American Jewish Congress Hears Report on Jewish Conditions in Roumania

A report on the anti-Jewish excesses in Roumania was presented at a meeting of the Administrative Committee of the American Jewish Congress by Gershon Agronsky, American journalist, who surveyed conditions in Roumania as a special investigator of the Congress.

Crimes “of the most dastardly nature may be and are being committed against Jews in Roumania with impunity, the offenders not only escaping punishment, but being raised to the stature of ‘national heroes,'” Mr. Agronsky told the Congress Administrative Committee. “In fact,” he added, “the reward for such crimes is in direct ratio to their magnitude. A man who murders a Jew is certain to be made a hero.”

Detailed to verify reports of “renewed and embittered agitation” against the Jews in Roumania, Mr. Agronsky informed the Congress that the present situation in that country, particularly in Bucharest, has taken “a violent turn for the worse since the last student Congress, when, certainly with the knowledge of the authorities, and perhaps with their approval, student delegations were furnished facilities for moving about the country freely, leaving a long trail of rowdyism and bullyism wherever they went.” Petty offenses against Jews were characterized by Mr. Agronsky as those most prevalent. Rowdies daily attack fellow Jewish students at universities, he said, and Jews are hurled from running trains, waylaid and beaten in the streets, and “the offenders are never brought to book.” He said that he has authoritative information to the effect that no offender against the Jews “has as yet been arrested, let alone punished, for attacking a Jew, no matter how public and flagrant and brutal the circumstances were under which the attack was made.”

Not only are those of the Jewish faith encountering difficulties in Roumania, but other religious minorities, such as the Baptists and Unitarians are suffering persecution, according to Mr. Agronsky. The Roumanian government, he explained, recognizes the Greek Orthodox Church as the national church and looks upon the Baptists and other religious denominations as elements that are “likely to alienate Roumanians from the national church.” A delegation of American Baptists at present are working in Roumania, he said, to bring about better conditions for the 30,000 congregants of that faith in Roumania.

Regarding the position of the Jewish student in the universities of Roumania, Mr. Agronsky said that unless there is a “radical change, a few years will see his extinction.” In the law school of Bucharest, where Mr. Agronsky describes the position of the Jewish student as the best to be found anywhere in Roumania because the regulations of the university do not require regular attendance, a sharp decline in Jewish enrollments has been noted in the past few years, undoubtedly due to persecution. “Instead of 250 Jews enrolled in the freshman year two or three years ago, this year there are only about a score.”

Mr. Agronsky cited specific instances of the gross injustices against Jews in Roumania. He contrasted the case of Nicholi Totu. university student, who killed “in cold blood,” a fellow Jewish student named Falik, and was exonerated on the ground that his crime was “a political act,” to that of one in which Jews were the defendants. This latter case was brought about when 13 Jews were convicted on the occasion of beating a few ruffians who broke into their synagogue on “Yom Kippur,” the Jewish Day of Atonement. These Jews were sentenced to from six months to two years, in addition to the imposition of a fine of approximately $20,000 on the Jewish community.

Among those of the Administrative Committee of the Congress who attended the meeting at which Mr. Agronsky presented his report, besides the President, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, were: Carl Sherman, chairman, Max Eckmahn Max L. Hollander, Louis Lande, Louis Lipsky, Dr. A. J. Rongy, Dr. J. Tenenbaum. Leo Wolfson, Samuel Weinstein, George 1. Fox, Judge Gustave Hartman and Solomon Sufrin.

The Roumanian Legation in Washington has carried on an intensive campaign among leading clergymen in the United States to counteract the effect of the reports of the anti-Jewish excesses in Roumania.

George Cretziano, Roumanian Minister at Washington, sent a copy of a statement by the Press Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to rabbis and ministers in the United States. Rabbi Ephraim Frisch of Temple Beth-El, San Antonio, Texas, declared in his letter to the Minister:

“Rabbi Niemerower is an appointee of the Roumanian Government, not the choice of the Jewish people, and has allowed himself to be bullied into this utterance by the government officials. I, as well as all those who keep in touch with the foreign situation, know that this statement is in glaring contradiction to the actual persecution and harassing of Jews in Roumania. It does not matter whether these Jewish people belong to the old kingdom or to the new provinces; they are human beings and are entitled to full equality as such and by virtue of the guarantees exacted of Roumania ever since the Congress of Berlin in 1878; guarantees which she has failed to live up to. The outrage of the Falik case and the widespread acts of violence by students and the teaching of malice and persecution by Professor Cuza and the other educators are facts too well established to be successfully contraverted.

“Perhaps you gentlemen of the Legation are not aware of the following facts which throw light upon the so-called beneficent treatment which your country has meted out to the Jews of old Roumania: ’57 persons voted upon as individuals were naturalized in 1880; 6 in 1881: 2 in 1882; 2 in 1883 and 18 from 1886 to 1900; in all, 85 Jews in 21 years. 27 of whom in the meantime died.’ (Jewish Encyclopedia, article, Roumania). These facts, as far as I know, have never been challenged. They constitute a damning indictment of the Roumanian nation. Is this all that your so-called justice-loving country could do for the 250,000 or 300,000 Jews which at that time comprised the population of old Roumania? The vast body of the Jewish people of your country is descended from stock which has made Roumania its home for centuries, some of their ancestors tracing their origin to the time of the Roman Emperor Trajan. Already then they lived there as free men while your ancestors were exiled convicts banished there by the Roman emperors.”