Rumanian Government Fails to Restore Rights to Jews Despite Armistice Terms

Serious differences exist between Jewish leaders here and the Rumanian Government over the question of restoration of full rights to Jews, as provided by the Allied armistice terms, it was established today by a special correspondent of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency arriving from Turkey.

At present, Jews in Rumania enjoy full rights in principle only. Nothing has been done by the government to restore them to the positions which they held before the notorious anti-Jewish laws were introduced, the correspondent found.

“Unless the government acts soon, we shall need $1,500,000 to provide shelter, food and clothing for needy Jews for a period of three months,” Dr. William Fildermen, principal leader of Rumanian Jewry, told the correspondent. He appealed to Jews in America and other democratic countries for immediate aid, emphasizing that 150,000 Jews are in great need.

A different view was taken by A. L. Zissu, president of the National Jewish party in Rumania and of the Zionist Organization, “Relief from abroad,” Mr. Zissu said, “is only a temporary palliative. I do not believe that 150,000 destitute Jews can be re-incorporated into the economic life of the country. Their only solution is emigration to Palestine.”

There are 290,000 Jews surviving in Rumania. More than half of them are literally without homes, clothing, food. They depend chiefly on relief provided by the remainder of the Jewish population. They include 17,000 Jews repatriated from Transnistria, 90,000 Jews who returned from forced labor, 20,000 Jews who had been deported from larger Rumanian cities and are now returning to their former residences, 10,000 evacuees from war regions, and 20,000 who lost everything they possessed during air raids.