The American Jewish Congress, reporting that more than 20 Rumanian Jewish community leaders and rabbis have been arrested in half a dozen cities for “Zionist activity” in recent months, today issued an appeal for their release to the Rumanian Government.
Providing additional details on previously-revealed arrests, the AJC said that arrests since last March included two rabbis, Pinchas Miller of Deva and Nicholas Schonfeld of Arad. The arrests reportedly have taken place in Bucharest, Vaslui, Tulcea, Orasul Stalin, Galati, Moinesti and Constanta.
Two relatives of Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Zionism, were among those recently arrested. Magda Herzl was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment on charges of transmitting literature from the Israel Legation in Bucharest. Elizabeta Herzl is being held without formal charges.
Efraim Singer, a Cluj newspaperman, received a 20-year sentence for “attempting to smuggle forbidden materials abroad,” which the AJC said consisted of a collection of poems. Lupu and Roza Sames of Galati were imprisoned because they had been in training for farm life in Israel more than ten years before the Rumanian regime outlawed such activities.
It had previously been reported that Rumanian authorities had arrested every Rumanian Jew who had ever worked for the Israel Legation.
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