Rumania’s Chief Rabbi Praises Regime for Helping Jewish Community Rebuild

Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen of Rumania today praised the Rumanian Government for its support in helping to rebuild the war-ravaged Jewish community of this country after World War II, At the same time, he reaffirmed Rumanian Jewry’s spiritual ties with Israel. Rabbi Rosen spoke from the pulpit of the Choral Synagogue where he was feted on the 20th anniversary of his accession to the office of Chief Rabbi. He declared that his experiences over the past 20 years proved that Jews can create a viable existence under either capitalist or Socialist forms of Government. He cited the participation of Rumanian Jewry in the creation of a Socialist state in this country.

Rabbi Rosen received the personal felicitations of Jewish and non-Jewish religious leaders and from representatives of Jewish communities and organizations in the United States, Israel and throughout the world. Among the religious dignitaries present were the Patriarch Justinian of the Rumanian Orthodox Church, the Moslem Mufti and Archbishop Augustin of the Roman Catholic Church. Rabbi Itzhak Nissim, the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, headed a list of rabbinical leaders from five other countries, among them Chief Rabbi emeritus of Great Britain, Dr. Israel Brodie. Greetings were received from Chief Rabbi Yehuda Leib Levin of Moscow, who is currently visiting the United States.

American Jewish leaders who attended the ceremonies at the Bucharest synagogue, the first event of its kind ever held in Rumania, included Rabbi Max Nussbaum of Hollywood, Cal., president of the American section of the World Jewish Congress, and Phillip E. Hoffman of Newark, N.J.chairman of the board of governors of the American Jewish Committee. Louis D. Horowitz of the Joint Distribution Committee in Geneva headed a JDC delegation. Israel was represented by Maurice Yaffe of Jerusalem, president of the Union of Israeli Synagogues and Zalman Shragai, a leader of the Mizrachi-Hapoel Hamizrachi, the religious Zionist party. Also present were representatives of the Jewish communities of Canada, Argentina, France and Yugoslavia, and of Rumania’s 72 Jewish communities. Elias Katz, Chief Rabbi of Slovakia, was also present. But neither delegates nor messages were received from Poland or from neighboring Bulgaria.