(By Our Bucharest Correspondent)
The movement of the anti-Semitic students in Roumania against their Jewish fellow students has taken on a new aspect: the demand for a numerus clausus is being replaced by the demand for a numerus nullus–which would bar Jewish students completely from Roumanian universities.
This is a logical move on the part of the anti-Semites, for the numerus clausus, though not sanctioned by legal procedure, is today an actual fact in Roumania. Through the manipulation of university heads in cooperation with the Education Ministry the number of Jewish students in the universities today does not exceed the proportion of the Jews to the rest of the population in Roumania. So that while the movement for a numerus clausus is merely a demand for legal approval of an existing condition, the new movement is preparing the ground for the complete ousting of the Jews from the universities. In reality all the recent anti-Jewish excesses in Bucharest, Jassy, etc., have been directed towards this end, for this is the ultimate purpose of the anti-Semitic students and their open avowal of this fact in the form of the movement for a numerus nullus merely indicates their boldness which is growing from moment to moment as a result of the attitude of the Roumanian government. The attitude of Tatarescu, Minister of the Interior, in his reply to complaints of the Jews: “We can do nothing–the police and gendarmerie are with the Cuzists,” is further reflected in the behavior of the Minister of Education, Dr. Angelescu. Dr. Angelescu is on the friendliest terms with the anti-Semitic students and their leaders, Cuza et al. Whenever the directors of a university do make an attempt to suppress the outrages in their institution by ordering the suspension or expulsion of the anti-Semitic students, the order is invariably counter-manded from the offices of the Education Ministry. A characteristic incident was that regarding the Jewish professor, Dr. Reiner. The persecutions and abuse which he endured at the hands of the anti-Semitic students reach such a point that the council of professors at the university publicly expressed their condemnation of the anti-Semitic students. Following this the anti-Semitic students presented the professors with a memorandum on the Jewish “menace,” asserting that the Minister of Education had instructed them to do so.
When one enters the Roumanian universities today one finds gendarmerie posted inside and outside, ostensibly guarding the peace. Yet the excesses continue, the Jewish students are beaten daily, while the soldiers look on idly. One service, however, is always at the disposal of the Jewish students: ambulances. The government sees to it that there are always plenty of ambulances in readiness to take wounded Jewish students to the hospitals.
SIR SIDNEY’S NAME WAS LEE, NOT LEVY
Sir:
In recording the death of Sir Sidney Lee most of the daily papers stated that his name was originally Levy but that he changed it by advice received from a professor in Oxford University. This statement was also copied in some of the Jewish Weeklies that are satisfied to give information, even on matters of Jewish concern, at second-hand.
This statement is absolutely untrue. The family name was never other than Lee. I speak from first-hand information. I intimately knew his father. Mr. Lazarus Lee: his gifted sister, Miss Elizabeth Lee, also many other members of the family that still survive.
Will you kindly make this correction in your columns.
RABBI MAURICE H. HARRIS,
Temple Israel, New York City.
March 17, 1926.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
