CAROL IANCU – Romanian Jews CONTENTS PREFACE BY PIERRE GUIRAL ix FOREWORD xi INTRODUCTION 1 ONE: DESTINY OF THE JEWS BEFORE 1866 1. Geopolitical Development of Romania 13 2. Origin of the Jews and Their Situation Under the Native Princes 18 3. The Phanariot Regime and the Jews 21 4. The Organic Law and the Beginnings of Legal Anti-Semitism 24 5. 1848: Illusive Promises 27 6. The Jews During the Rebirth of the State (1856-1866) 30 TWO: THE JEWISH PROBLEM BECOMES OFFICIAL 1. Article 7 of the Constitution of 1866 37 2. Bratianu's Circulars and the Consequences Thereof 40 3. Adolphe Crémieux, The Alliance, and Émile Picot 44 4. Sir Moses Montefiore Visits Bucharest 46 THREE: PERSECUTIONS AND INTERVENTIONS (1868-1878) 1. The Disturbances of 1868 and the Draft Law of the Thirty-One and the Great Powers 49 2. The Circulars of Kogalniceanu and Their Consequences 55 3. Riots and Discriminatory Laws 57 4. Bejamin Peixotto's Mission 61 FOUR: FACTORS IN THE RISE OF ANTI-SEMITISM 1. The Religious Factor 68 2. The Economic Factor 70 3. The Political Factor 72 4. The Xenophobic Factor 74 FIVE: PORTRAIT OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY 1. Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews: Clothing, Language, Names, Habitat, Occupations 77 2. Demographic Evolution 82 3. Disorganization of Community Life 84 4. Isolation and Integration 85 SIX: THE CONGRESS OF BERLIN AND NON-EMANCIPATION 1. Romania and the Jews in the Wings of the Berlin Congress 90 2. Article 44 of the Berlin Treaty 92 3. Emancipation or Naturalization? 94 4. The New Article 7 of the Constitution and Recognition of Romanian Independence 105 SEVEN: ANTI-SEMITIC LEGISLATION 1. A System of "Government Rotation" 110 2. Naturalization Policy 112 3. Military Laws 114 4. School Laws 117 5. Laws on Liberal and Economic Professions 120 6. Expulsions 124 EIGHT: THE ANTI-SEMITIC MOVEMENT: IDEOLOGY AND MANIFESTATIONS 1. The Ideological Platform Anti-Semitic Speeches in Parliament 127 The Pamphlets of I. Slavici and D. Rossetti-Tetcanu131 The Theoreticians: V. Conta, M. Eminescu, A.C. Cuza 132 2. Anti-Semitic Organizations 138 The Romanian-European Anti-Semitic Convention of 1886 139 The Anti-Semitic Alliance (1895) 140 The Disturbances of 1897 and 1899 144 The Nationalist-Democratic Party 147 3. The Peasant Revolt of 1907 150 4. The Psychological Factor 152 5. Romanian Intellectuals Opposed to Anti-Semitism 153 NINE: THE JEWISH REACTION: ASSIMILATION OR PARTICULARIZATION? 1. Socio-Economic Changes 158 2. The Socialist Ideal 160 3. The Zionist Revolution 164 4. Emigration 168 TEN: WAR AND THE EMANCIPATION OF THE JEWS 1. The 1913 Campaign 173 2. World War I and the Jews 176 3. Emancipation of the Jews 178 CONCLUSION 183 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 186 PREFACE As far as one goes back into the history of the Jewish world, one finds more or less confirmed anti- Semitism. It was known in antiquity and was practiced in the Middle Ages. However, we must come to the twentieth century, to Hitlerism, before it acquired its quality of inexorable persecution, before the "final solution" made its appearance, that solution which spared no one, rejecting the good Jew and the converted Jew, mixing all Jews in the same gas chamber. But in spite of its dreadfulness which we do not deny, the way for Nazi anti-Semitism had been prepared in Eastern Europe and it was not by simple coincidence that Romania took the road to persecution and massacre earlier than others during the Second World War. In fact, Romania is the subject of the fine book that Mr. Carol Iancu has published under the title Jews in Romania (1866-1919): From Exclusion to Emancipation. Note the dates! We follow the Jewish minority, a large minority, through its reconquest of Romanian nationality, its self-awareness, its struggles, its victory. To a great extent, there is nothing new in this conquest: it is related to a wide movement which has not stopped since the dawn of the present era; it is part of the right of nations to self-determination which was proclaimed by the French Revolution, aided by Napoleon III and confirmed by President Wilson. But this is where the paradox or scandal appears. On the one hand, Romania, like Greece, Serbia and Bulgaria, achieved its independence through harsh fighting; it became a state, with a ruler, a beautiful capital and politicians trained in the Western manner. On the other hand, it exercised deliberate, systematic anti-Semitism coming from above, even though it met with sympathy and indulgence from below. But these two phenomena were only superficially at odds with each other. