Rumania’s Stand

The Calle Victoria in Bucharest — the street where the Royal Palace is located — was picked out by anti-Semitic students in Rumania last Saturday for anti-Jewish demonstrations. Mobilizing their forces in front of the King’s Palace, the students shouted anti-Semitic slogans and smashed the windows of a neighboring Jewish restaurant.

Anti-Semitic propaganda is now officially prohibited in Rumania. Since the assassination of Minister Duca, the existing anti-Semitic Iron Guard organization has been declared illegal. The assassination has made the Rumanian government realize that the anti-Semitic movement is something directed not only against the Jews, but also against the liberal non-Jewish forces of the country.

The fact that the anti-Semitic demonstration in front of the Royal Palace was immediately dispersed by police proves again the old theory that wherever a government wishes to suppress anti-Jewish disturbances, it is always in a position to do so. Thus, wherever these anti-Semitic disturbances are not suppressed, the government must be blamed for them.

There was a time when the anti-Semitism raging in Rumania surpassed that in Poland. This time has changed. In Rumania anti-Semitism is being checked, while in Poland it rages freely. In Rumania the government does everything possible to prevent the anti – Semitic organizations from coming to the surface, while in Poland the government flirts with the dissolved anti-Semitic Nara party and legalizes this group under a new name.

It is not a pleasant mission always to call attention to the fact that in certain countries anti-Semitism is constantly being encouraged by the government. It is much more pleasant to emphasize the fact that in other countries governments are taking the interests of their Jewish citizens into consideration. The fact that we can emphasize that in Rumania the Jews have recently been more or less protected from anti-Semitic attacks should be taken by the governments of other countries as the best proof that the Jews are only too glad to give credit to those who deserve it.