Roumanian Jews in U.S. Ask Cretziano for Steps to Prevent Anti-jewish Outrages

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

At the invitation of the Roumanian Minister at Washington, George Cretziano, a delegation representing the United Roumanian Jews of America called at the Roumanian Legation yesterday and exchanged views with the Minister on the question of the anti-Jewish excesses in Roumania.

The delegation was headed by Bennett E. Siegelstein, president, who presented the Minister with a brief containing various recommendations and making certain demands. Among the demands were the dissolution of the Christion Students National Union, which, they held, was “nothing more than an anti-Semitic organization”; an “open door” to the universities and protection to Jewish students; abolition of the Christian Students National Day, and that the Roumanian Government give the fullest administrative protection to the Jewish population of Roumania, as well as to all other minorities, irrespective of creeds and faiths.

Following the conference, Minister Cretziano authorized this statement:

“The delegation and the Roumanian Minister, after exchanging views on the Roumanian subject, are in full sympathy with the conditions abroad and are sorry for past occurrences. Both will do everything possible to carry out the sug- gestions and recommendations made and filed so that peace and happiness will prevail in Roumania.”

Besides President Siegelstein, the delegation included Herman Speier, Secretary; Leon Fisher, Morris Florea, Solomon Sufrin, Bruno Berk, Paul R. Silberman and Sameul Kanter, all of New York.

The text of the brief presented by the delegation to Minister Cretziano read:

“We, in behalf of the United Roumanian Jews in America, appreciate the spirit which has prompted your Excellency’s invitation and your commendable desire to afford us an opportunity of exchanging views on questions in which we are mutually interested.

“The members of our delegation, however, will be lacking in candor as well as in sense of duty to our brethren, if we do not frankly give renewed expression to our feeling of deep sorrow at the events which have recently transpired in Roumania, and our continued anxiety for the safety and welfare of the Jews of Roumania whose fate is identified with the future of Roumania, and whose prosperity is bound up with the advancement in our native land.

“The facts with regard to the unfortunate occurrences and excesses in December have been fully stated in publications here and in Roumania. We have no desire, nor do we believe it to be necessary to reiterate the mournful facts at this time. But your Excellency will permit us to observe that the suffering which has been caused cannot easily be dispelled, and that the accumulated burden of insecurity and hostility cannot be lifted unless there be exerted sufficient strength to overcome the dread of stimulated animosities and fear of violence, against which there seems to be no restraint, and above all, the agonizing atmosphere of continuous insecurity.

“We must therefore most earnestly urge, and obtain assurances in the form of official utterances and acts and guarantees, that efforts equal to the gravity of the situation will be put forth by your Government to ameliorate the said conditions, and in order to end such fears, worries and anxieties, and to establish real peace and harmony among all the elements of the population.”

To this end, and in order to clear the way for a future understanding, the brief requested–

1. “The dissolution of the Christian Students National Union, and by such act of dissolution, the Roumanian Government should make clear to its people in general and to the Roumanian students in particular, that the Government is entirely sincere in its suppression of anti-Semitism. Failure on the part of the Roumanian Government to suppress the Union would inevitably be regarded as proof of the lack of wholeheartedness in the Government’s desire to suppress and repress anti-Semitism.

2. ” ‘Open Door’ of the universities and protection to the Jewish students while in attendance. As long as Jewish students are terrorized by force to absent themselves from the universities no assurances, however well meant, by the Government, can be accepted as effective.

3. “Abolition of the Christian Students’ National Day. The Government should, at least for the present, abolish the 10th day of December as a national holiday for the convening of so-called Christian students, in view of the horrors to which recent celebrations there-of gave rise.”

The American Jewish Congress, of which the United Roumanian Jews of America are a constituent body, announced through its Washington branch that it was opposed to the meeting yesterday between the deputation and the Roumanian Minister. Although the Congress did not stand in the way of the delegation’s acceptance of Minister Cretziano’s invitation to discuss the Roumanian Jewish situation, it did, however, state that the officers of the Congress, including its President, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, were opposed to the conference.