 883 were voted in en bloc, having taken part in the 1877war against Turkey.


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This caused the great powers to refuse for a time to recognize independent Rumania.However, they finally followed the example of Germany, which took the first step afterhaving received pecuniary compensation from the Rumanian government through theredemption of railway shares belonging to Silesian Junkers and members of the Germanimperial courtat six times their quoted value. The situation of the Jews continued to

grow worse. Up to then they had been considered Rumanian subjects but now theywere declared to be foreigners. The Rumanian government persuaded Austria and

Germany to withdraw their citizenship from Jews living in Rumania. The Jews were

forbidden to be lawyers, teachers, chemists, stockbrokers, or to sell commodities

which were a government monopoly (tobacco, salt, alcohol). They were not acceptedas railway officials, in state hospitals, or as officers. Jewish pupils were later expelledfrom the public schools (1893). Meanwhile political intimidation continued. In 1885some of the Jewish leaders and journalists who had participated in the struggle foremancipation, among them Moses Gaster and Elias Schwarzfeld, were expelled fromRumania. Both major political parties in Rumaniathe Liberals and the

Conservativeswere anti-Semitic, with only slight differences. In 1910 the first

specifically anti-Semitic party, the National Democratic Party, was founded, underthe leadership of the university professors A. C. Cuza and Nicolae Iorga.

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Internal Organization

The first general Jewish representative body, after the dissolution of the Jews' Guild andthe internal strife in the communities, was the Brotherhood of Zion society, theforerunner of the B'nai B'rith, created in 1872 under the influence of Benjamin FranklinPeixotto, the first American diplomat in Rumania. He thus succeeded in shaping a cadre

of leaders for the Jewish institutions, but did not see any solution for the masses butemigration. For that purpose he initiated a conference of world Jewish organizationswhich convened in Brussels (Oct. 2930, 1872). Under the influence of assimilationistcircles, emigrationconsidered to be unpatrioticwas rejected as a solution of theJewish problem. The conference suggested to the Jews of Rumania that they should fightto acquire political equality. After some years, however, a mass movement started foremigration to Erez Israel.

The political organization founded in 1890, under the name The General Association ofNative Israelites, tended to assimilation and strident patriotism, claiming citizenship onlyfor those Jews who had served in the army. Under pressure by a group of Jewishsocialists it extended its demands, claiming political rights for all Jews born in thecountry. In 1897 anti-Semitic students attacked members of the congress of theassociation and caused riots in Bucharest. The association ceased its activity, and anattempt at reorganization in 1903 failed. Under the pressure of increasing persecutionaccompanied by an internal economic crisis, in 1900 a mass emigration of Jews began;they traveled on foot as far as Hamburg and from there went to the United States,Canada, and Great Britain. Up to World War I about 70,000 Jews left Rumania. From266,652 (4.5% of the total population) in 1899 the Jewish population declined to 239,967


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(3.3%) in 1912. The 1907 revolt of the peasants, who at first vented their wrath on theJews, also contributed to this tendency to emigrate; Jewish houses and shops werepillaged in many villages and cities of Moldavia, 2,280 families being affected. At thesame time the persecution of the Jews increased. Their expulsion from the villagesassumed such proportions that in some counties of Moldavia (Dorohoi, Jassy, Bacau)

none remained except veterans of the 1877 war.

In 1910 the political organization called the Union of Native Jews (U.E.P.) was foundedto combat anti-Jewish measures and to achieve emancipation; it existed up to 1948. Itsfirst head was Adolphe Stern, former secretary of B. F. Peixotto. The U.E.P. tended toassimilation. It operated by intercession with politicians, through mass petitions toparliament, and by printed propaganda against anti-Semitism. In a single case it wassuccessful through direct intercession with King Carol I, who held up the passage of a billdiscriminating against Jewish craftsmen (1912).

At the end of the 19th century there began the organization of Jewish communities,

together with the creation of a Jewish school system as a result of the expulsion of Jewsfrom the public schools (1893). The impoverishment of the Jewish population alsocreated a need for social assistance which could not be provided by the various existingassociations. To achieve the legalization of the communities, several congresses of theirrepresentatives were organized (April 1896 in Galati, 1902 in Jassy, and 1905 inFocsani), but they could not agree on the proper nature of a community. Some claimedthat it should have an exclusively religious character; others wanted a lay organizationdealing only with social welfare, hospitals, and schools. The different Jewish institutions(synagogues, religious associations, hospitals) endeavored to preserve their autonomy.There was a struggle for the tax on meat, too, each demanding this income for itself. Atthe same time assimilationist groups of students and intellectuals launched a drive against

the community, which they defined as an isolationist instrument; in this move they werejoined by anti-Semites who called the community a "state within a state," a Jewishconspiracy aiming to establish supremacy over the Rumanians. Some proposed puttingthe communities under the Ministry of the Interior. An attempt in 1897 to introduce intoparliament a bill on the Jewish communities, its purpose being defined by the proposer as"to defend the Jewish population against its ignorant religious fanatics," failed because ofthe opposition of the liberal government of the day. Later the principle of autonomyprevailed at Jewish community congresses, owing to the influence of the Zionists,especially Rabbis J. [Jacob] Nacht and J. Niemirover. Protests were lodged against theinterference

of the local authorities (mayors, chief commissioners of police, etc.) as well as against theoath more judaico. The principle of autonomy finally triumphed, owing to the youngZionists who penetrated the local communities, especially in the country.

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The Struggle for Naturalization

Following World War I Rumania enlarged her territory with the provinces of Bukovina,Bessarabia, and Transylvania. In each of these the Jews were already citizens, either oflong standing like those who had lived in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or more recent

like those from Bessarabia who achieved equality only in 1917. Indeed, the naturalizationof the Jews of Rumania was under way in accordance with the separate peace treatyconcluded with Germany in the spring of 1918. In August 1918 the Rumanian parliamentpassed an act concerning naturalization with many very complicated procedures, thelatter being, moreover, sabotaged when they had to be applied by the local authorities.After the defeat of Germany, Prime Minister Ionel Bratianu realized that at the peaceconference the naturalization of the Jews would be brought up again, so he tried toresolve the problem in good time by issuing a decree of naturalization on Dec. 28, 1918,proclaiming individual naturalization on the lines adopted after the Congress of Berlin.The decision had to be made by the law courts instead of parliament, on the basis ofcertain certificates which were very difficult to obtain. Though threatened by the

government the Jewish leaders rejected the law, and, following their warning, the Jewishpopulation abstained from putting in applications to the court. Their demand was forcitizenship to be granted en bloc by one procedureafter a declaration by everycandidate at his municipality that he was born in the country and held no foreigncitizenship the municipality would have to make out the certificate of citizenship.

Although the Rumanian government continued to assert that the Jewish problem was aninternal one, of national sovereignty, when the delegation led by Ionel BrGtianu appearedat the peace conference in Paris (May 1919) Georges Clemenceau reminded him thatafter the Congress of Berlin Rumania had not implemented the provisions concerning thepolitical rights of the Jews. This time the great powers decided to include guarantees in

the peace treaty. A Jewish delegation from Rumania, composed of U.E.P. and Zionistrepresentatives, arrived in Paris. They joined the Jewish delegations participating in thepeace conference and claimed that the peace treaty should lay down the kind ofobligatory laws concerning naturalization which Rumania should pass. To prevent theconference's imposition of naturalization of Jews, Ionel BrGtianu wired to Bucharest thetext of a law (promulgated as a decree on May 22, 1919), according to which citizenshipcould now be obtained by a declaration of intent in writing to the law court, the latterbeing obliged to make out a certificate of confirmation which conferred the exercise ofpolitical rights. Those who did not possess foreign citizenship, those who satisfied therequirements of the enlistment law, and those who had served in the war were declaredcitizens, together with their families.

