Roumania’s Minister in Washington Disputes Accuracy of Translation of Rabbi Niemirower’s Address

Differences of opinion as to what Rabbi Niemirower, the new Jewish representative in the Roumanian Senate said on the question of anti-Jewish excesses in the country still prevail between the Roumanian Minister in Washington and the representatives of the Roumanian Jews in the United States.

The “Jewish Daily Bulletin” in its issue of February 18, published an exact translation of the stenographic report of Rabbi Niemirower’s address. On the basis of this translation the “Jewish Daily Bulletin” stated that the version of the Rabbi’s address an issued by the press bureau of the Roumanian Legation in Washington on Feb. 1, is contradicted by the stenographic report.

The Roumanian Minister, G. Cretziano, now denies that the translation of the stenographic report is accurate. The “Jewish Daily Bulletin”, received from Rabbi Barnett R. Brickner of the Euclid Avenue Temple, Cleveland, copies of correspondence between him and the Roumanian Minister concerning this matter.

In his letter dated Feb. 25, addressed to the Roumanian Minister, Rabbi Brickner said:

RABBI’S LETTER TO CRETZIANO

“I have your communication of recent date, in which you quote from Rabbi Niemirower’s address before the Roumanian Parliament. How do you square this statement ostensibly from his address, with that report of his address, published in a recent issue of the ‘Jewish Daily Bulletin’ of New York, under date of Friday, February 18, 1927? The text of Rabbi Niemirower’s address contradicts your press bureau’s version.”

To this letter, Mr. Cretziano replied on Feb. 28:

“In reply to your letter of February 25, 1927, I beg to inform you that I have controlled the extract from Rabbi Niemirower’s address before the Roumanian Parliament which I have sent you, as well as the text of his address as published in the ‘Jewish Daily Bulletin’ of February 18, with the address as given, word for word, from stengraphic notes in the ‘Monitorul Oficial’ of Roumania of February 8, 1927. I have found that the extract as given by the Press Bureau of the Roumanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is absolutely correct, although not in the order that Rabbi Niemirower talked, while the translation in the ‘Jewish Daily Bulletin’ is not correct, with omissions here and there, which, sometimes, are misleading.

“I have sent you the above-mentioned address only for the purpose of pointing out to you how futile it is for those abroad to discuss things affecting the Roumanian Jews, in the absence of a perfect knowledge of the facts in question. This does not do any good for the Jews in Roumania, who are given all the opportunity necessary to defend their interests. A heated and biased discussion of such questions abroad only hurts them, and makes difficult the promotion of understanding between peoples’ which should be the chief aim not only of states, but also of churches of every denomination.”

A totally different view of what Rabbi Niemirower said is held by Leo Wolfson, president of the United Roumanian Jews of America.

Mr. Wolfson, who was born in Roumania and who knows the Roumanian language, in a letter addressed to the “New York Times” and the “Herald-Tribune” in reply to T. Tileston Wells, Consul General of Roumania in New York, states that Rabbi Niemirower’s address was “doctored” to meet the needs of the Roumanian government. He says on the subject:

“Mr. Wells’ quotation from Senator Rabbi Niemirower’s address is not true. It was doctored to meet the needs of the Roumanian government. Dr. Niemirower’s address was distorted to help save the appearances. We can furnish Dr. Wells with a correct stenographic report of Dr. Niemirower’s address, which we have here, and we challenge him to find therein the language he makes use of in order to serve his purpose. The government with all the pressure and terror it has used against leading Jews to obtain statements denying the crimes against Jews in Roumania, has been unable to obtain even one.”

Mr. Wolson’s letter read in full;

MR. WOLFSON TAKES WELLS TO TASK

“Under the heading ‘Roumania and the Jews’ there has recently appeared in your valuable columns a letter signed by Mr. T. Tileston Wells, the Consul General of Roumania, in New York, in which he attempts to defend the Roumanian government and gives his own version and interpretation of facts and conditions affecting the Jews in Roumania.

