Romania’s Jewish community appears to be unscathed by the popular uprising that ousted dictator Nicolae Ceausescu last week.
Romania’s National Salvation Front said Monday that it had executed Ceausescu, his wife and son.
The front also claimed that 60,000 Romanians had been killed in the violence in that country. As street fighting continued in the major cities, local community leaders said no Jews were harmed, as far as they knew.
Israelis in Romania are also safe, according to reports Monday from the Israeli Embassy in Bucharest. They include diplomatic and Jewish Agency personnel, people on business, students, and radio and television technicians covering events for Israeli and foreign news organizations.
However, a group of about 50 Soviet Jewish emigres en route to Israel was stranded in Bucharest and put up at a hotel by the Israeli Embassy. The embassy has been in telephone and telex communication with the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem, to help the Israeli public get news of relatives in Romania.
In New York, similar reports about the situation of Jews and Israelis in Romania were received by the World Jewish Congress, which has been in contact with Jewish leaders in both Romania and Yugoslavia.
WJC learned Sunday that, because of the violent situation in the country, Chief Rabbi Moshe Rosen canceled his annual “Chanukiadah” visit to various towns and villages where Jews live.
He had planned to visit the western city of Timisoara, but that was before troops loyal to Ceausescu massacred an estimated 4,500 men, women and children last week. More violence has since taken place there.
ISRAELI DOCTORS STANDING BY
A number of Israelis are attending medical and dental schools programs at the university there. But they were reported last week to be safe.
Ladislav Kadelburg, president of the Yugoslav Jewish community, spoke by telephone last Friday with the Jewish community leadership of Timisoara. He told the WJC that no Jews had been hurt in the uprising there.
Theo Blumenfeld, director of the Romanian Jewish community, who spoke by telephone to the WJC, also said no harm had befallen the Romanian Jewish community and that there had been no manifestations of anti-Semitism.
Blumenfeld asked that Jews participate in medical and humanitarian relief efforts for the country.
A team of Israeli doctors and operating room nurses, all Romanian-speaking, was standing by here Monday night, ready to fly to Bucharest with several tons of medical supplies as soon as the airport is reopened.
All international air flights were suspended last week. The Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported last Friday that the Jewish Agency for Israel had begun rerouting flights carrying Soviet Jews to Israel by way of Hungary, rather than Romania. It said 175 arrived from Budapest last Thursday, and another group was due Friday.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Foreign Ministry came under fire for issuing what its critics called a “tepid” statement on the spectacular developments in Romania.
The statement welcomed the “emergence of democracy in Romania” and wished “the Romanian people liberty and prosperity.” It condemned “the massacres in Romania” and said Israel “mourns the thousands of people who have lost their lives.”
ISRAELI CREWS USED BY NBC
The statement expressed Israel’s hope to strengthen its ties with the Romanian people and leaders. But it did not, as critics thought it should, hail the downfall of the Ceausescu regime and recognize its successor.
Ministry officials explained that was not the practice of Israel’s foreign policy with respect to new governments or regimes. They denied that Israel’s once warm relations with Ceausescu confined the statement to generalities.
Romania was the only East bloc country that did not sever diplomatic relations with Israel at the time of the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel always credited Ceausescu for Romania’s independent foreign policy in the Middle East.
The Israel Broadcasting Authority has been providing viewers here with extensive television newscasts and 24-hour live radio coverage of the events in Romania.
And at least one American television network has taken advantage of Israeli expertise by sending Israeli camera and sound crews into Romania.
NBC Jerusalem bureau chief Mike Seamans was quoted by the Jerusalem Post on Monday as saying that his Israeli crews were landed in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and managed to slip across the border into Romania.
Other Israelis have been added to American TV news staffs in East Berlin, Prague and Panama. They seem to be valued because of their experience covering the intifada.
(JTA staff writer Susan Birnbaum in New York contributed to this report.)
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