The peace conference did not, however, fail to include in the treaty the obligation ofRumania to legislate the political emancipation of the Jews, which no other measureshould abrogate. BrGtianu resigned in protest, and only after an ultimatum sent by thepeace conference did the new Rumanian government led by Alexandru Vaida-Voevodsign the peace treaty. In Bukovina 40,000 Jews were threatened with remaining stateless,on the pretext of their being refugees who had only recently entered the country. Aprofessor of the faculty of law at Jassy published a study in 1921 asserting that this


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naturalization was anti-constitutional. In 1923 there began a new struggle for theenactment of naturalization in the new constitution. Adolphe Stern, the president of theU.E.P., was elected as a deputy to parliament and had to fight the law proposed by theBrGtianu government which in effect canceled most of the naturalizations alreadyacquired. After hard bargaining, not without renewed threats on the part of the

government, the naturalization of the Jews was introduced into the constitution on March29, 1923, thus also confirming the naturalization of those from the newly annexedterritories who would otherwise have been threatened with expulsion. Nevertheless, asnearly always in Rumania, there was a great difference between the laws and the way inwhich they were implemented. In a regulation published two months after the passing ofthe constitution, many procedural restrictions on the Jews living in the new provinceswere introduced. In practice, the civil service, the magistracy, university chairs, andofficers' corps remained closed to Jews.

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Increasing Anti-Semitism

Growing social and political tensions in Rumania in the 1920s and '30s led to a constantincrease in anti-Semitism and in the violence which accompanied it. Anti-Semiticexcesses and demonstrations expressed both popular and student anti-Semitism andcruelty; they also served to divert social unrest to the Jews and show Western publicopinon that intervention on their behalf was bound to miscarry. In December 1922Christian students at the four universities proclaimed numerus clausus as their program;riots followed at the universities and against the Jewish population. As was later revealedin parliament, the student movements were organized and financed by the Ministry of theInterior. The leader of the student movements was Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the secretary

of the League of National Christian Defense which was headed by A. C. Cuza. Thestudents formed terrorist groups on the Fascist and Nazi models and committed severalmurders. In 1926 the Jewish student Falic was murdered at Chernovtsy. The assassin wasacquitted. In 1927 Codreanu broke away from A. C. Cuza and founded the ArchangelMichael League, which in 1929 became the Iron Guard, a paramilitary organization withan extreme anti-Semitic program.

On Dec. 9, 1927 the students of Codreanu's League carried out a pogrom in Oradea Mare(Transylvania), where they were holding a congress, for which they received a subsidyfrom the ministry of the interior: they were conveyed there in special trains put at theirdisposal free of charge by the government. Five synagogues were wrecked and the Torahscrolls burned in the public squares. After that the riots spread all over the country: inCluj eight prayer houses were plundered, and on their way home the participants in thecongress continued their excesses against the Jews in the cities of Huedin, Targu-Ocna,and Jassy. At the end of 1933 the liberal prime minister Duca, one of the opponents ofKing Carol's dictatorial tendencies, dissolved the Iron Guard and after three weeks wasassassinated by its men at the king's instigation. The guard was reformed under theslogan, "Everything for the Country." Codreanu's ties with the Nazis in Germany datedfrom that time. Carol II later aided other political bodies with an anti-Semitic program in


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an attempt to curb the Iron Guard. From 1935 Vaida-Voevod led the Rumanian Front, andmade use in his speeches of such slogans as the blood libel, the parasitism of the Jews,their defrauding the country, their international solidarity, and the Judaization of the pressand national literature.

After Hitler came to power in Germany (1933), the large Rumanian parties also adoptedanti-Semitic programs. In 1935 the National Peasants' Party (which united with Cuza'sparty to form the National Christian Party) announced that its program included "theRumanization of the staff of firms and the protection of national labor through preferencefor [our] ethnic element"that is to say, the removal of Jews from private firms.Gheorghe BrGtianu, leading a dissident liberal party, demanded "nationalization of thecities, proportional representation in public and private posts, in schools and universities,and revocation of Jewish citizenship." In July 1934 the "Law for Employment ofRumanian Workers in [Private] Firms" was enacted, and in fact established a numerusclausus. The Ministry of Industry and Trade sent all firms special questionnaires whichincluded a clause on "ethnic origin." In 1935 the board of Christian Lawyers' Association,

founded that year by members of the bar from Ilfov (Bucharest) gave an impetus to anti-Semitic professional associations. The movement spread all over the country. Its programwas the numerus nullus, i.e., revoking the licenses of Jewish lawyers who were alreadymembers of the bar and not accepting new registrations. At the universities students ofthe Iron Guard forcibly prevented their Jewish colleagues from attending lectures and theacademic authorities supported the numerus clausus program, introducing entranceexaminations; in 193536 this led to a perceptible decrease in the number of Jewishstudents, in certain faculties reaching the numerus nullus. In other professionalcorporations no Jews were elected to the board; they were prevented by force fromparticipating in the elections. The great Rumanian banks began to reject requests forcredits from Jewish banks as well as from Jewish industrial and commercial firms, and

the Jewish enterprises were burdened by heavy taxes, imposed with the aim of ruiningthem. Jewish firms were not granted import quotas for raw materials and goods.Meanwhile Germany financed a series of publications and newspapers aimed at fasteningan alliance between the two countries and removing Jews from all branches of theprofessions and the economy. Many a Jewish merchant and industrialist was compelled tosell his firm at a loss when it became unprofitable under these oppressive measures.

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Jewish Political Life

Despite the attempts of the older assimilationist and established Jewish groups, theinclination of Rumanian Jewrythanks largely to the trends among Jews of the newlyannexed provinces and to the impact of Zionismwas toward a clear-cut Jewish stancein politics. In 1919 the Union of Rumanian Jews, led by W. Filderman, recommended thatthe Jews vote for those Rumanian parties which would be favorable to them. As none ofthe parties formulated an attitude toward the Jewish problem the Union decided that theJews should withhold their votes. In the 1920 elections the Union joined the Zionists toform a list which conducted its election campaign under the symbol of the menorah. As


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the elections were rigged, not a single candidate succeeded in entering parliament. TheUnion managed to send Adolphe Stern to parliament in 1922 through joining with thePeasants' Party. From 1923 the Zionists pressed for a policy of a national minority statusfor the Jews. Their proposal was not accepted by the Union.

In 1926 the first National Jewish deputies and senators were elected from Bukovina,Transylvania, and Bessarabia. As a consequence of these successes the National JewishClub, in which representatives of the Zionist parties also participated, was founded inBucharest. Such clubs were established in all the cities of the Old Kingdom. In 1928 fourNational Jewish deputies were returned to parliament (two from Transylvania, one fromBukovina, and one from Bessarabia). They formed a Jewish parliamentary club. In 1930the Jewish Party (Partidul Evreesc) was established in the Old Kingdom and on May 4,1931, it held its general congress. Adolphe Stern joined this party. In the elections toparliament, a month later, the Jewish Party gained five seats, and in the 1932 elections itagain obtained five. The situation of the Jewish parliamentarians was far from easy,because they were not only interrupted during their speeches but were often physically

attacked by the deputies of the anti-Semitic parties. After 1933 there were no moreJewish members of parliament, except for J. Niemirover, who in his capacity of chiefrabbi was officially a senator.

