The Rumanian Government has apparently decided to end illegal exclusion of Jewish lawyers from Rumanian bar associations. It was learned that the Ministry of Justice sent out a circular yesterday to all bar councils calling attention to complaints received by the ministry against measures taken against Jewish lawyers.
The circular requests the councils to report immediately to the ministry whether the exclusion of Jewish lawyers has been made strictly in accordance with the law. The circular further reminds the councils that the regulations governing the profession provide a means of appeal from the councils’ decisions, and points out that the councils should be guided by the spirit of legality.
Since the circular follows a decision to permit Jewish lawyers to take the oath of allegiance to the new constitution regardless of exclusion from professional unions, there is hope that the Government now intends to introduce order in the bar. Meanwhile, 13 lawyers have been registered with the Bucharest bar on account of the fact that their parents obtained Rumanian nationality by fighting in the Turko-Rumanian War of 1877.
The Ministry of Justice yesterday issued the ruling permitting members of the free professions to take the required oath to the Constitution by appearing individually with their identity papers before a judge by March 15.
On the basis of this ruling, Jewish processionals will be enabled to take the oath even if they are not included in lists of the professional unions. An action by the Rumanian Bar Council, announced Friday, had made it impossible for Jewish lawyers to take the oath since the Council had submitted to the courts a list excluding Jews registered after Dec. 1, 1918. Professionals not renewing their oath by the specified date (originally set for March 6) would have been barred from practice.
Chief Rabbi Jakob Niemirower on Friday took the oath to the Constitution before Victor Lamandi, Minister of Education and Religions.
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