“May we reply to the same. Mr. Wells is a distinguished American lawyer, but he knows about Roumania and her Jews what he has been told, or what he has been shown when he visited the country he represents. Without personal knowledge of the facts and conditions, involving the life, safety and property of nearly one million Jews in Roumania, Mr. Wells rushes to the defence of the Roumanian government. As its mouthpiece, he gives utterance to incorrect and misleading statements We speak with intimate, personal knowledge of Roumanian conditions, having been born there, and like our brethren suffered there.

“Taking up Mr. Wells’ points, defences and charges, we beg to state:

1. “The laws of Roumania make no distinction between Jews and Christian citizens, but there is a De Facto distinction being made by the government and officials. Precisely that is our complaint, that the government does not enforce the laws fairly when Jewish rights and interests are involved.

2. “It is true there have been no pogroms in Roumania, in accordance with the Russian definition of the word, meaning mass slaughter. We charge however, that the Jews in Roumania, are being daily maltreated, beaten, maimed, thrown off running trains, their homes and stores are devastated and even their synagogues and cemeteries are desecrated. That in some instances Jews have been murdered. This daily torturing of a people–citizens of a country, with the tacit and at times covert consent and approval of the government is a thousand times worse than pogroms.

3. “Mr. Wells claims that the Roumanian government disapproves of the acts of the individuals who commit offences against the Jews. In the first instance mere disapproval is not enough. How many offenders have been punished by the government? We assert positively that none of them were punished. That such disapprovals as the Roumanian government uttered in connection with Jewish outrages were made merely pro forma and to be able to use them abroad, through Mr. Wells and others. Crimes and offences against Jews in Roumania, remain unpunished. By its toleration of outrages against Jews and allowing and in some cases, assuring the offenders that they will not be punished, we charge and hold the Roumanian government directly responsible for the present intolerable conditions. Only recently Nicolai Totu, an anti-Semitic student, shot and killed David Falick, a Jewish student. Totu was acquitted the other day by a Roumanian Tribunal. We knowing the kind of justice the Jews of Roumania get, predicted on December 3, 1926, that the murderer of Falick would be acquitted, in a protest we addressed to the Roumanian Minister at Washington.

DENOUNCES WELLS’ INSINUATION

4. “Mr. Wells insinuates by a query that the Jews are provoking the agitations against themselves. We indignantly repudiate the insinuation. To say that the protests which the Jews in Roumania make against the crimes committed against them, or that the protests which the Jews abroad have made on behalf of their unfortunate brethren in Roumania, is the cause of the outrages, is an unfair and unjust interpretation of the facts. Let the government stop the excesses and manifestations against the Jews, and all protests would stop, and there would be no reason for them. We challenge Mr. Wells to point out the slanders he complains of. The truth of the matter is that we have not made public a ten thousandth part of the horrible, gruesome conditions under which the Jews are compelled to live in Roumania.

5. “Mr. Wells’ quotation from Senator Niemirower’s address is not true. It was doctored to meet the needs of the Roumanian government. Dr. Niemerower’s address was distorted to help save the appearances. We can furnish Dr. Wells with a correct stenographic report of Dr. Niemerower’s address, which we have here, and we challenge him to find therein the language he makes use of in order to serve his purpose. The government with all the pressure and terror it has used against the leading Jews to obtain statements denying the crimes against Jews in Roumania, has been unable to obtain even one.

6. “Equally untrue is the statement issued by the Roumanian government, and which it has given wide publicity abroad that the University of Bucharest has 25,391 students of whom 2,637 are Jews. We brand the statement as absolutely false. There are not that many students in all the four Roumanian Universities, and there are not as many students, not even one half Jews, in all of the Roumanian Universities. As a matter of fact, the University of Bucharest has no more than about 14,000 students and there are not 250 Jewish students, who have been allowed to take the courses at any of the faculties. To the shame of Roumania, it has a “numerus nullus” as the University of Bucharest, anything Mr. Wells may say to the contrary. In the other universities there is a “numerus clausus” reduced to a minimum.

“May we add, that Americans of Mr. Wells’ standing owe something to their fellow Americans, when they accept foreign appointments, and that is that the information they give out, shall at least be substantially accurate, fair and unbiased. Mr. Wells’ letter on the Jews in Roumania is inaccurate, unfair and biased.”