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Prevost-Paradol, whose partly Jewish origins made him quite sensitive to such threats, noted that every national movement that succeeded tended to consider, and would continue to consider, the Jew as being of a different race - a foreign element. Let us add to that the density of population in Moldavia, the resurgence of Christian anti- Semitism, the jealousy of the bourgeoisie, the ambiguous policies of the Hohenzollern ruler, the diversion of politicians who thought that anti-Semitism was the easiest way to fend off public anger and to allay discontent. And of course the intellectuals and the clergy played their part in this concert which included all instruments and where all arguments were repeated. If Mr. Iancu had restricted himself only to a precise analysis of the persecution, his book would be of genuine interest for that reason alone, but, with a wide range of diplomatic experience, he has shown that Europe, at least Western Europe, was not indifferent. France, and also Great Britain, defended the Jewish cause and we should also note the continuous generosity of Napoleon III to William Waddington, the French Plenipotentiary at the Congress of Berlin. Surprising was the beginning role of the United States, which was considerable. Above all, this refers to Benjamin Peixotto, who was appointed American Consul for the sole purpose of improving the condition of the Jews, but we believe more and more that history is made by active minorities and generous individuals. In any case, from the end of the nineteenth century, there have been two worlds facing the Jewish problem: that of Eastern and Central Europe and that of the West, a West that stretches from Paris to Cleveland. This is still a new work. Mr. lancu is the best qualified to carry it out. His knowledge of foreign languages, his lively curiosity, his feeling for humanity, both for the life of the farmer and the world of chanceries, makes him the historian worthy of this great subject. Thanks to him, a sad chapter in the history of this awakening Romania has again come to life. Of course, it is the history of a minority, but it is also the history of a country which is seeking to find its way, of a Europe which is divided, and of attitudes which we know too well had to have a sequel and an attempt at a "final solution." Pierre Guiral Director of the Center for Studies in Contemporary Political Thought University of Provence FOREWORD The present work, Jews in Romania (1866-1919): From Exclusion to Emancipation, is based, with a few changes, on my doctoral thesis, entitled "Anti-Semitism and the Emancipation of the Jews in Romania (1866-1919)," defended on June 17, 1976, at the University of Aix-en-Provence. It might seem presumptuous to say that this study is indispensable. However, it is true that it was undertaken to fill a surprising gap. In fact, although anti-Semitism - one of the most astonishing and important phenomena of modem times - has become better known in Western countries and in Russia through the works of Jules Isaac, Jacob Katz, F. Lovsky, Léon Poliakov, Hannah Arendt and Shmuel Eitinger, among others, nothing had been done in the area concerning Romania. Such an undertaking also responded to the need to make the fate of the Jews in Romania and their struggle for emancipation known, if only in part, all the more so as the Jews have been excluded almost systematically from Romanian history since the Second World War. Therefore, I have chosen to study the condition of the Jewish minority though analysis of the system of exclusion in that Carpathian country at a time that was crucial in its evolving statehood. I am aware of the emotional problems, to use the favorite term of Labrousse, arising from this subject. This is why it is appropriate to stress that, instead of following a deliberate point of view, the signs of hostility towards the Jews have been listed chronologically during moments of tension and crisis. They do not question the long tradition of tolerance by the Romanian people. The idea of writing a thesis on the Jews in Romania (1866-1919) had its origin in a paper presented to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1968, entitled "The Revolution of 1848 and the Jews in the Danubian Principalities." In fact, the conclusions drawn as a result of this report called for more detailed research regarding the timing of the apparently determinist phenomenon called anti-Semitism. As mentioned by Leon Poliakov in his history of anti-Semitism, it has been determinist for the Christian and Moslem cultures, but does not exist in the Far East. This is the paradox which had to be explained: How did it happen that the same persons who organized and directed the Revolution of 1848, who proclaimed equality in civil and political rights for their "Jewish brothers," became the promoters of official persecution against the Jews after becoming ministers and prime Xll ministers in the governments of Prince Carol? For what reasons did they later evade