J. D. B. News Letter

(By our Bucharest Correspondent)

The question of the Roumanian Government’s policy in respect to the Jews, in view of the recent excesses, was raised in the Senate today by Senator Horia Karp, one of the Jewish representatives, who has been in Transylvania investigating the situation there.

My interpellation, Senator Karp said, is of a general character and is concerned with the policy of the Government in respect to the Jewish population. During the elections we entered into a bloc with the Government. I am convinced that M. Duca desires a policy of rapprochement towards the Jewish population. The late M. Jan Bratianu also desired it. And yet the Government is culpable because it has supported the Nationalist policy of the students. It is not for the school youth to engage in the defence of the national interests. All the citizens of the country stand together in the defence of the great interests of the State. We are not enemies of our country as our university professors seek to make others believe.

Senator Raducanu: All the students are not guilty. The guilt lies only with a gang of hooligans.

Senator Karp: Professor Duca said that too. But I have seen what happened with my own eyes and heard with my own ears. We must not be afraid of what will be said abroad. We shall do greater service to our country if it is known abroad that the Senate will not allow these things to happen. All the governments that have been in power for the last six years have been afraid to touch the students’ movement. The students probably imagine now that they are much more than anybody else. What has the prsent generation given the country, except that it has murdered Manciu and Falik? At the congress in Oradeomare, Professor Cetunianu lauded the students because they are demanding a Numerus Clausus and Professor Paulescu praised them because they have driven the Jews out of the medical faculty. No one was punished after what happened at Dorna-Vatra, or Rimnic Vilcia, nor after the incidents in the universities. Of course, things have gone so far that the students have even attacked soldiers and officers. If the students wished they could have killed thousands of people in Oradeomare. It is intolerable that teachers, professors and prelates should take part in the anti-Semitic movement. A priest who consecrates the banner of the swastika is no Christian. In Czernowitz, a Jew bequeathed money for a students’ home and not a single Jew is allowed to enter that home.

The Government, Senator Karp proceeded, has not kept its word to carry out a policy of rapprochement. M. Duca is shielding Secretary of State Tatarescu. M. Tatarescu ought himself to resign his post in the Government. The “Universul,” the paper of the Minister of Justice, M. Popescu, said that the students were provoked. If a newspaper published by a member of the Government writes in that fashion, the students may well think that they have a right to do whatever they wish. It is a lie to say that anyone provoked the students. The Jews took one thousand students into their homes and fed and lodged them during the congress, and they paid for many other students who were put up at hotels because they had no room to billet them in their homes. When I asked the Procuror what evidence there was that boiling water had been poured upon the students from Weiszlovicz’s hotel, he replied that he had seen a pool of water on the pavement. I am glad that for the first time in six years the Government is now condemning these acts of barbarism, and that certain sanctions have been made. Perhaps other sanctions will follow, for in Oradeomare and in Cluj none of the authorities did their duty. The police chief allowed himself to be carried shoulder high by the students while they were shouting “Down with the Jews.” I hope that that fine Christian declaration made by Bishop Cierogariu will impress the students and have some effect upon them. The students are demanding punishment for those who are libelling them. But the students demolished five synagogues and shops and private houses and looted property. In Oradeomare, they were seen carrying parcels of goods and in Bucharest stolen goods were taken from them.

When I visited the synagogue in Oradeomare, the general who was with me, crossed himself seeing the havoc that had been wrought there. Peasants wept when they saw the desolation that had been made of the synagogues, and one peasant woman fell on her knees and prayed to God that he should not punish all Christians because of this sacrilege. Twenty-eight scrolls of the law were torn to pieces in Cluj. The dust carts came and collected them as if they were so much refuse. The Jews had to pick the pieces of parchment out of the dust heaps. If the students in Cluj took no part in the disturbances, how did the students know where all the six synagogues were situated? On the second day the students came to the university with pieces of parchment from scrolls of the law in their lapels. Even those who were living with Jews wore these pieces of parchment in their lapels.

I demand of the Government, Senator Karp cried, that it should protect the Jewish population, that it should prohibit professors from engaging in anti-Semitic propaganda, that it should grant a moratorium of three months to those traders who have suffered damage, and that the autonomy of the universities should be withdrawn where it is a question of public security. If the Government does this, these events will not occur again.

M. Duca, Minister of the Interior, said in reply: “I understand the feelings of M. Karp, especially in view of the disgraceful profanation of the synagogues. I represent not only my personal opinion, but the opinion of the whole Government. We believe that the consolidation of Greater Roumania must take place with the co-operation of all the minorities. We have taken steps to punish the guilty officials, and I declare that we have not yet finished. When the enquiry is completed, other punishment will follow. We are determined to rid Roumania of the feelings which now dominate our university youth. We ask Senator Karp to have confidence in us and not to raise too often questions which have already been dealt with. We shall restore the synagogues which have been demolished and we shall compensate the victims.”

A reception was given Justice Frederick Spiegelberg upon his retirement from the Municipal bench after twenty years of service. Fellow judges and lawyers paid tribute to Judge Spiegelberg in the court room of the Fifth District Municipal Court on Friday.

A bronze plaque, containing a message of friendship and admiration from members of the Seventh, Ninth and Eleventh Assembly districts, was presented to the judge by Victor R. Kaufman of the Attorney General’s office.

The speakers at the reception were former Senator Martin Saxe, President-Justice Timothy A. Leary, Professor I. Maurice Wormser, Assemblymen John H, Conroy of the Ninth District, William Weiss of the Eleventh District and former Commissioner of Elections Charles E. Huydt. Among those present were five Judges, Carroll Hayes, Edgar J. Lauer, Thomas F. Noonan, Joseph Raimo and William Chilvers. Adolph M. Bangser was Chairman.

Alex Weisberg of Dallas, Tex was selected as the honoree for the 1927 Linz award to the outstanding citizen who had rendered during the year the most meritorious service resulting in the greatest benefit to the city of Dallas. Mayor R. E. Burt, who was a member of the award jury, presented Mr. Weisberg with a large silver loving cup at a iuncheon held to mark the occasion.