Roumanian Legation Warns Jews Here Against Continuing Anti-roumanian Campaign in U.S.

A warning to the Jewish leaders in the United States to desist from the campaign against Roumania because instead of aiding they were further aggravating the Jewish situation in Roumania, was expressed in a communication by F. C. Nano, charge d’affaires of the Roumanian legation in Washington, to Bernard G. Richards, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, in which the Roumanian diplomat asserted that it was just as difficult for Roumania to protect the Jews against a largely prejudiced populace as it is difficult for the United States to enforce prohibition. The correspondence was made public by the American Jewish Congress through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

It would be to the ultimate interests of the Jews, the communication pointed out, to ignore the cases in which some few Jews have been beaten in order to insure the possibility of earning a good living for the vast majority of the Jews in Roumania. This is one of the conclusions of the letter of the Roumanian charge d’affaires to which Mr. Richards, on behalf of the American Jewish Congress takes exception in his reply in which he expresses his amazement that the events in Roumania should have aroused in Mr. Nano anything but “a feeling of horror and abomination.”

Mr. Richards deprecates as incomprehensible the conception of Mr. Nano that the welfare of a people should be purchased at the cost of humiliation and discrimination of a part of the population.

The full text of the correspondence between Mr. Richards and Mr. Nano follows:

CHARGE D’AFFAIRES LETTER

Dear Mr. Richards,

I have received your letter of May 19, and have communicated with my Government on the subject. As soon as I receive a reply, I will not fail to let you know. In the meantime, I deem it useful to draw your attention, privately and unofficially, to a few considerations which I think are usually overlooked, to the detriment of both parties interested in the matter. I believe frankness is the best policy between men of understanding who occupy responsible positions, so I propose to speak quite openly.

I think we are all agreed, I and the responsible officers of your organization, upon certain fundamentals:

JEWS GAIN LITTLE BY AGITATION

The Jews have just as little to gain by anti-Roumanian agitation, as Roumania herself. As I explained in my letter of April 25, anti-Roumanian campaigns abroad are highly detrimental to the interest of Roumanian Jews themselves for two reasons : Firstly; Practically all the Jews in Roumania are engaged in commerce or banking. They are, therefore, the first victims of economic depression, and anti-Roumanian campaigns naturally tend to make Roumania’s recovery from the economic post war crisis all the slower and more difficult. Secondly: They add weight to the argument of anti-Semitic groups in Roumania that Jews are at heart incurably hostile to that country and that they should, therefore, be terrorized until a great number at least leave it.

This argument carried all the more weight when, as has happened so often in the past, the stories of persecutions, excesses, and even massacres are completely invented or grossly exaggerated. In other words, these anti-Roumanian campaigns only make it more difficult for the Government to maintain order. I do not believe any sensible person can doubt the sincerity of the Government when it reiterates its firm resolve to prevent and punish excesses, with all means within its power. To begin with, Mr. Maniu’s sense of justice and fairness is universally recognized, and further it would be an insult to the intelligence of a statesman to imagine that he does not realize how detrimental to Roumania’s interests such excesse are. But are all means within its power? Of course not.

GOVERNMENT’S MEANS RESTRICTED

The means within the power of any Government are restricted in Roumania as elsewhere. Even in countries under the strongest and most dictatorial regimes, like Russia and Italy, excesses against some classes or creed are continually happening and usually go unpunished. The daily press teems with instances of acts of violence committed by organized and unorganized bands. in every country, (and I am not speaking of the backwoods of Africa or of Inner Asia). Some are punished, most of them are not. It would be superfluous to go into details.

The reason is obvious. As soon as a current of hostile feeling against any particular minority, of race, creed or conviction, is sufficiently strong, there are always a few hotheads who will vent their feelings in acts of violence. It would be futile to deny the existence of anti-Semitism in Roumania, as in many other countries where they live in larger numbers. I will, of course, not study this complcated problem now, but I may point to the outstanding reasons for the growth of anti-Semitism in Roumania since the war: the exacerbation of nationalist feeling everywhere due to war propaganda, and economic jealousy due to postwar financial and business depression.

As you doubtless know, commerce and banking are practically monopolized by the Jews in certain parts of Roumania (Bukowina, Moldavia, Bessarabia, Maramures and, to a certain extent, Bucharest). Due to the high price of manufactured goods and the low rates of wages and profits in agriculture and handicrafts, a part of the population, unable to understand the laws of political economy, simply describes their inability to buy the goods they need from the Jewish traders, to profiteering (and usury).

LIBERAL PROFESSIONS ATTRACT JEWS

On the other hand, the more lucrative of the liberal professions attract a proportionately larger number of Jews, who being all city dwellers have an advantage over the rural population. In the years immediately following the war, when owing to inflation, trade flourished, Jews represented a very high percentage of the student body. Many of the Christian students were unable to gain admission. The consequences are fairly obvious and even if conditions have changed, the feeling has remained.

Finally, it is well known that in all critical periods, people must find a scapegoat. Unfortunately, to a great number of people, the Jews occupy this unenviable position.

You know as well as everybody else how difficult it is for any Government, even animated by the best intentions, to enforce a law or regulation, when a sufficient number of people are opposed to it and a larger number lukewarm. It is safe to assume that the comparatively large number of excesses which go unpunished are due to the lack of witnesses to identify assailants. I dare say that many policemen and other officials look the other way and escape disciplinary punishment, thanks to the connivance of some of their superiors. Juries, under such conditions, are apt to vote for acquittal.