The undefined legal status of the Jewish communities in Rumania tempted localauthorities to meddle more and more in their affairs. A rabbi from Bucharest, HayyimSchor, proclaimed himself chief rabbi. He demanded recognition of a separate Orthodoxcommunity everywhere in Rumania, and was willing to be satisfied with the status of aprivate association for the Jewish community, thus abandoning the demand for itsrecognition as a public body. The Union and the Zionists opposed him. On May 19, 1921,the congress of Jews from the Old Kingdom met in Bucharest and elected J. Niemirover

as chief rabbi. In 1922 Jewish representatives demanded that two communities berecognized: the Ashkenazi and the Sephardi (and for Transylvania an Orthodoxcommunity too, as was traditional there). Only in 1928 did parliament pass the Law ofReligions applying the provisions of the constitution, which recognized Judaism as one ofthe eight historical religions and the community as a juridical person in public law. Onthe basis of this law all the property of the religious institutions was transferred to theownership of the communities. In January 1929 the minister of religions limited theapplication of this law, instructing that communities become juridical persons only afterthe approval of their statutes by the ministry; he also permitted communities of "diverserites," and not only the Ashkenazi or Sephardi, and in Transylvania the Orthodox type,thus accepting the program of Rabbi Schor. Mayors and police commissioners thoughtthat this gave them a legal cover to dissolve the elected boards of the communities and toappoint others to their liking, although the Ministry of Religions issued a circularprohibiting interference by local authorities. Only in 1932 did the communities gaingeneral recognition as juridical persons in public law.

The certificates of Jewish schools were not recognized and their pupils had to pass stateexaminations, paying a fee (which was a charge on community budgets as they coveredthis fee for the poor) until 1925, when the certificates of Jewish schools were recognized


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if the language of tuition was Rumanian. (Although Rumania had signed the MinoritiesTreaty in Paris, it had never implemented it.) All Jewish schools were maintained by thecommunities; in Bessarabia, Tarbut maintained Hebrew schools. The ministry ofeducation contributed only a token subvention. The Jews of annexed Transylvania usedthe Hungarian language in the Zionist press, even under Rumanian rule, those of

Bukovina German, while in Bessarabia the language of the Jewish press was Yiddish.Each province kept its traditions, autonomous structure, and cultural life, within theframework of the all-Rumanian Federation of Jewish Communities. Culturally, the deeplyrooted Jewish life of Bessarabia, with its Hebrew teachers, writers, and journalists, had agreat influence, especially in the Old Kingdom.

In 1924 there were 796,056 Jews in enlarged Rumania (5% of the total population):230,000 in the Old Kingdom, 238,000 in Bessarabia, 128,056 in Bukovina, and 200,000in Transylvania. In 1930 their number was 756,930 (4.2% of the total population):263,192 in the Old Kingdom, 206,958 in Bessarabia, 92,988 in Bukovina, and 193,000 inTransylvania.

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Social Structure

The Jewish population of Old Rumania was for the most part an urban one. According tothe 1899 census, 79.73% of the Jews lived in cities, forming 32.10% of the whole urbanpopulation of the country. Only 20.27% lived in villages, forming 1.1% of the whole ruralpopulation. This phenomenon was a result of the ban on Jews dwelling in a rural area. Inthe Moldavia province, where the Jews were most heavily concentrated, they formed amajority in several towns. In Falticeni they were 57% of the total population; in Dorohoi,

53.6%; in Botosani, 51.8%; in Jassy, 50.8%. In several smaller towns of that region theirproportion was greater: in Gertsa, 66.2%; in Mihaileni, 65.6%; in Harlau, 59.6%; inPanciu, 52.4%. The Rumanian population was 84.06% farmers, the Jews constituting themiddle class. According to 1904 statistics, 21.1% of the total number of merchants wereJews, but in some cities of Moldavia they were a definite majority, such as in Jassy,75.3%; Botosani, 75.2%; Dorohoi, 72.9%; Tecuci, 65.9%, etc. Jews represented 20.07%of all artisans, and in several branches they were a majority: 81.3% of engravers, 76% oftinsmiths; 75.9% of watchmakers; 74.6% of bookbinders; 64.9% of hatmakers; 64.3% ofupholsterers, etc. Industry was not advanced in Rumania before World War I. There were625 industrial firms altogether, 19.5% of them owned by Jews. Jews were 5.3% of theofficials and workers in these industrial enterprises. In several branches of industry therewere Jewish factory owners: 52.8% of the glass industry; 32.4% of the wood andfurniture industry; 32.4% of the clothing industry; 26.5% of the textile industry. Of theliberal professions only medicine was permitted to Jews. They constituted 38% of thetotal number of doctors. The occupational distribution of the Jews was as follows;agriculture, 2.5%; industry and crafts, 42.5%; trade and banking, 37.9%; liberalprofessions, 3.2%; various occupations, 13.7%.


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Focsani from 1882 to 1883. The Yiddish paperHa-Yo'ezwhich appeared in Bucharestfrom 1874 to 1896 also supported aliyah. Eleazar Rokeah, an emissary from Erez Israel,published as special organs of the pre-Zionist movement the Hebrew paperEmek Yizre'elin Jassy (1882), and the YiddishDi Hofnungin Piatra-Neamt (1882), andDer Emigrantin Galati (1882). Of the Jewish press in Rumania the weekly Egalitatea, edited by M.

Schwarzfeld, survived for half a century. The weekly Curierul Israelit, edited by M.Schweig, began to appear in 1906 and continued up to 1948, becoming the mouthpiece ofthe Uniunea Evreilor RomDni ("Union of Rumanian Jews") after World War I. In thetime of Herzl several Zionist papers appeared in Rumania but did not last long. In 1913the monthlyHatikva in Rumanian was issued in Galati under the editorship of L. Goldwho gathered round him the outstanding Jewish authors in Rumanian. Apart fromoriginal articles they also published translations of a high literary standard from modernHebrew poetry and classical Yiddish literature. After World War I, from 1919 to 1923,there was published in Bucharest a daily newspaper in Rumanian with a Zionist nationaltendency,MDntuirea edited by A. L. Zissu with Abraham Feller as chief editor. Thispaper stood for the idea of a Jewish political party and sharply attacked the tendencies of

assimilationist circles. The weeklyRenasterea NoastrG (192342, 194448), edited bySamuel I. Stern, continued in this direction subsequently. The Zionist Federationpublished the weekly Ctiri din Lumea EvreeascG, edited by I. Ludo and later by TheoderLoewenstein. Between the two world wars the Zionist students' association published themonthlyHasmonaea. The number of Jewish journalists grew between the two wars, someof them even becoming chief editors of the great democratic papers. They includedConstantin Graur, B. Branisteanu, Em. Fagure, G. Milian (Bucharest); A. Hefter (Jassy),and S. Schaferman-PGstoresu (BrGila). After they had acquired a knowledge ofRumanian, several Jewish scholars at the end of the 19th century became distinguished inthe field of philology and folklore: Lazar SGineanu (SainMan), compiler of the firstpractical dictionary of Rumanian (1896); M. Gaster, who did research on early Rumanianfolklore; Heinrich Tiktin, author of a scientific grammar of Rumanian in two volumes(189394). This tradition continued down to later times. I. A. Candrea also compiled aRumanian dictionary (1931), as did J. Byk and A. L. Graur after World War II. A numberof these scholars also devoted time to research on the history of Rumanian Jewry. Thepioneer in this field was the historian J. Psantir, whose two Yiddish volumes containedHebrew headings:Divrei ha-Yamim le-Arzot Rumanyah (Jassy, 1871) andKorot ha-Yehudim be-Rumanyah (Lemberg, 1877). A society for research into the history ofRumanian Jewry was established in 1886 and named for Julius Barasch. Among its activemembers were J. Psantir, M. Gaster, Lazar CGineanu, Elias Schwarzfeld, M.Schwarzfeld, and others. In the three publications of their bulletin they published sourcematerial, memoirs, and bibliographical notes, as well as some combined research andmonographs of Jewish communities. Although the society ceased activities after fouryears the scholars continued their researches. Part of their works appeared in the 19volumes of the annualAnuarul pentru IsraeliTi and in a weekly published by M.Schwarzfeld. Between the two world wars Meir A. Halevy published several monographson the history of the Jews of Rumania. The Templul Coral ("Choir Synagogue") thenerected in Bucharest a museum, library, and archives for the history of Rumanian Jewry.In some bulletins of these institutions and in the annual Sinai (192632), edited by MeirA. Halevy, there also appeared researches on the history of Rumanian Jewry.


