Chief Rabbi of Cluj Arrested on Charge of Attempted Bribery and Released After Intervention with Min

Chief Rabbi Glasner of Cluj, the capital of the Province of Transylvania, has been arrested together with the Secretary of the Cluj Jewish Community, Mr. Lofler, and his assistant Mr. Rosenberg, on a charge of attempted bribery of the Secretary of the local police force, Mr. Clontza. Rabbi Glasner is alleged to have offered Clontza 25,000 lei to induce him to prevent a Sephardic Shochet in Cluj slaughtering at lower prices than those charged by the Cluj Jewish Community ritual slaughterers, thus causing a considerable loss to the revenue obtained by the Community.

Following urgent intervention by Deputy Josef Fischer, of Cluj, member of the Club of Jewish Deputies, the Ministry of the Interior has ordered an enquiry into the circumstances of Rabbi Glasner’s arrest. The Public Prosecutor, insisted, nevertheless, that the accused must appear in court, and they were accordingly brought up and were immediately ordered to be released.

Deputy Fischer has made a statement to the press in which he contends that there is no ground for a charge of bribery against Rabbi Glasner, since it has happened frequently that the local authorities have asked for and the Jewish Community has agreed to pay the expenses of an investigation carried through by the authorities for the purpose of protecting the interests of the Jewish Community.

The conflict between the Cluj Jewish Community and the Sephardio Shochet goes back for many months. In June of last year, when the editor of the London J.T.A. Bulletin was in Roumania, the then Minister of the Interior, M. Vayda-Voyvod, who is himself a Transylvanian and well acquainted with developments in that Province, made a reference to it in the course of an interview with him. In explaining the intentions of the Government in regard to the new Jewish Communities Law which has been held back as a result of the united opposition of the Jews of Roumania, M. Vayda said that he thought that in view of the disagreements between the orthodox, Reform and Sephardic (Spagnol) Communities, it would be best to have separate communities for each of them, instead of one united Jewish Community where the members would be quarrelling among themselves. I come from Transylvania, he said, and that is the position there. The new law would extend that practice throughout Roumania. But, he went on, there are certain things that cannot be allowed. Rabbi Akibah Glasner, of Cluj, has complained to me, for instance, that a new Rabbi has come there, a Spagnol, and is slaughtering kosher for a much lower fee than the Jewish Community, because he is not paying any taxes for the upkeep of the Jewish Community institutions. That cannot be permitted, M. Vayda said, and if he doesn’t stop undercutting, we shall close down his business.