Contrary to rumors which are reported to be current in the United States and Palestine, Dr. William Filderman and other Rumanian Jewish leaders have not been arrested, and are continuing to perform their various communal functions.
Dr. Filderman, for instance, is still the representative of the Joint Distribution Committee here, president of the Union of Rumanian Jews, and chairman of the Federation of Rumanian Jewish Communities. A.L. Zissu, another of those reported to have been arrested, remains the leader of the Jewish Party and the Rumanian section of the World Jewish Congress. He is no longer head of the Jewish Agency office here, but that is due to the fact that he has rejected pleas from Palestine that he resume the post, because he disagrees with the policies being pursued by Dr. Chaim Weizmann.
M. Manulescu, who is a vice-president of the Union of Rumanian Jews, and Dr. S. Cupper, two others who were rumored to be under arrest, are in some difficulties with the authorities, but have not been arrested. Manulescu was questioned recently in connection with the forthcoming trial of members of the “Jewish Center” established during the Antonescu regime by Commissar for Jewish Affairs Radu Lecca.
Manulescu was forced by Lecca to head a committee of Jews in the professions which was compelled to raise 4,000,000,000 lei towards the huge collective fines imposed upon the Jewish community. Cupper is a well known physician, who headed the department of schools of the Jewish Center. He is reported to be a convert to Christianity.
(A report reaching London today states that Michael Landau, a former deputy in the Rumanian parliament and one-time editor and publisher of the Kishinev Yiddish daily “Unzer Tzait,” has been sentenced to five years imprisonment in Bucharest for alleged collaboration with the Antonescu Government. The same report says that ex-Senator Elie Finkelstein, who was formerly president of the Orthodox Jewish Community of Bucharest, was condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.)
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