UNFAIR TO BLAME GOVERNMENT

Under the cricumstances, you will admit that it is rather unfair to blame the Government as a whole. Many Governments have tried to enforce prohibition, anti-lynching and similar laws. Have they succeeded? Not often, I believe.

Of course, I fully appreciate the difficulties for officers or organizations such as yours to be guided solely by reason and facts, when they are in opposition to the feeling of the rank and file. But I still feel that a little educational work on the lines outlined above, by officers whose Jewish patriotism is beyond doubt, might do a lot of good. I am naturally assuming that you agree with my fundamental argument, that is that unjustified and unfair campaigns against Roumania do Roumanian Jews the greatest possible harm.

Of course, one other point must not be overlooked : not half the stories of anti-Semitic excesses in Roumania are true and three-fourths are grossly exaggerated. Roumania has enemies to begin with. Furthermore, internal politics play a part in such stories and finally, newspaper correspondents have often a regrettable tendency to sensationalism, as you well know.

ANTI-ROUMANIAN CAMPAIGNS MISTAKE

Permit me to say frankly that in my mind, it is a mistaken policy for Jews abroad to launch anti-Roumanian campaigns. They could only be justified in my opinion, from the point of view of Jewish interests, if:

(1) The alleged stories of anti-Semitic excesses were true.

(2) It were proven that the Governusually follow in the wake of acts of violence and injustice, without seeming to realize that there can be no genuine reasons or justifications for treatment such as is being accorded to the Jews of Roumania by their fellow-citizens.

SEES SPECTRE OF FICTITIOUS ENMITY

By resting up a spectre of fictitious enmity to Roumania you are resorting to a means of disarming criticism which is as unworthy, as utterly unfair, as it is futile: you would have us give up whatever recourse is left us to register our sense of outrage at the wrongs which are being committed and you generously advise that:

“Even if all the stories of anti-Jewish excesses were true, still it seems to me that under present conditions it would be to the ultimate interest of the Jews to ignore the undoubtedly regrettable cases in which some few Jews have been beaten or their shops looted, in order to ensure for the vast majority the possibility of earning a good living, instead of doing everything to perpetuate the misery of the great mass of Jews. . . “

JEWS CANNOT BE CRAVEN

Leaving out for the moment the intimation of a threat to continue conditions which will spell destitution for larger numbers of our people in Roumania, we wonder how you expect Jews anywhere to be so craven as to remain silent in the presence of all manner of molestation and humiliation. Equally incomprehensible is your notion of the possibility of purchasing prosperity and welfare at the cost of the acceptance of humiliation and discrimination, inevitably undermining the very basis of any general prosperity and welfare, which, to be truly lasting and beneficent, must with the advent of the supremacy of the law, come to all elements of the population. We regretfully come to the conclusion that such assumptions on your part reveal a state of mind and of feeling which you have only partly disclosed in the course of your disquisition.

Pursuing your effort to find justifications for the inhumanities and indignities from time to time inflicted upon the Jews of Roumania, you go into an analysis of the position of different elements of the population and the trades and occupations in which they are engaged, as if the sacred duty of maintaining law and order and of safeguarding equality before the law of all elements, meant little or nothing to you, and as if the enjoyment of full rights on part of some elements of the population depended upon the trades or calling which they pursue.

ALL CITIZENS ENTITLED TO PROTECTION

We most earnestly venture to ask you if you do not consider all citizens of Roumania entitled to the full protection of the law, and if, in that case, all your argumentation and differentiation between various groups of the population do not merely manifest an attempt to explain and sanction the different, ugly aspects of the intolerance and hostility.

You are surely not unaware of the fact that in the choice of trades and professions the Jews had far less freedom than the other inhabitants of Roumania, and that, in addition to the ordinary economic handicaps, they had to carry the added burdens of misrepresentation, discrimination, as well as maladministration of the law. You would surely never dream of endeavoring to find justification for the persecution of any Christian group on account of the choice of occupations.

ONLY COMPLICATED SITUATION

It appears that your survey of the situation has carried you further than you seem to realize and that, instead of simplifying the approach to clearer understanding, you have only complicated the situation. You will, we believe, admit that you will find it very difficult to substantiate by figures and facts such allegation as that which is contained in your statement to the effect that on account of the high percentage of Jewish students at the universities “many Christian students were unable to gain admission.” Coming after the discriminations practised against the Jews in Roumanian universities, which have become notorious and which have been made the subject of many interventions, this is a strange statement, indeed, and reflects a disregard for actuality which is apparent in other parts of your statement.

REGRETS SPIRIT OF RESPONSE

It is a source of deep regret to us that our earnest and respectful representation addressed through you to your Government, has not brought us the response sent in a spirit of understanding and sympathy which we had reason to expect. Instead you have opened the door to controversy which, while it has become inevitable, we nevertheless deplore.

As you have written to us in reply to our official communication relating to a subject of obvious public interest, the officers of our organization cannot consider your letter in the light of an unofficial or private utterance. Furthermore, as your communication exhibits a state of mind which proves to be the chief obstacle in overcoming the difficulties confronting our people, it cannot fail to serve a useful end to contend openly with misconceptions which, if not immediately refuted and put to the test of reality, must continue to block the road to understanding and justice.

We therefore feel impelled by the seriousness of the situation affecting our brethren in Roumania to make public our original representations as well as your present letter and our reply thereto.

Yours very truly.

(signed) Bernard G. Richards,

Executive Director.