Many of Rumania’s 350,000 Jews are threatened with starvation as a result of a severe drought which has lasted almost three years, Joseph Klarman, Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent in Rumania, reported today upon his arrival from Bucharest.
The acute shortage of food, due to the lack of rain, is being utilized by anti-Government elements for increased anti-Semitic propaganda, Klarman said. This resulted recently in attacks on Jews and on synagogues in a number of towns. There have also been cases where Jews were attacked while travelling by rail. These acts continue despite the fact that anti-Semitic propaganda is outlawed and despite government measures to suppress anti-Semitic activities, Klarman said.
As a result of the food shortage and the increased anti-Jewish agitation, groups of Jews are leaving Rumania for the U.S. zone of Austria. The exodus is not being organized by Jewish groups. In fact, all Jewish organizations have issued appeals to Rumanian Jews to remain in the country, warning that those who leave may become homeless refugees.
There are about 150,000 Jews registered for emigration to Palestine as compared with the 70,000 who were registered at the end of 1944, Klarman declared. He revealed that the government had planned to repatriate 20,000 Rumanian Jews from the USSR, but was holding up the repatriation because of the food situation.
Klarman, who is a member of the Zionist Actions Committee, is proceeding from here to Jerusalem to attend the session of the Committee scheduled to open there on June 15. He emphasized that Jewish organizations in the United States must send large amounts of food to Jews in Rumania, and quickly.
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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.