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Holocaust Period

German penetration into the Rumanian economy increased as the Nazis moved eastward

with theAnschluss of Austria (1938), the annexation of Czechoslovakia (1939), and theoccupation of western Poland at the outbreak of World War II. A considerable number ofRumanian politicians agreed to serve German interests in exchange for directorships inGerman-Rumanian enterprises, and German trade agreements with Rumania alwaysdemanded the removal of Jews in the branch involved. In this way, Jews were expelledfrom wood commerce and industry.

In the summer of 1940 Rumania succumbed to Germanpressure and transferredBessarabia and part of Bukovina to the Soviet Union, northern Transylvania to Hungary,and southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria (the territory that remained being called OldRumania). When the Rumanian army retreated from these areas, its soldiers murdered

many Jews, particularly in northern Bukovina and Moldavia; they also threw Jewishtravelers, both civilian and military, from moving trains. On June 30, 1940, 52 Jews weremurdered in Dorohoi by a retreating Rumanian regiment. Hoping to ensure its bordersafter the concessions, Rumania, which had not been invaded by the German army,became a satellite of Nazi Germany. The first result of this move was the cancellation ofRumanian citizenship for Jews, a measure taken by the government, which includedmembers of the Iron Guard, under German pressure in August 1940. On September 6,when King Carol abdicated, Ion Antonescu, who had been minister of defense in theGoga government, came to power. His government included ministers from the ranks ofthe Iron Guard, and Rumania was declared a Nationalist-Legionary State (the members ofthe Iron Guard styled themselves "legionnaires"). The "legionary police" was organized

on Nazi lines with the help of the S.S. and the S.D. There followed a period of anti-Semitic terrorism that lasted for five months. It began with the confiscation of Jewish-owned shops, together with the posting of signs marked "Jewish shop" and picketing bythe green-shirted "legionary police." The reign of terror reached its height when Jewishindustrial and commercial enterprises were handed over to the members of the "Legion"under pressure from the Iron Guard. The owners of the enterprises were arrested andtortured by the "legionary police" until they agreed to sign certificates of transfer. Bandsof "legionnaires" entered Jewish homes and "confiscated" any sums of money they found.This resulted in a mortal blow to the Rumanian economy and chaos that frightened eventhe German diplomats. Antonescu tried on several occasions to arrest the wave ofterrorism, during which a number of Rumanian statesmen opposed to the Iron Guardwere killed.

On Jan. 21, 1941, the Iron Guard revolted against Antonescu and attempted to seizepower and carry out its anti-Semitic program in full. While part of the "Legion" wasfighting the Rumanian army for control of government offices and strategic points in thecity, the rest carried out a pogrom on Bucharest Jews, aided by local hooligans. Jewishhomes were looted, shops burned, and many synagogues desecrated, including two thatwere razed to the ground (the Great Sephardi Synagogue and the old bet ha-midrash).


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Some of the leaders of the Bucharest community were imprisoned in the communitycouncil building, worshipers were ejected from synagogues, the Palestine Office of theZionist Organization was attacked and its director murdered, and wealthy Bucharest Jewswere arrested, according to a previously prepared list. Those arrested were taken tocenters of the Iron Guard movement: some were then taken into the forests near

Bucharest and shot; others were murdered and their bodies hung on meat hooks in themunicipal slaughterhouse, bearing the legend "kosher meat." The pogrom claimed 120Jewish lives. There were no acts of violence in the provinces because the army was infirm control and fully supported Antonescu. This was also Hitler's reason for supportingAntonescu. Rumania held an important role in the war contemplated against the SovietUnion, not only as a supply and jumping-off base, but as an active partner in the invasionof the country.

A period of relative calm followed the Bucharest pogrom and permitted Rumanian Jewsto gather strength after the shock of the violence. Antonescu, however, was thereafterunder constant German pressure, for when their revolt failed, members of the Iron Guard

found refuge in Germany, where they constituted a permanent threat to his position, as henow lacked his own party to serve as a counterbalance. In January 1941 Manfred vonKillinger, a veteran Nazi known for his anti-Semitic activities, was appointed Germanambassador to Rumania. In April he was joined by Gustav Richter, an adviser on Jewishaffairs who was attached to Adolf Eichmann's department. Richter's special task was tobring Rumanian anti-Jewish legislation into line with its counterpart in Germany.

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During the War

On June 22, 1941, when war broke out with the Soviet Union, the Rumanian and Germanarmies were scattered along the banks of the Prut River in order to penetrate intoBukovina and Bessarabia. As this branch of the front became active only on July 3, theRumanian and German soldiers occupied themselves with slaughtering the Jewishpopulation of Jassy on June 29, 1941. When the soldiers finally went into action, theywere joined by units ofEinsatzgruppe D, under the command of Otto Ohlendorf. Theircombined advance through Bessarabia, Bukovina, and the Dorohoi district wasaccompanied by massacres of the local Jewish population. At the beginning of August1941 the Rumanians began to send deportees from Bukovina and Bessarabia over theDniester River into a German-occupied area of the U.S.S.R. (later to be known asTransnistria). The Germans refused to accept the deportees, shooting some and returningthe rest. Some of these Jews drowned in the river and others were shot by the Rumaniangendarmerie on the western bank; of the 25,000 persons who crossed the Dniester nearSampol, only 16,500 were returned by the Germans. Some of these survivors were killedby the Rumanians, and some died of weakness and starvation on the way to camps inBukovina and Bessarabia. Half of the 320,000 Jews living in Bessarabia, Bukovina, andthe Dorohoi district (which was in Old Rumania) were murdered during the first fewmonths of Rumania's involvement in the war, i.e., up to Sept. 1, 1941.


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After this period the Jews were concentrated in ghettos (if they lived in cities), in specialcamps (if they lived in the countryside, or townlets such as Secureni, Yedintsy,Vertyuzhani, etc.). German killing squads or Rumanian gendarmes, copying the Germans,habitually entered the ghettos and camps, removing Jews and murdering them. Jewsliving in villages and townlets in Old Rumania (Moldavia, Walachia, and southern

Transylvania) were concentrated into the nearest large town. The Jews of northernMoldavia, which bordered on the battle area, were sent to the west of Rumania: menunder 60 were sent to the Targu-Jiu camp and the women, children, and aged were sent totowns where the local Jewish population was ordered to care for the deportees (whoowned nothing more than the clothing on their backs). The homes and property of thesedeportees were looted by the local population immediately after they were deported.

On Sept. 16, 1941, those in camps in Bessarabia began to be deported to the regionbetween the Dniester and the Bug rivers called Transnistria, from which the Germans hadwithdrawn, handing control over to the Rumanians under the Tighina agreement (Aug.30, 1941). The deportations included 118,847 Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina, and the

Dorohoi district. At the intervention of the Union of Jewish Communities in Rumania, anorder was given to stop the deportations on October 14; they continued however untilNovember 15, leaving all the Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina (with the exception of20,000 from Chernovtsy) and 2,316 of the 14,847 Jews from the Dorehoi districtconcentrated in Transnistria. In two months of deportations 22,000 Jews died: somebecause they could walk no further, some from disease, but the majority were murderedby the gendarmerie that accompanied them on their journey. All the money and valuableswere confiscated by representatives of the Rumanian National Bank. The Jews thenremaining in Old Rumania and in southern Transylvania were compelled into forcedlabor and were subjected to various special taxes. The prohibition against Jews workingin certain professions and the "Rumanization of the economy" continued and caused the

worsening of the economic situation of the Jewish population.

