Organized Jewry in Rumania today split into two camps when the Rumanian Government, acting on the advice of Dr. William Filderman, prominent Jewish leader, appointed a “General Jewish Council”to act as a central political representative body for all the Jews of the country.
The Zionist Organization and the Jewish Party announced that they would not participate in the Council and do not consider the newly created body representative of the Jews of Rumania. In advising the government to create the Council, Dr. Filderman stipulated that it was to be composed only of members of the Jewish groups which are collaborating with the present regime.
In addition to the Council, which is to provide political representation for the Jews, there is also in existence the Federation of Jewish Communities which is devoted to relief work and to educational tasks. The Federation is composed of 29 members, from seven Jewish groups. Each group has been given equal representation, four members, with the Chief Rabbi Dr. Shafran making the twenty-ninth member. The seven groups represented in the Federation are The Zionist Organization, the Jewish Party, Dr. Filderman’s party, the Communist Party, The Social Democratic Forty, the National Liberal Party and the National Peasant Party.
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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.