Negotiations for United Jewish Election Front in Roumania Reach Deadlock

The negotiations for establishing a united Jewish election front in Roumania between the Union of Roumanian Jews and the Jewish Party have reached a deadlock, and there seems little likelihood of the projected pact coming about.

The representatives of the Jewish Party insist that an agreement is possible only if there is a clear demarcation of the boundary lines between the two organisations, so that there should be no overlapping. Their demand is that the Union of Roumanian Jews must withdraw from political activities, and restrict itself to defensive work on similar lines to the Federation of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, leaving all political activity to the Jewish Party.

The representatives of the Union contend, on the other hand, that the Union alone has so far succeeded in obtaining political achievements for Roumanian Jewry, and that there-fore the Union cannot think of withdrawing from political activity.

The Jewish Party suggested that if an election pact were concluded without its condition being accepted, the Jewish Deputies belonging to the two camps in the new Parliament might find themselves acting in opposition to each other.

The leaders of the Union of Roumanian Jews reply that this can be averted if both groups lay down the guiding lines of a joint parliamentary programme to which the Jewish Deputies on both sides would be bound.

The Jewish Party claims that this is an inadequate guarantee. The Union of Roumanian Jews, on the other hand, declares that it is unable to make any further concessions to the deman’s of the Jewish Party.

The chief point of difference between the two sections, it is pointed out, is that the Jewish National Party exists for the purpose of maintaining a permanent political representation of Jewish interests, considering the Jews as a national minority, while the Union of Roumanian Jews contends that the Jews are citizens of the country, and that Jewish demands can be put only as long as Jews are denied equality of rights, and that once that is obtained, there is no further Justification for a distinct Jewish group in politics. The policy of the Jewish Party, according to the Union of Roumanian Jews, is calculated only to isolate the Jews from the rest of the population.