According to the statistical table on the potential victims of the "Final Solution"introduced at the Wannsee Conference, 342,000 Rumanian Jews were destined for thisend. The German embassy in Bucharest conducted an intensive propaganda campaignthrough its journal,Bukarester Tageblatt, which announced "an overall European solutionto the Jewish problem" and the deportation of Jews from Rumania. On July 22, 1942,Richter obtained Vice-Premier Mihai Antonescu's agreement to begin the deportation ofJews to Poland in September. However, as a result of the efforts of the clandestine Jewishleadership and the pressure exerted by diplomats from neutral countries, as well as by thepapal nuncio, A. Cassulo, Ion Antonescu canceled the agreement. He could afford ameasure of independence, since Hitler was then seeking the mobilization of additionaldivisions of the Rumanian army against the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Eichmann'sBucharest office, working through the local authorities, succeeded in contriving thedeportation of 7,000 Jews from Chernovtsy and Dorohoi and groups from other parts ofRumania to Transnistria because they were "suspected of Communism" (they were ofBessarabian origin and had asked to return to the Soviet Union in 1940), had "brokenforced-labor laws," etc.


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At the beginning of December 1942 the Rumanian government informed the Jewishleadership of a change in its policy toward Jews. It would henceforth permit Jewsdeported to Transnistria to emigrate to Palestine. Defeat at Stalingrad (where theRumanians had lost 18 divisions) was already anticipated. In 194243 the Rumaniangovernment began tentatively to consider signing a separate peace treaty with the Allies.

Although the plan for large-scale emigration failed because of German opposition andlack of facilities, both small and large boats left Rumania carrying "illegal" immigrants toPalestine, some of whom were refugees from Bukovina, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia.Between 1939 and August 1944 (when Rumania withdrew from the war) 13 boats leftRumania, carrying 13,000 refugees, and even this limited activity was about to cease, as aresult of German pressure exerted through diplomatic missions in Rumania, Bulgaria, andTurkey. Two of the boats sank: the Struma (on Feb. 23, 1944 with 769 passengers) andtheMefkure (on Aug. 5, 1944 with 394 passengers).

Despite German efforts, the Rumanian government refused to deport its Jews to the"east." At the beginning of 1943, however, there was a return to the traditional economic

pressures against the Jews in order to reduce the Jewish population. This was achieved byforbidding Jews to work in the civilian economy and through the most severe measure ofall, forced labor (from which the wealthy managed to obtain an exemption by paying aconsiderable sum). In addition, various taxes were imposed on the Jewish population inthe form of cash, clothing, shoes, or hospital equipment. These measures, particularly thetaxes to be remitted in cashof which the largest was a levy of 4 billion lei (about$27,000,000) imposed in March 1943severely pressed Rumanian Jewry. The taxcollection was made by the "Jewish center." W. Filderman, chairman of the Council of theUnion of Jewish Communities, who opposed the tax and proved that it could never bepaid, was deported to Transnistria for two months.

At the end of 1943, as the Red Army drew nearer to Rumania, the local Jewish leadershipsucceeded in obtaining the gradual return of those deported to Transnistria. The Germanstried several times to stop the return and even succeeded in bringing about the arrest ofthe leadership of the clandestine Zionist pioneering movements in January and February1944; however, these leaders were released through the intervention of the InternationalRed Cross and the Swiss ambassador in Bucharest, who contended that they wereindispensable for organizing the emigration of those returning from Transnistria andrefugees who had found temporary shelter in Rumania. In March 1944 contacts weremade in Ankara between Ira Hirschmann, representative of the U.S. War Refugee Board,and the Rumanian ambassador, A. Cretzianu, at which Hirschmann demanded the returnof all those deported to Transnistria and the cessation of the persecution of Jews. At thetime, the Red Army was defeating the Germans in Transnistria, and there was a dangerthat the retreating Germans might slaughter the remaining Jews. Salvation came at thelast moment, when Antonescu warned the Germans to avoid killing Jews while retreating.Concurrently, negotiations over Rumania's withdrawal from the war were being held inCairo and Stockholm, and thus Antonescu was eager to show goodwill toward the Jewsfor the sake of his own future. In the spring Soviet forces also conquered part of OldRumania (Moldavia), and they made an all-out attack on August 20. On August 23 KingMichael arrested Antonescu and his chief ministers and declared a cease-fire. The


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Germans could no longer control Rumania, for they were dependent on the support of theRumanian army, which had been withdrawn. Eichmann, who had been sent to westernRumania to organize the liquidation of Jews in the region, did not reach Rumania.

Fifty-seven percent of the Jewish population under Rumanian rule during the war

(including the Jews of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina) survived the Holocaust. Thefollowing statistics give the death toll. Out of a prewar Jewish population of 607,790,264,900 (43%) were murdered. Of this number, 166,597 perished during the first periodof the war, 151,513 from Bessarabia and Bukovina and 15,064 from part of OldRumania. The rest died during the deportations to Transnistria or in the camps andghettos of this region: some were murdered; others died in epidemics, of famine, or ofexposure. In areas from which Jews were not deported, 78.2% of the Jewish populationwere left without a livelihood as a result of the discrimina tory measures up to 1942, thedate at which statistics were last calculated. The demographic effect was that the ratio ofbirths to deaths fell to 34.1% in 1942 from the 1934 figures of 116.5%.

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Jewish Resistance

PREPARATORY STEPS

As soon as Hitler assumed power in Germany (1933), Jewish leaders in Bucharest,mostly Zionists, decided not to remain passive. In November the congress of the JewishParty in Rumania decided to join the anti-Nazi boycott movement, disregarding theprotest raised by the Rumanian press and anti-Semitic groups, but the Union of theRumanian Jews (U.E.R.) did not participate in the campaign. The necessity for a united

political, as well as economic, struggle soon became obvious. On Jan. 29, 1936, theCentral Council of Jews in Rumania, composed of representatives of both Jewish trendsthe U.E.R. and the Jewish Partywas established for "the defense of all Jewish rightsand liberties against the organizations and newspapers that openly proclaimed theintroduction of the racial regime." At the end of the year the Council succeeded inaverting a bill proposed in the parliament by the anti-Semitic circles suggesting thatcitizenship be revoked from the Jews. During the same period the Rumanian governmentattempted to suppress the state subvention for Jewish religious needs, as well as theexemption from taxes accorded to Jewish community institutions. The Council could notobtain the maintenance of the subvention, and it was finally reduced to one-sixth of itsallotment.

When Goga's anti-Semitic government came to power, the Council began a struggleagainst it, gaining support and attention outside Rumania. Filderman, president of theCouncil, left at once for Paris, where he mobilized the world Jewish organizations withheadquarters in France and England and informed local political circles and the Leagueof Nations of events in Rumania. At the same time the Jews in Rumania began anexpanded economic boycott, refraining from commercial transactions, withdrawing theirdeposits from the banks, and delaying tax payments. The outcome was "large-scale


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paralysis of the economic life," as the German minister of foreign affairs stated in hiscircular of March 9, 1938. Thus the dismissal of the Goga government after only 40 dayswas motivated not only by external pressure, but by the effects of the Jewish economicboycott.

THE UNION OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES

Following the downfall of the Goga government, King Carol's royal dictatorshipabolished all the political parties in Rumania, including the Jewish Party and the Union ofRumanian Jews. The single body of the Jews in Rumania was the Union of the JewishCommunities, whose board was composed of the leaders of both Jewish currents. TheUnion assumed the task of fighting against the increasing number of anti-Jewishmeasures promulgated by the Rumanian authorities under pressure from local anti-Semitic circles and the German government. In some cases its interventions weresuccessful; for example, it achieved the nullification of the prohibition against collectingcontributions to Zionist funds, and, as a result of its protests, the restrictions against the

Jewish physicians and the Jewish industrial schools were abrogated. In the summer of1940, after Rumania ceded Bukovina and Bessarabia to the Soviet Union, the Rumanianpolice tried to eject Jewish refugees from those two provinces. The Union's boardsucceeded in moving the Ministry of the Interior to annul the measure. When theinterdiction of ritual slaughter was decreed, the board obtained an authorization for ritualslaughtering of poultry. The cancellation of the prohibition against Jews peddling incertain cities was also achieved. When the anti-Semitic newspapers incited against theleaders of the Union, the police began to search their homes.

