J. D. B. News Letter

The present government is hardly able to control the difficult situation in the country and this gives subversive movements the opportunity to rear up their heads. The anti-Semites were the first to show activity. In various manifestoes, they make it known that the time has now come to take advantage of the situation, and they are openly speaking of an anti-Semitic dictator. Things have gone so far, that they even specify the date upon which Cuza will take over the power-January 1, 1932, and they have prepared the list of the coming cabinet. It is as follows: Prof. Cuza, Premier; Prince Giko, Minister of the Interior; Prof. Catunianu, Foreign Minister; Jan Codrianu (murderer of the Prefect of Jassy), Minister of War; his father, Cornelius Cordrianu, Minister of Agriculture; George Cuza (Cuza’s son), Minister of Finance; Julius Leks, Industry and Commerce. The same George Cuza is also to be Minister of Justice, the priest Matza, Minister of Religion. Jan Matza, Minister of Education, Counsellor Georgia, Communication. Professor Fedelis, Sanitation, and Cutawa, Minister of Labor.

It is characteristic that the anti-Semites have dared to step forth now, especially, under a democratic regime, with the slogan of their own government, and even to designate the time when they expect to come to the helm. They have not remained satisfied with mere declarations and have immediately gone on to actual deeds. On the 14th, 15th and 16th of September the anti-Semitic students held a congress in Bukowina and on their way home inaugurated an “Oradea Mare” on a small scale. In Radauz, Dorneshti, and Darmaneshti they made attacks and on the entire stretch of railroad line they gave brutal beatings to Jewish travelers and threw them out of railroad carriages. The police were quite passive during these occurrences, because the entire Congress took place under the unofficial patronage of the government. This Congress was attended incognito by the cabinet chief of the Minister of the Interior, and a group of official personages made speeches of welcome there. Besides, all the members of the Congress were provided with free railroad fares.

Under pressure of around public opinion the Government soon designated an investigation, but the latter only brought about further unpleasantnesses. Several gendarmes were punished for the sake of appearances, and as for the real participants in the attacks, not one of them was discovered. Much more painful and insulting was the report which was presented by the chairman of the investigating committee. Matchelam. According to his report it appears, that the only guilty ones in the bloody excesses were the

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Jews whose conduct was not sufficiently courteous toward the students and who offended the patriotic feeling of the students. As to the facts that Jews were thrown out of the trains, the chairman, a doctor of philosophy, explains this by saying that the courteous students were assisting the Jews to remove the luggage from the trains.

This report provoked a passionate discussion in the Roumanian press. The democratic newspapers, “Dimineatza” and “Adiveral,” have attacked the government and demanded a second, more impartial investigation. The government organs, “Remaria” and Dreptatea,” accused the Jews of exaggerations, and hint that it is not worth while to get on bad terms with the nationalistic students on account of the Jews. “What are the Jews thinking about?” wrote the Government organ, “Dreptatea.” “Do they think that the Government must provide a special guard for every Jewish traveler who uses the railroad? Do the Jews seriously think that the Government is able to predict every trifling incident and know before hand what a few Roumanian hoodlums are planning to do? Is it not sufficient that the Government has condemned such demonstrations, and has taken all kinds of steps that such excesses shall not occur again in the future?”

The attitude of the government toward purely Jewish questions gives courage to the anti-Semites to attack the Jews at every opportunity. The recent bloody happenings in Palestine have given the enemies of the Jews new excuses for blind agitation. The government organ “Kesarea.” rehearsed in this connection the fairy tales of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and the anti-Semitic society “Archangel Michael” has published a special “Arabian” appeal. There mention is again made of the legend concerning Jewish world-dominion.

When the Arabian sensation was over, Providence sent the enemies of Israel a new piece of work. The attempt at assassination of the Minister of the Interior. Dr. Vaida Voyvod. As is known, this attempt was made by a Jewish Communist and this fact was sufficient to have the anti-Semites accuse all Jews of Communism, and to point them out as enemies of the Roumanian State.

Roumania is now facing a strong anti-Semitic revival, which assumes greater dimensions from day to day. The democratic government has its own internal and economic troubles and pays little attention to the poisonous Jew-baiting which is openly carried on throughout the land. This indifferent attitude of the government to anti-Semitic propaganda, and the growth of the Cuzist movement, are a source of great uneasiness in Jewish political circles and threaten the Roumanian Jewish population of a million souls with new terrors.