The Jews of Rumania appealed today to King Carol against racial discrimination, expressing the hope that he would “not allow the Jewish population to be put in a worse position than when they enjoyed no citizenship rights.”
In a telegram signed by Dr. Wilhelm Fildermann, president of the Union of Rumanian Jews, Chief Rabbi Jacob Niemirower and Dr. Theodore Fisher, the Central Council of Rumanian Jews declared:
“The Central Council of Rumanian Jews, after examining the desperate situation being created for the Jews in this country by introduction of measures discriminating among sons of the fatherland, submits to Your Majesty official Rumanian statistics showing Rumania’s unemployment is the lowest in the world–not even 10,000 of a population of 18,000,000.
“According to the statement of the chairman of the committee for the application of the Law for the Protection of National Labor in 1934, it was not the Jews who sabotaged the passing of the law, but certain interested parties since in certain enterprises 30 per cent of the workers were foreign.
“By restricting their freedom, the Rumanian Jews have fewer rights in their own country than foreigners despite the fact the Constitution and the peace treaties do not allow discrimination regarding the holiest rights of a man to work.
“The father of Great Rumania declared that discrimination endangers the State. The Council of Rumanian Jews takes the liberty of reminding Your Majesty of the time when Jews were not Rumanian citizens and Carol I was presented with a bill providing for an ethnical proportion, but His Majesty intervened, demanding for Rumanian citizens, and Rumanian subjects–namely Jews–equal rights in this country.
“Your grandfather, Ferdinand III, the Unifier, expressed similar sentiments. We hope Your Majesty will not allow the Jewish population, which shed blood to help build the Great Rumania, to be put in a worse position than when they enjoyed no citizenship rights.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
