(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)
The position of the Jews in Roumania is the subject of an article in the official organ of the Federation of Jewish Ex-Soldiers, the “Schild”.
“There is a movement,” it says, “to obtain financial credits in Germany for Roumania. In view of this movement it is right for public opinion in Germany to put the question: ‘What are the conditions in Roumania? Do the alarming reports which reach us from Roumania suggest that the country is reaching a stage of internal consolidation? How does it stand with the Jewish question in Roumania?’
“The answer,” the article proceeds, “is a terrible one. The comparatively small number of Jews in Roumania are legally placed on a level of equality with the other citizens. In actual practice, however, they are at the mercy of the ‘Patriots’, of nationalists, of the predatory instincts of the mob. Jews are being knocked down and beaten. Jewish women and children are being insulted and driven into a state of panic. Jewish houses and shops are entered and looted. Synagogues are desecrated. Attempts made by the Jews to defend themselves are made a punishable offense. An anti-Semite shoots a Jewish student and kills him. He is acquitted, and acclaimed a national hero. From Kishineff and Czernowitz, from Jassy and Kimpolung from Focsanyi and Bucharest, come the cries of the maltreated and tortured Jews, an indictment, not of the Roumanian people, which is unaffected by the whole agitation, but of the Christian League for National Defense, the Hitlerist Party of Roumania, which has not the people behind it. An indictment of individuals who have no respect for the honor, the lives and the property of others, and who seek to incite the people and to poison the soul of the nation. An indictment also of the Government.
“All the assurances given by General Averescu cannot conceal the fact of the Government’s complicity. The Government is letting things drift, although it must certainly realize that the acts of terrorism committed against the Jews are an outrage against law and justice.
“Not only the Jews, but the whole civilized world is filled with horror and indignation at this medieval barbarism. Not Roumania’s financial credit alone will suffer but also Roumania’s moral credit.”
The new synagogue of the Congregation Ansha Amunah of Pittsfield, Mass., was dedicated last week. Dr. Stephen S. Wise delivered the dedication address. Rabbi Harry A. Kaplan is rabbi of the Congregation. George A. Newman is president.
The auditorium of the temple will seat 280 persons.
At one side of the platform are the seats for the choir and the large reed organ. On the balcony are rooms for the rabbi’s study, conference room and library.
The ceiling of the auditorium is of wood with Irage oaken beams. The electric lighting fixtures and other appointments of the room were selected to harmonize with the sturdy oak woodwork.
The Sunday school room will seat 200 persons.
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.
