Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

[The purpose of the Digest is informative. Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.–Editor.]

Roumania’s attempt to justify herself in the reported memorandum to the League against the charges of anti-Jewish excesses and continuous mistreatment of the Jewish population in that country, is viewed by the Jewish press as merely a repetition of her previous attempts at evasion and self-vindication.

Nevertheless the very fact that Roumania has found it necessary to submit a memorandum on the subject to the League is regarded by the “Day” as an indication that the Roumanian government has begun to feel the pressure of Jewish public opinion.

Regarding Roumania’s objection to intervention by foreign Jews, the “Day” makes a proposal to the Roumanian Government that if it stops its anti-Semitic policy, the Jews of America will cease ‘interfering.’ The paper writes: “We find in the memorandum of the Roumanian Government the well-known Roumanian tactics, the old, outworn, empty Roumanian excuses. Nevertheless, the memorandum constitutes a slight sign for the better. Apparently Bucharest has begun to feel that Roumania does not profit from its unbridled anti-Semitic policy. Roumania knows well enough that her complaint that Jews in Roumania provoke social unrest will make no impression abroad. For where else is it known so well as in Roumania that these complaints are false? Let the Roumanian Government invite an impartial commission of the League of Nations to investigate this alleged Jewish propensity. The Roumanian Government will not do this because it knows that an impartial commission would disclose a different picture. Such a commission would find that the Jewish population in Roumania is thoroughly peaceful and a guiltless victim of a systematic provocation, which is supported by the Government; it would find that a systematic propaganda is going on in Roumania’s high circles as well as in the universities where it finds violent expression; it would find that Roumania’s whole officialdom is saturated with Jew-baiting and that anti-Semitism is the daily policy throughout the country.

“The Roumanian Government objects to protests on the part of Jewish public opinion abroad. We American Jews are prepared to drive a ‘bargain’ with the Roumanian Government. Let her stop her anti-Semitic policy and we will cease to interfere in her ‘internal affairs.’ If Roumania still retains any decency, at least a little wisdom, she will accept our proposal.”

The “Jewish Daily News” observes: “Roumania holds that excesses are an internal affair concerning only herself. She feels that she can do whatever she pleases with her Jews. In this interpretation lies an admission that Roumania is not dealing with her Jews as she should. When someone says, you must not interfere in my affairs, it is an indication that those affairs are not in the best order. No matter what Roumania may think of intervention by Jews, the Jews feel that there is no way for them but to bring their complaint to the League of Nations. The Jews of the world are bound together with the bonds of blood and unity of faith and therefore it is natural that they should be the ones to carry the protest against the persecution of their fellow Jews to the League of Nations.”

Doubt as to the truth of the report of the “Neue Freie Presse” of Vienna regarding Roumania’s memorandum to the League is voiced in the “Jewish Morning Journal,” by Jacob Fishman. “If, however,” Mr. Fishman proceeds, “the report is true, then more importance attaches to the protest note or memorandum of the League of Nations to which Roumania answered than to Roumania’s memorandum. We have not heard until now that the League of Nations had sent such a note to Roumania, although the Secretariat of the League accepted the protest which Lucien Wolf submitted in the name of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Board of Deputies. If the League of Nations did send a note to Roumania, it would be interesting to ascertain the contents of that note. That would be more important than Roumania’s answer which we could have guessed in advance.”