Jassy and Kishinev Jews Demand Energetic Action Against Anti-semites

Protests by the Jewish community of Jassy to the governor of Moldavia urging that immediate measures be taken to stop the nightly attacks on Jassy Jews and a similar protest to Prime Minister Maniu and the presidents of both houses of Parliament by the Jewish community of Kishinev are the latest developments in the matter of anti-Semitic excesses in Roumania.

The protest of the Jassy community was handed to the governor of Moldavia by a delegation headed by Elijah Mendelson and Senator Botez, who demanded not only measures to end the attacks on Jews but the liberation of the arrested Jews of Targufromos. The governor promised to look into the matter.

The Kishinev community protested against the attack on Targufromos and “the criminal attitude of the authorities who instead of arresting the Cuzist pogromists turned the few unfortunate Jews into the scapegoats. Such unjust treatment is reminiscent of the darkest Czarist days and merely encourages the anti-Semites to continue their hooliganism. We demand that the government take energetic measures against the growing Cuzist movement, punish those who are guilty and release the victims.”

A private inquiry of four non-Jewish members of Parliament is reported to have shown that the arrested Jews of Targufromos have been chained, their hair cut, photographed with sticks in their hands and in general treated like crimnals.

“It is necessary to help ourselves,” points out the Czernowitz “Ost Juedische Zeitung,” in commenting on the situation. “Either the government is with the anti-Semites or it must fight them,” declares the paper which feels that the government is trying to carry water on both shoulders with little success.

It points out that “if the government had courage, strength and goodwill it could finish the student excesses just as it is able to deal with the Communists. Towards the Cuzists the government adopts an attitude of benevolent neutrality.”