Ion Antonescu's government, with the participation of the Iron Guard, closed severalsynagogues (those with less than 400 worshipers in cities and 200 in villages) and

transferred the property to Christian churches. The disposition was canceled after threedays, however, as a result of an audience between the Union's president, Filderman, andAntonescu; simultaneously the minister of religion, who ordered the measure, was forcedto resign. These acts took place during the first period of the new regime, dominated bythe Iron Guard, when trespasses were committed against the Jews daily. The Union'sboard constantly informed Antonescu and the diverse ministries of these acts, pointingout their illegality and arbitrariness. The argument that constantly recurred in thememoranda presented by the Union's board was that the confiscation of Jewish shops andindustrial companies caused the disorganization of the country's economic life.Antonescu used the information provided by the board to support his stand against thetrespasses. The Iron Guard responded with a terror campaign against the Jewish leaders;some were arrested and tortured by the "legionary police," others were murdered duringthe revolt against Antonescu.

The Zionist leadership negotiated with Antonescu about organizing the emigration ofRumanian Jews. The minister of finance proposed that the emigration be financed byRumanian assets, which had been frozen in the United States, because Rumania hadjoined the Axis. The transaction had to be accomplished through the American JewishJoint Distribution Committee (JDC), whose representative in Rumania was also the


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president of the Union. In every city the Jewish community had to register those whowanted to emigrate and were able to pay the amount demanded by the government. TheUnion's board utilized this agreement as a leverage for achieving certain concessions,especially after Rumania joined Germany in the war against the Soviet Union (June1941). For example, when the evacuation of Jews from villages and towns began, the

Union secured the government's agreement not to send these Jews to concentration camps(as had previously been ordered), but rather to lodge them in the big cities, where theywere to be cared for by the local Jewish communities. Another achievement (on Aug. 14,1941) was the liberation of the rabbis, leaders of communities, and teachers employed inJewish schools, who had been arrested after the outbreak of war with the U.S.S.R., fromthe Targu-Jiu concentration camp. The Union raised the argument that the plansconcerning the release of the Rumanian properties in the United States were dependentupon those local leaders. On Aug. 2, 1941, the board achieved the cancellation of theorder that Jews wear the yellow badge and other measures, including the creation ofghettos in the cities and mobilizing women for forced labor, in which Jewish men werealready engaged. Richter insisted on the reintroduction of repressive measures, and on

September 3 the order to wear the yellow badge was reendorsed. This time, in addition tointervention by the Union's leaders, Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran went into action. Heappealed to the head of the Christian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Nicodem, and onSeptember 8 Antonescu annulled the order. Nevertheless, the yellow badge wasmaintained in a number of Moldavian cities, as well as in Chernovtsy (Cernauti), thecapital of Bukovina, where the German influence was strong.

During this period, when Rumania suffered great losses on the front and Germany calledfor an increase in Rumanian participation, the Union's board employed the argument thatRumania, being an ally of the Third Reich, and thus a sovereign state, did not have toaccept anti-Jewish laws that were applied only to German satellite countries. Hungary

and Italy, allies that did not apply such measures at that time, were presented asexamples. It is known from von Killinger's reports that Antonescu raised these objectionsin his dealings with the Nazi government.

After Jews began to be deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina to Transnistria, the boarddelegated Chief Rabbi Safran to intervene with the queen mother, Patriarch Nicodem, andthe archbishop of Bukovina and induce them to intercede with Antonescu to halt thedeportations and permit aid to those who had already been transported over the Dniester.Until a decision could be achieved through their intervention, and against the oppositionof von Killinger, the 17,000 Jews who remained in Chernovtsy were not deported.However, the steps taken, with permission to provide assistance to those who had alreadybeen deported to Transnistria were sabotaged by difficulties raised by lower authorities.The Union also endeavored to gain the support of the U.S. ambassador, who intercededwith the Rumanian government. Nevertheless, when the ambassadors of Brazil,Switzerland, and Portugal proposed to the U.S. ambassador the initiation of aninternational protest against the Rumanian anti-Jewish excesses, the latter reported toWashington that he did not possess enough exact information. Later on, however, inanother report (Nov. 4, 1941), he described in detail the massacres committed inBessarabia and in Bukovina and the cruelties that were committed during the deportations


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to Transnistria. The description was based on the information received from the Union.(It was only at the end of 1941 that Rumania broke off relations with the United States,under German pressure.) The anti-Semitic pressfinanced and inspired by the Germanembassyincluding the German-languageBukarester Tageblatt, then intensified theincitement againt the Jewish leaders and their constant interventions against anti-Jewish

measures.

THE UNDERGROUND JEWISH COUNCIL

At the end of 1941 the Union of the Communities was dissolved under pressure fromRichter, and the Centrala evreilor (Central Board of the Jews) was set up at his suggestionin January 1942. Its leaders were appointed by Radu Lecca, who was responsible forJewish affairs in the Rumanian government, but they were actually subordinate toRichter. Nearly all of the new leaders were unknown to the Jewish public, with theexception of A. Willman, who shortly before his appointment had published a number ofpamphlets proposing a kind of neo-territorialist plan to be accomplished with the aid of

Nazi Germany. From the outset, the Jewish population expressed its distrust of the neworgan. The former leaders of the Jewish institutions formed a clandestine Jewish Councilwith Chief Rabbi Alexander Safran as its president. The Council leaders handedmemoranda personally to, or interceded individually with, Antonescu or his ministers,who went on to deal with them because the government did not trust the Central Boardeither.

In the spring of 1942 changes were made in the framework of the Central Board. Willmanand some of his followers were removed and replaced by others appointed from amongthe leadership of the Zionist movement and the Union of the Rumanian Jews (U.E.R.).Thus the Central Board was prevented from taking any harmful initiatives against the

Jewish population. In the summer the Zionist Organization was dissolved at the requestof the Germans, and this was a sign that the Germans disagreed with the Rumanianpolicy, which aided Jewish emigration. On July 22 when Richter obtained MihaiAntonescu's assent to the deportation of the Jews to the extermination camps in Poland,the clandestine Jewish Council immediately learned of the details of the deportationprogram and used personal contacts to achieve the repeal of the agreement. Safran invitedthe archbishop of Transylvania, Nicholas Balan, to Bucharest, since the transports were tobe initiated from there; the queen mother was also convinced by Safran to intercede,together with the archbishop, with Ion Antonescu. Others were also requested to intercedeon behalf of the Jews, such as the papal nuncio, Andreas Cassulo; the Swiss ambassador,RenM de Weck; and even Antonescu's personal physician.

Danger was overcome for the present, but not for long, as Eichmann persevered indemanding the deportation of Rumanian Jews. In October 1942 the deportation order,under pressure from Eichmann, was issued again, this time to begin from Transylvania.The Council immediately went into action: the most important figure to intercede wasSafran with the papal nuncio, who applied to the Rumanian minister of foreign affairs tocancel the deportation order. The nuncio's efforts were supported by the Swedish andTurkish ambassadors, and by the delegates of the International Red Cross. At the same


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time the Jewish Council achieved the annulment of the order to deport to Transnistria12,000 Jews accused of having committed crimes or breaches of discipline.

