State Dept. is Asked to Convey Jewish Thanks to Rumania for Legalizing Stateless Jews

The State Department was asked today by Lessing J. Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, to transmit to the Rumanian Government the Council’s “congratulations and good wishes” on its decree restoring citizenship to stateless Jews.”

Emphasizing that this policy of the Rumanian Government” is completely in accord with the true spirit of democracy and the Four Freedoms,” Mr. Rosenwald, in a telegram to Secretary of State Byrnes asked the State Department to express “in behalf of Americans of Jewish faith associated in the American Council for Judaism, our confident conviction that the application of this policy will make for the solution of the problems of the Jews in Rumania and for the cultural, economic and social enrichment of the entire country.”

Expressing “great elation” over the decree which restores citizenship to stateless people in Rumania and assures all in Rumania of the right to the free profession of creed and mother tongue, Mr. Rosenwald says in his telegram to the State Secretary: “To the Jews of Rumania this decree means that they will no longer be considered a foreign national minority but will be equal citizens differing from their fellow citizens only in their religious faith. They will be Rumanians of Jewish faith as we in this country are Americans of Jewish faith.

“This is a signal and highly significant step forward in the attainment of democracy in Rumania and in the full emancipation of all its people,” the message continues. “The action of the Rumanian government, as reported, deserves to be a model for all countries in which there has been created a Jewish problem on the assumption of a separate Jewish nationality. In place of that divisive assumption, the announced policy of the Rumanian government is based on the concept of Jews as adherents of a great religion that is an integral part of the Judaeo-Christian tradition of the Western World.”