Government statistics on the ethnic composition of the population in 1956 listed 146,000 Jews. Jewish sources outside the country estimated the size of the community in 1968 at between 80,000 and 110,000. Once an important ethnic and religious minority, the Jewish community has shrunk as a result of territorial losses, extermination during World War II, and emigration. Between 1958 and 1969 large numbers of Jews emigrated to Israel with the encouragement of the chief rabbi and the Romanian government. Many of the rabbis have emigrated with their congregations, leaving only nine rabbis to care for some seventy congregations. Most of the congregations were directed by laymen but received regular visits from one of the rabbis. The only rabbinical school in the country was closed in the 1950s. The congregations are supervised by the Federation of Jewish Communities, which is the legally recognized representative body of the Jews in Romania and is headed by the chief rabbi.
Islam is the religion of the Tatars and Turks in Dobruja. Moslems were estimated to number between 30,000 and 35,000 in the mid-1950s. Mosques, most of them built during the Turkish occupation of the area, are found throughout the region. The seat of the grand mufti, religious head of the Moslems in Romania, is at the Central Mosque in Constanta.
Unitarianism was introduced into Transylvania in the mid-sixteenth century, when a group of former Calvinists founded a Unitarian church in Cluj. The church has always been closely connected with the Hungarian minority, from which it draws most of its members. The number of adherents in the mid-1950s was estimated at 70,000. The seat of the Unitarian Church is in Cluj, which is also the location of its seminary.
Two other legally recognized churches are the Armenian-Gregorian Church and the Christians of the Old Rite. The Armenian-Gregorian Church is headed by a bishop in Bucharest, and the Christians of the Old Rite, also known as Old Catholics, by a bishop in Bukovina. Each had an estimated membership of 25,000 in the 1950s.
CHAPTER 6
EDUCATION
The Romanian educational system has been transformed to fit the communist pattern of total subordination to the needs of the state. Since 1948 the educational system has developed as a major force for increasing the general educational level of the population, for inculcating members of society with socialist ideals in support of the regime and its policies, and for providing technical specialists and skilled workers for the nation's labor force. Modifications and adjustments in the system have taken place periodically, but such changes have largely reflected a shift in emphasis among these major objectives rather than any change in basic educational principles.
Considerable progress has been made in the educational field since the end of World War II. An intensive campaign to eradicate illiteracy was undertaken and, according to the government, was successfully concluded by 1958. The number of schools was significantly increased, as were student enrollments throughout the system, although in 1972 the number of students continuing their education beyond the primary level was still proportionately low. The growth of the school structure was further indicated by the successive extension of the period of compulsory education from four years in 1948 to ten in 1968. Full enrollment under the ten-year program, however, was not expected to be achieved before 1973.