THE STRUGGLE TO REPATRIATE DEPORTED JEWS

After overcoming the danger of deportation to the extermination camps in Poland, theJewish Council began to request the return of those who had survived the deportations toTransnistria. The dealings with the Rumanian government began in November 1942 overthe question of a ransom to be paid by Zionist groups outside Rumania. Eichmann'sunceasing interventions prevented a clear-cut decision until, on April 23, Antonescuunder German pressureissued the order that not a single deportee should return. TheJewish leaders then initiated the struggle for a "step by step" resolution to the problem,asserting that a series of categories had been deported arbitrarily, without previousinvestigation. The Rumanian government ordered a detailed registration of categories. Atthe beginning of 1943 an official commission was appointed to classify the deportees. InJuly Antonescu authorized the return of certain cases (aged persons, widows, World War I

invalids, former officers of the Rumanian army, etc.). Implementation of the order,however, encountered difficulties raised by the governor of Transnistria, who was underthe influence of German advisers. Only at the beginning of December did the deporteesbegin to return, according to categories: yet it was a struggle against time, as meanwhilethe front had reached Transnistria.

The Jewish Council took advantage of the opportunity offered by the conflicts betweenthe Rumanians and the Germans, which became more and more stressed, especially afterthe Nazis discovered the peace feelers sent out by the Rumanians to the Allies. TheRumanian government now felt that alleviating the condition of the Jews and protectingthem from the Germans would create more favorable conditions for Rumania upon the

conclusion of the peace treaty. From the beginning of 1944 the clandestine ZionistExecutive dealt separately with Antonescu on the question of emigration. Its efforts hadan influence on the general situation, as the Rumanian authorities made the return of thedeportees conditional upon their immediate emigration.

THE COMMITTEE OF ASSISTANCE

Whole strata of Rumanian Jewry were pauperized because of the anti-Jewish economicmeasures. The former committee of the JDC continued its activity clandestinely under thecontrol of the Union of the Jewish Communities and afterward of the Jewish Council. InOctober 1943 it was officially recognized within the framework of the "Jewish CentralBoard" as the Autonomous Committee of Assistance. Assistance was thus provided to theJews evacuated from towns and villages who could not be maintained by the localcommunities. The most important accomplishment, however, was the aid in the form ofmoney, medicines, utensils for craftsmen, coal, oil heaters, window glass, clothing, etc.transmitted to Transnistria. In order to cover the budget, money and clothing werecollected in the regions not affected by deportations. These means, however, were farfrom adequate. Only owing to the important amounts acquired from the JDC, the Jewish


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Agency, and other world Jewish organizations was the Autonomous Committee ofAssistance able to continue its activity.

In addition to all the official difficulties raised by the Rumanian central authorities (thecompulsory transfer of money through the National Bank at an unfavorable exchange

rate, and the obligation of paying customs for the objects sent), the transports werefrequently plundered on the way or confiscated by the local authorities in Transnistria.The assistance, however, was in itself an element of resistance. The mere fact that thedeportees knew that they had not been abandoned, at least by their fellow Jews,contributed to the maintenance of their morale. The aid in its various forms savedthousands of lives. Through clandestine correspondence, carried by non-Jewishmessengers, reports were received concerning the situation of the refugees. This means ofproviding information was insufficient, however, and the Autonomous Committee ofAssistance therefore wanted to review the situation directly on the spot.

As early as January 1942 authorization was obtained from the Ministry of the Interior for

a delegation of the committee to go to Transnistria; nevertheless, due to the opposition ofthe governor of Transnistria, the representatives could not get there until Dec. 31, 1942.The governor received them in audience at Odessa and tried to intimidate them by meansof threat, telling them that their behavior would determine whether or not they wouldreturn to Rumania. He gave them permission to visit only three of the camps in whichdeported Jews were concentrated. The delegates of the committee responded byrequesting a regional conference with representatives of all the camps. During the railwayjourney to Mogilev, the delegates visited the Zhmerinka camp and received informationabout the surrounding camps. Upon their arrival at Mogilev (Jan. 89, 1943), a regionalconference took place with the participation of about 70 delegates. Before the conferenceopened, the prefect and the commander of the gendarmes warned the delegates not to

complain about their situation, adding the threat that complaints might endanger thefurther receipt of aid. However, the delegates clandestinely submitted a written reportconcerning the real situation to the representatives of the committee. From Mogilev thedelegation left for Balta, where it did not receive a license for a regional conference, buteach delegate from the ghettos or camps of the area was authorized to report individuallyabout the situation. Back in Bucharest, after this two-week tour in Transnistria, thedelegates presented their report, which was also sent to Jewish organizations abroad.

In December 1943 representatives of the Autonomous Committee of Assistance again leftfor Transnistria to organize the return of the deportees, taking with them wagons ofclothing. One group of representatives left for the north, to Mogilev and its surroundings;another for the south, to Tiraspol. The central administration of Transnistria did notdisplay any goodwill, but the local authorities provided wagons for the transport. On Feb.15, 1944, two delegations started out to aid the return of the orphans. On March 17, 1944,another two delegations set out for Transnistria, but they could not reach their destinationas the area had already become a front area, the northern part occupied by the Red Army.

The delegates installed themselves in Tighina (Bessarabia), whence they made contactwith Tiraspol on the eastern bank of the Dniester River and succeeded in saving almost


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all those concentrated there. The Germans still had the time to organize a last massacre,murdering 1,000 Jews who were in detention in the Tiraspol jail. When Transnistria andBessarabia were reconquered by the Soviets, the deportees who followed the armies werethe last to succeed in returning to Rumania, for afterward, at the end of June 1944, theSoviets closed the frontier. It was reopened only in May 1945 for a last group of 7,000

deportees, after prolonged dealings in Bucharest between the Jewish leaders and GeneralVinogradov, the head of the Soviet armistice commission.

[Theodor Lavi]

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Contemporary Period Through the 1960's

When Rumania broke with Nazi Germany and entered the war on the side of the Allies(Aug. 23, 1944), Rumanian Jewry had been considerably decreased as a result of the

Holocaust and it was about to decrease even further through emigration. The struggle forJewish independence in Palestine influenced Rumanian Jews, and the goal ofaliyah,which had been deep-seated in the community in the past, became a powerful force. Thedecisive factor in the life of Rumanian Jews after World War II, however, was thepolitical regime in Rumania, which exercised its authority over the community life ofRumanian Jewry, determined the structure of its organization, and limited its aspirations.Government control was prevalent during the first periodfrom Aug. 23, 1944 until theabolition of the monarchy (Dec. 30, 1947)and even more so in succeeding periods,through all the internal changes that altered the regime in Rumania.

For a few years after the abolition of the monarchy, Rumania closely followed the line

dictated from Moscow. This situation continued until the end of the 1950s, when the firstsigns of an independent Rumanian policy began to appear. Until 1965 the pattern of thispolicy gradually solidified, and from then, with the personal changes after the death ofPresident Gheorghiu-Dej, Rumania entered with a full independent policy. All thechanges in government and policy also left their mark on Jewish community life. Thesituation of Rumanian Jewry always had a special character. Even in the days of completedependence on Moscow, when the tools and institutions of national Jewish identity weredestroyed and expression of Jewish aspirations was repressed, Rumanian Jewry was notcompelled to be as alienated from its national and religious identity as were the Jews ofthe Soviet Union. At the end of the 1960s the Jewish community in Rumania found itselfin an intermediate position. Its activities displayed indications of free community life aswell as the limitations imposed by the government. Variations in the government's policyalso reflected the connection between the status of Rumanian Jewry and the officialattitude of Rumania toward Israel. This mutual influence was expressed in all the areas ofJewish life and especially through the central issue of the right to leave the country andsettle in Israel.

