Jewish Representatives Laud Premier Jorga on His 60th. Birthday at Formal Parliament Session

Deputy Theodore Fischer, the leader of the Jewish Club of Deputies, spoke to-day at the formal session of the Chamber held in celebration of the 60th. birthday of the Prime Minister, Professor Jorga, together with the leaders of the other groups in Parliament, praising Professor Jorga as a man and a statesman.

In the Senate, Senator Chief Rabbi Dr. Niemirover spoke in a similar strain on behalf of the Jewish population, in praise of the “wise legislator who is now the head of the Government”.

The decision of the Parliament invalidating the Mandates of the Communist Deputies who were returned in the elections, made it seem likely that the Jewish Party would be strengthened by another Deputy, in the person of Dr. Manfred Reifer, but at the last moment a change was made, and the place which might have fallen to Dr. Reifer went to a representative of Dr. Lupu’s Independent Peasants’ Party.

We do not place any great hopes in the present Parliament, Deputy Michael Landau, one of the members of the Jewish Club of Deputies, writes in an editorial in “Unzer Zeit” of Kishineff, of which he is the editor. We know well, he said, that the present Parliament will try to push into the background all those questions which relate to the satisfaction of the Jewish demands, putting up the vital questions of the country as whole to counter them. Nevertheless, we must draw attention to several of our demands which are of an urgent character, which must be put on to the agenda and fought to a successful conclusion. We have been fighting for years to bring about a change in the existing citizenship law, which is a great calamity to us Jews. Not only people whose citizenship rights are in doubt, but thousands upon thousands of people who were born in the country, children who were minors and whose rights were neglected by their parents are now victims of the law, condemned to be Staatenlose. The spectre of deportation looms over them. They have nothing to show that they are Roumanian citizens, and the Jewish Deputies must keep ceaseless vigil to prevent these unfortunates being expelled from the country, with no other country to which they can go.

Another question, equally important is that of amending the present school system, with regard to the regulation of the rights and duties of the private schools, which at present form the largest part of our Jewish educational system. We shall have to wage our fight for our rights also as a national minority, since the form of our school system depends on this recognition. The Government is obliged, under the Roumanian Law and the Minorities Treaties to provide schools in our language numbers. The Government, already knows our numbers in each place, because the results of the recent census are now in its hands. Another matter for which we must fight is the economic reconstruction of the Jewish masses. We must put all emphasis on this matter, for our merchants, our land workers and our intellectuals are all, without exception, economically ruined. Other questions for which we must fight are the preservation of order in the country, putting down active antisemitism, and assuring peaceful co-operation between all the nationalities in the country.