Jewish editors of the Rumanian Section of Radio Free Europe (RFE) in Munich have received anonymous threatening letters, and two RFE employes there, Jacob Popper and Edgar Rafael, claim there is a link between the letters, deportation proceedings against accused Nazi war criminal Archbishop Valerian Trifa, and allegations of anti-Semitism within the Rumanian Department of RFE.
A copy of a letter written in Rumanian to Popper, program editor, was forwarded to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency with the following translation: “Stinking Zhid I For our Archbishop, it’s you and your ‘havra’ who will have to pay I The Legion lived, lives and will live. I” The signature is “The Death Squad, ‘Mota and Marin’.” According to Popper and Rafael, six of their Jewish colleagues also received the letter, and the letter is believed to be related to RFE’s broadcast of interviews with Trifa in May.
Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D. NY), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has been investigating circumstances that led to the broadcasts. According to a spokesman in her office, it has been extremely difficult to uncover the facts and the investigation is still in progress.
TRIFA HEARING POSTPONED
Trifa, of Grass Lake, Michigan, faces denaturalization hearings within the next 60 days. He is accused of playing a leading role in the January 1941 Bucharest pogrom. As president of the National Union of Christian Rumanian Students, the youth arm of the fascist Rumanian Iron Guard, he allegedly committed atrocities that resulted in the murder of some 1200 to 12,000 Jews.
Trifa’s hearing had been scheduled for July 30, but the government requested and received a 60-day continuance. Rumania, currently seeking most favored nation status, has indicated its willingness to cooperate with U.S. efforts to obtain further evidence there, according to a Justice Department official.
In June, Noel Bernard, director of the Rumanian Department for RFE, met with Holtzman and with Dr. Charles Kremer of New York to discuss Trifa’s RFE broadcasts. Kremer, 82, has been seeking justice for Trifa for over 20 years.
Trifa, head of the Orthodox Episcopate Church of America, had been interviewed on RFE on May I for 45 minutes by Liviu Floda, using the pseudonym “Brancusi,” a Rumanian Jew who has worked for RFE for many years. The subject of Trifa’s discussion was the 50th anniversary of the Rumanian Missionary Episcopate Church of America.
This church is under the aegis of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople and Trifa’s church, founded in 1952, is under the aegis of the Russian Orthodox Church of Moscow. RFE’s choice of Trifa came under fire not only because he is an alleged Iron Guardist facing denaturalization proceedings, but also because his church was not celebrating the anniversary he was discussing, according to Kremer.
As a result of his meeting with Bernard, Kremer told JTA he was promised that RFE would report the facts of Trifa’s past and present, apologize for the “erroneous report,” give him equal time on RFE to “speak the facts of Trifa’s past,” and interview Bishop Victorin Ursache, head of the Rumanian Missionary Episcopate Church of America. A spokesman for Holtzman confirmed that she was given these same general assurances by Bernard.
In a letter to Kremer, dated June 20, Bernard said that he had met with Holtzman and her staff, and that “Both Mr. (William) Buetl, senior vice president of RFE and myself assured them that this organization has no interest whatsoever in protecting Bishop Trifa from whatever may be coming to him.” Buell told the JTA in a telephone interview that he was not aware of Bernard’s promises to Kremer. He said that while some of the promises “seem reasonable,” Bernard could not make some of them because “he is not in a position to do so.”
Meanwhile, Kremer has asked Holtzman to investigate why, after more than two months, Bernard has not fulfilled these promises. “Since RFE is funded by Congress and you’ve done more than anyone in Congress on this issue, I appeal to you to see that Bernard lives up to his words,” Kremer said in a letter to the Congresswoman.
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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.
