Jews Greet Bessarabian Ratification As Roumania’s Orientation Toward West

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)

Deputy Mayer Ebner, Jewish member of parliament from Czernowitz, replied in parliament to the attack on the Jews of Roumania made by Deputy Professor Shmulianu, one of the Cuzist Deputies, who alleged during the session that the Jews of Roumania were not loyal citizens of the country and that they were taking no part in the national festivities arranged throughout the country in celebration of the Italian ratification of the Bessarabian Treaty.

“Deputy Shmulianu complains that I, as a Jewish Deputy, have not made a declaration on the attitude of the Jews towards the ratification of the Treaty, as the German and Hungarian Deputies have done on behalf of their people,” Deputy Ebner said. “Deputy Shmulianu made the remarkable assertion that the Jews weep when the Roumanians rejoice and that the Jews rejoice when the Roumanians mourn. My reply is that at the sitting of March 8th I was told that only political parties would make declarations. The six Jewish deputies in the present Parliament do not constitute a united political party. I took part therefore in the general manifestation and did not ask to speak personally.

“Being now provoked to speech however, by Deputy Shmulianu’s attack, I want to say this: We Jews are sad only when the anti-Semites have cause to rejoice. But we do not identify the anti-Semites with the Roumanian nation. The ratification of the Treaty by which Bessarabia is forever united with Roumania is an event of tremendous importance to all citizens of the country, without distinction of race or creed, including, of course, the Roumanian Jews. The Roumanian Jews have a common destiny with the Roumanian people and common interests with them. There are thousands of ties which unite the Jews of this country with the other inhabitants of the country and all together we strive for the development and greatness of our common Fatherland. Only malice or stupidity can accuse the Jews of being enemies of the State, seeking in that way to justify anti-Semitic terrorism. All sensible and just people, however, know that we Jews have never had irredentist aims, neither in the West nor in the East, and that we feel ourselves closely bound up with the Roumanian State.

“But we welcome the ratification of the Bessarabian Treaty not only as Roumanian citizens, but also as Jews. The ratification of the Treaty and the unification of Bessarabia for ever with the Roumanian State which it implies, indicates an orientation on the part of our country towards the West. To the Jews of Bessarabia, the unification of Bessarabia with Roumania means their liberation from the Cuzist yoke and a barrier against Bolshevik anarchy. The overwhelming majority of Jews stand on the ground of the bourgeois order and for the respecting of all bourgeois rights and liberaties. We see in the future a prosperous and happy time coming for all the inhabitants of Roumania, and it is not in servility nor in hypocrisy, but in the recognition of the logical course of events, that I as a Jewish Deputy, stand here and congratulate the Roumanian Government on the ratification of the Bessarabian Treaty. We Jews join with all our hearts in the expressions of gratitude of the Roumanian people to the Italian nation,” he declared.