Kumania Reported Ready for Cooperation with Jewish Groups Abroad

Chief Rabbi Moshe Rosen, of Rumania, who is also a deputy in the Rumanian National Assembly, where he represents the country’s Jewish community, declared here today that his country is ready for close cooperation with international, Jewish organizations. He also appealed to the World Jewish Congress–whose executive committee session he is attending here as an observer–to help his community in the Jewish educational and religious fields.

Speaking in Yiddish, the Rumanian Jewish leader told the 100 WJC delegates from 30 countries attending the session, which opened yesterday, that “the divisions created by the cold war have now come to an end.” “The world,” he stated, “is no longer divided into two opposite camps. Thus, the Jewish world, always the victim of international tension, is now ready for fruitful cooperation in the cultural and religious fields. We are ready to receive from you Jewish educationalists, teachers and rabbis.”

He warned, however, that practical details for such close, intercommoned cooperation will have to be worked out in negotiations. Presenting a short survey of the situation of Rumanian Jews, Rabbi Rosen said his community now numbers about 110,000. The figure, he said, is not precise, but comes from calculations based on per capita matzon consumption during the last year, at the rate of about three pounds per person.

Synagogues and smaller houses of worship, he reported, are now functioning throughout Rumania and serve 100 Jewish communities. Their principal lack, he stated, is rabbis and spiritual leaders, and thus he was appealing to world Jewry, through the WJC, for aid in that direction. “Help us,” he pleaded. “Help us religiously and culturally. The time has come for closer cooperation between us.” He also reported that the Jewish community, which used to have only a monthly magazine, now has a fortnightly publication with a readership numbering 30,000.

Rabbi Rosen praised the Rumanian Government for assisting the Jewish religious community. “I do not want to make publicity or propaganda for the Rumanian Government,” he declared, “but the truth must be told. There is no religious persecution in my country. Jews are free to worship and to practice their religious rites. The Government contributes funds for the upkeep of the rabbinate and for ritual slaughter.”

Dr. Max Nussbaum, of Hollywood, former president of the Zionist Organization of America, who conferred a week ago in Germany with leaders of the Bonn Government, reported that Germany’s Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, who favors normalization of relations between his country and Israel, “still feels the full weight of Germany’s moral debt to the Jewish people.”