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Population

The characterizing factor of the demography of Rumanian Jewry during this period wasthe constant decrease in the community's size. The only source on the size of theRumanian Jewish community at the end of World War II is a registration (the results of

which were published in 1947) that was carried out on the initiative of the World JewishCongress. According to the registration, there were 428,312 Jews in Rumania at the time.This number was the balance after the losses caused by the Holocaust, the annexation ofBessarabia and North Bukovina by the U.S.S.R., and the migration to Palestine during thewar. The professional composition of the community at that time (1945) was as follows:49,000 artisans, 35,000 employees, 34,000 merchants and industrialists, and 9,500 in thefree professions. Ten years later the Jewish population had been reduced to about a third.According to the census taken on Feb. 21, 1956, there were 144,236 Jews in Rumania, ofwhom 34,263 spoke Yiddish. But these figures are probably lower than the true numbers,as it is known that in the above-mentioned census members of minority groups were notallowed to identify freely with their national group and the government encouraged them

to declare their membership in the Rumanian nation. The drastic reduction in the size ofthe Rumanian Jewish community was largely a result of mass emigration, especiallyduring the years 194447. The means of emigration were dictated by the conditions of thewar and its aftermath. At the end of the war thousands of Jews, terrified by the Holocaust,fled Rumania through its western border, which was still open, and reached the West bytheir own means. In addition to this spontaneous migration, 14 refugee boats leftRumanian ports carrying 24,000 "illegal" immigrants to Palestine. A portion of RumanianJewry, including thousands who left Rumania of their own volition immediately after thewar, was also among those who boarded refugee boats to Palestine in other Europeanports. From the establishment of the State of Israel (1948) until the end of the 1960s, over200,000 Rumanian Jews settled in the new state. In addition, it should be noted that not

all the Jews who emigrated from Rumania went to Israel; about 80,000 others werescattered throughout other countries. At the end of the 1960s the Rumanian Jewishcommunity numbered no more than 100,000.

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The Liquidation of Jewish Organizations

On Aug. 23, 1944, when Rumania joined the Allies, the Zionist movement came up fromunderground to operate legally and openly through all its currents and institutions. Thesame was true of the Jewish Party, which was reorganized as the representative body ofRumanian Jewry and headed by the Zionist leader A. L. Zissu. In 1945 an extension ofthe Communist Party was established among the Jewish population under the name theJewish Democratic Committee (Comitetul Democrat Evreesc). For about four years theZionist movement maintained regular activities in the fields of organization, education,training farms, and Zionist funds, as well as through international ties. In 1948 there were100,000 members in the movement and 4,000 in He-Halutz, with 95 branches and 12training farms. The Zionist Organization in Rumania participated in the world ZionistCongress in Basle in 1946. A general representation of Rumanian Jewry (including


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delegates from the Jewish Democratic Committee) was present at the Montreuxconference (1948) of the World Jewish Congress. These were the last regular contacts ofRumanian Jewry with Jewish organizations abroad; afterward the ties were severed for anextended period.

The more the Communist Party strengthened its power, the more Zionist activity inRumania turned from "permitted" to "tolerated," until it was finally outlawed completely.The instrument of this process was the Jewish Democratic Committee, which neversucceeded in striking roots among the Jewish population, in spite of the support itreceived from the authorities. The cue to abolish Zionist activities was given in thedecision of the central committee of the Communist Party on June 1011, 1948, in themidst of Israel's War of Independence. The decision stated that "the party must take astand on every question concerning the Jews of Rumania and fight vigorously againstreactionary nationalist Jewish currents." As early as the summer of 1948 the liquidationof Zionist training farms was begun, and the process was completed in the spring of1949. In November 1948 the activities of the Zionist funds were forbidden. On Nov. 29,

1948, a violent attack on the branch of the Zionist Organization in Bucharest wasorganized by the Jewish Communists. On Dec. 12, 1948, the party decision was againpublicized, including a clear denunciation of Zionism, "which, in all its manifestations, isa reactionary nationalist movement of the Jewish bourgeoisie, supported by Americanimperialism, that attempts to isolate the masses of Jewish workers from the people amongwhom they live." This statement was published in the wake of a bitter press campaignagainst Zionism during November and December 1948.

The persecution of the Zionist movement was also expressed by the imprisonment ofshelihim from Erez Israel. On Dec. 23, 1948, a general consultation of Zionists was heldand resulted in the decision to dissolve "voluntarily" the Zionist organizations. Following

this decision, the Zionist parties began to halt their activities, with the exception ofMapam, the youth movements, and He-Halutz. The World Jewish Congress also ceasedto operate in Rumania. Those organizations that did not close down at the time continuedto operate formally until the spring of the following year. On March 3, 1949, however,the Ministry of Interior issued an order to liquidate all remnants of the Zionist movement,including youth movements and training farms. With this order the Jewish community inRumania was given over completely to the dominance of the government aloneat firstby means of the Jewish Democratic Committee, until it too was gradually dissolved. InApril 1949 the youth movement of the Jewish Democratic Committee was disbanded justas the Communist Party Youth (UTM) was organized, and the committee itself wasdisbanded in March 1953, together with all other national minorities' organizations inRumania. In 194950 the activity of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committeein Rumania was discontinued by order of the government. The hostile attitude toward theZionist movement was also expressed in Rumania's attitude toward Israel, whichgradually hardened and led to the frequent imprisonment of previously active Zionists.There were ups and downs, however, especially in the area of propaganda, until thesituation in general began to improve at the beginning of 1967.

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Community Life

With the liquidation of the Zionist Movement and the dissolution of the JewishDemocratic Committee, the religious communities (kehillot) were the only organizedbodies left in Rumanian Jewry. The legal foundations for their activities were laid down

even before other Jewish frameworks were destroyed. In 1945 the "Regulations onNationalities" were passed and declared the formal equality of members of all nationalminority groups before the law. Regulations of the activities of the recognized religions,including Judaism, were set down in the Aug. 4, 1948 order of the presidium of the GrandNational Assembly (which also served as the presidency of the state). The regulations ofthe Federation of Communities of the Mosaic Religion, which were approved by theAssembly's presidium on June 1, 1949, were based upon this order. The Federation'sscope of activity was limited to the area of religious worship alone. In the first years ofthe Communist regime and its complete dependence upon Moscow, Jewish Communistsinfiltrated into the Federation, but afterward their participation in Jewish religious bodiesdecreased, although it did not cease altogether. The Federation of Communities was

responsible for maintaining synagogues and cemeteries and supplying religious objects,unleavened bread for Passover, kosher food, and the like. It was not authorized to deal inmatters of Jewish education, however, although it did have the right (according to adecision of the department of religions on Nov. 13, 1948) to set up seminaries for trainingrabbis, and for a few years it maintained a yeshivah in Arad (Transylvania). According tothe registration of 1960, there were 153 communities throughout Rumania thatmaintained 841 synagogues and battei midrash (56 of which were no longer in use), 67ritual baths, 86 slaughterhouses, and one factory for unleavened bread (in Cluj). From1956 the Federation also published a tri-language biweekly (in Rumanian, Yiddish, andHebrew) entitledRevista Cultului Mozaic Din R.P.R. ("Journal of (Rumanian) ReligiousJewry"). From 1964 the chief rabbi officiated as the chairman of the Federation and was

also a member of the National Assembly. Thus the Federation became the general Jewishrepresentative in the country.

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Education

With the renewal of Jewish life after the war, Jewish education also began to operateagain. In 1946 the total number of Jewish schools was 190 with 41,000 students. In 1948five yeshivot, 50 talmud torah schools, 10 Bet Jacob schools, one elementary school ofTarbut, five dormitories for students, 14 dormitories for apprentices, the agriculturaltraining institute (Cultura AgricolD), three vocational schools in Bucharest, and threevocational schools in provincial cities (Hu\i, Sibiu, Radauti) were supported by theAmerican Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. A substantial number of educationalinstitutions were maintained by the various Jewish c

Documents

Jewish History of Romania