20 - 1983-1992

GENERAL
In the decade 1983–1992 the central development in Romanian life and especially in the life of the ever-dwindling Jewish community was the overthrow of the Communist regime and the attempts at introducing democracy into the country along Western lines. The change of rule did not bring in its wake any real changes in the life of the few Jews left in the country.

Over the past decade Jewish life throughout Romania continued to revolve around the synagogues and the kasher restaurants, operated by the Federation of Romanian Jewish Communities and funded by the Joint Distribution Committee. The dominating figure in Jewish life has continued to be, Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen, now in his eighties.

DEMOGRAPHY AND ALIYAH
Since the establishment of the State of Israel some 300,000 Romanian Jews have emigrated there. The more the number of Jews in Romania shrinks, the more difficult it is to obtain reliable current Jewish population figures. The Federation of Communities, whose numbers are used by the Joint, estimate that there is a total of 15,000 Jews, 8,000 of whom are in Bucharest, the capital. Timisoara (in Transylvania) and Jassy each has a community of some 900 people; all the others are scattered among a Romanian populace of 22 million people. The official 1992 government yearbook, citing statistical data from a kind of census, states that there are 9,000 Jews. It may be that not all Jews were counted or admitted to being Jewish, particularly those in mixed marriages.

After the death in 1986 of Rabbi I. M. Marilus, the dayyan of Bucharest, only two rabbis remained in Romania: Chief Rabbi Dr. Rosen, who is also the president of the Federation of Communities, and Dr. Ernest Neuman of Timisoara. The aging of the leadership as well as the emigration of a few of the leaders to Israel has thinned out their ranks, and Rabbi Rosen had to fill some positions with people who in the past were active in the communist regime and even in the Ministry of Religion, whose function was to oppress religions rather than encourage them.

ANTI-SEMITISM AND ZIONISM
In 1992, as part of his effort to reinforce religious leadership, Rabbi Rosen recruited Rabbi Dr. Asher (Georg) Ehrenfeld, a former Israeli army chaplain, to serve as the chief rabbi's deputy and assistant in Bucharest. Ehrenfeld spent about a year in Romania substituting for Rabbi Rosen during his long absences from the country.

The remnants of the Romanian Jewish community welcomed the overthrow of Ceasescu and the community journal published a special issue expressing joy at the change. In the new spirit of freedom Rabbi Rosen was the object of personal attacks by anti-Semitic groups, which accused him of close cooperation with the communist regime. Two anti-Semitic newspapers waged this campaign, which the chief rabbi saw as an attack on the entire community. Romania Mare ("Great Romania") and Europa, are weeklies publishing virulent anti-Semitic material, aiming their barbs personally at Rabbi Rosen. In 1992 Paul Everac, director of public television, published a book which also contained anti-Semitic material. He claimed, among other things, that the Jews of Romania control everything and that they number more than 30,000 (over double the real figure). Complaints lodged by Rabbi Rosen were rejected on the grounds that they were not of public interest. Rabbi Rosen managed to secure the dismissal of the anti-Semitic attorney general, Cherecheanu.

Some observers have felt that the chief rabbi has exaggerated his cries against anti-Semitism; there have been no physical attacks on Jews, aside from an attempted break-in and robbery at the Ploesti synagogue in June 1992 in which windows were broken and a parokhet torn (police in the district claimed that churches in the area had been similarly broken into), and incitement against Jews has not gone beyond the bounds accepted under Ceasescu. They claim that the outcry by Rabbi Rosen has itself fanned the flame of anti-Semitism. Some saw this as the reason for Rabbi Ehrenfeld's leaving his post at the end of a year, while others were convinced that the authorities hinted that he was non grata because of his originating in Oradea; he speaks fluent Hungarian and previously served as the rabbi of Debrecen, Hungary. Considering the ethnic tension between Hungary and Romania, this is a likely reason.

There is no Zionism in Romania in the commonly accepted meaning. In the early 1990 attempts were made to organize a branch of the Maccabi sport organization and after the overthrow of Ceasescu, a Romania-Israel Friendship League was established, led by the writer Victor Berlianu. The Jewish Agency emissary in Romania, Tova Ben-Nun, deals with arrangements for aliyah; there are no Zionist youth organizations and Romania is the only country in Eastern Europe—at least in the past few years—which sends no representative to participate in the International Bible Contest for Jewish Youth, held on Independence Day in Jerusalem.

THE PRESIDENT IN THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE
In order to quash the harsh complaints about active anti-Semitism, President Iliescu has invested effort, internally and externally, to placate Chief Rabbi Rosen. In 1993 he took the rabbi with him to the opening of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and before that participated in a memorial service for Holocaust victims held in the Bucharest Choral Synagogue, where Iliescu spoke and condemned anti-Semitism.

This seemed to put a stop to the decline in the status of the chief rabbi, who for many over the past 40 years—and to a certain extent correctly—symbolized Romanian Jewry. However, the rabbi's repeated efforts to exploit his international connections in order to insure for Romania a most-favored-nation standing from the U.S. for foreign trade have led nowhere.

THE JOINT'S REARGUARD ACTION
Upon the emigration to Israel of Rabbi Wasserman of Dorhoi, the home for the aged and the kasher restaurant there were closed. Otherwise, all the institutions, restaurants, and homes for the aged are still in operation—10 restaurants and 4 homes (2 in Bucharest, and 2 smaller ones in Arad and Timisoara). Needy Jews receive packages of food and clothing. All this activity is financed by the JDC, fighting a rearguard action to maintain the few remaining Romanian Jews. The situation of the elderly has worsened considerably as their pension's value has eroded to nothing because of inflation, and without the Joint's help they would be starving. The Joint did curtail its budget for Romania with the decline in Jewish population but still finances the ritual slaughterers (three remain), and is prepared to pay the salary for a rabbi if Rabbi Rosen finds a replacement for Rabbi Ehrenfeld. The biweekly paper Revista, edited by Chaim Riemer, still appears in four languages. A selection of sermons by Rabbi Rosen has appeared and work is progressing on a book of testimonies which will document the Holocaust of Romanian Jewry.

In an attempt to bring a fresh spirit to the leadership of the communities, Osias Lazar was appointed head of the Bucharest community, while elderly Theodore (Tuvia) Blumenfeld continues to serve as the general secretary of the Federation of Communities. The federation is actually directed by Rabbi Rosen's adviser and confidant, Julian Sorin. Sorin was previously a senior official in the communist Ministry of Religions.

Since Ceasescu's overthrow, a few communities in the provinces—and especially in Transylvania—have tried "to declare independence"; to establish links with other countries and mainly with emigrMs from those communities now living in Israel, and even to sell property, without the Federation's approval, an act that was unthinkable during the centralized communist regime. This has created tension between the communities and the chief rabbi, with repercussions even reaching Israel.

Jewish education is almost non-existent. A third of the Jews, whose very number is indeterminate, are involved in mixed marriages, and the majority of the community consists of elderly people whose children and grandchildren live in Israel. Choirs and talmudei Torah outside of Bucharest are dwindling along with the Jewish population. Bucharest has been able to maintain its successful choir and a Talmud Torah which dozens of children attend on Sundays.

Romania lost its special status regarding relations with Israel, since it is no longer the only Eastern bloc country to have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. Relations continued to be normal and friendly, with efforts at increasing bilateral trade for which Romania does not have much to offer. Israeli tourism to Romania dropped off.

[Naftali Kraus]

Source:
[N.Kr.]
www.heritagefilms.com

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* Historia: Rumania