Reminiscences of the King of Roumania

by Mite Kremnitz

CHAPTER VI

THE JEWISH QUESTION

The first years of Prince Charles's rule were overcast by the shadow thrown by that source of constant trouble in Eastern Europe, the Jewish Question, and by the pro-Semitic agitation in the Western Press. The bulk of the Jewish population of Roumania was settled in the Province of Moldavia, where it held mortgages on the greater part of the estates. In addition to this, as "universal providers" they almost monopolised the trade in spirits, whilst the bulk of the retail trade also lay in their hands. In times of famine and scarcity they were always ready to lend money at exorbitant rates to the heedless landowner and ignorant peasant, and thus acquired a hold over them which could not be shaken off. The bitter hatred with which the Moldavian population regarded their oppressors, and the violence caused by that feeling, were powerless to prevent the constant immigration of Jews from Poland and Southern Russia, where they experienced a far harder lot than that which awaited them in Roumania. That the anti-Semitic feeling was not wholly unjustifiable is shown by the opinion of M. Desjardins, who had ample opportunity of learning the rights and wrongs of the case. The French savant declared that the Jews were not only aliens and strangers in Roumania by their language, religion, and customs, but that they actually desired to remain so. They refused to send their children to the Roumanian schools, though entitled to do so free of expense, and besides monopolising the whole retail trade of Moldavia, they exerted a most evil influence on the progress of the country by their usury. The peasant was forced to pay up to fifty per cent. per mensem on loans, as there were no other means of raising money in times of scarcity. The Moldavian Jew was dirty and utterly neglected, and could not from any point of view be considered a desirable acquisition to the State.

The Jews of Eastern Europe in general, and of Roumania in particular, have no intention, and, for the matter of that, no inclination to stoop to handicraft or manufacture. The quicker methods of getting money appeal to them more; and they are perfectly content to live on the needs and necessities of the original inhabitants of the land, though at the same time they bitterly resent the feeling with which they and their methods of money-making are regarded. The first outbursts of racial hatred during Prince Charles's reign proved too strong for the good intentions of the Government, nor was it to be expected that the Roumanian legislature would grant the alien race further rights or further liberty than Russia or even Austria felt inclined to do.

Crémieux, the well-known politician and founder of the Alliance Israélite, interviewed the Prince on June 14, 1866, to try to obtain an alteration in the laws enabling Jews to hold land in Roumania, and, acting on the time-honoured maxim of do ut des, offered in return for this privilege a loan of £1,000,000 at a low rate of interest. The Prince informed him that the Government had already remembered the condition of the Jews in the draft of the Constitution, since the following paragraphs had been inserted: "Creed is no impediment to naturalisation in Roumania," and "So far as the Jews at present domiciled in Roumania are concerned, a special law will provide for their gradual admission as naturalised citizens." However, as soon as these proposals were laid before the Chamber, a wave of dissent swept over Moldavia, where the anti-dynastic party sought to create trouble by appealing to racial hatred. They succeeded only too well, for a riotous mob destroyed the recently completed synagogue at Bucharest in June 1866. The obnoxious paragraphs of the Constitution were withdrawn owing to the representations of the Jews themselves, who feared further excesses, if the Government persisted in them. The foreign Press eagerly seized the opportunity for spreading the report that, owing to the weakness of the Government, the paragraphs had been withdrawn in obedience to the wishes of the mob. The liberally minded Prince, to show his displeasure at the action of a section of the populace, and at the same time to prove his toleration in matters of religion, subscribed 6,000 ducats from his own purse for the restoration of the wrecked synagogue, but at the same time the Chamber, by passing the clause: "Only Christians can become Roumanian citizens," denied the Jews the possession of any political rights.

In April 1867 the Minister of the Interior, J. Bratianu, addressed a circular to all prefects, ordering them to proceed against all "vagabonds" in their districts; as, owing to the abolition of passes, the number of paupers had increased to such an extent as to add seriously to the already enormous difficulties of the Government in feeding the starving inhabitants. England, France, and Austria protested vigorously against this measure, which was chiefly directed against immigrant Jews, and the Emperor Napoleon addressed the following telegram to the Prince on this subject:

"I must not leave your Highness in ignorance of the public feeling created here by the persecutions of which the Jews of Moldavia are said to be the victims. I cannot believe that the enlightened Government of your Highness authorises measures so opposed to humanity and civilisation.

"NAPOLEON."

To which the Prince replied at once:

"Your Majesty may rest assured that I am not less solicitous for the Jewish inhabitants than your Majesty. The measures which the Government has thought necessary to take are not exceptional, and are a matter of common law. I shall, moreover, institute a severe inquiry to ascertain whether the subaltern officials have exceeded their instructions. Those guilty will be punished with all the rigour of the law.

"CHARLES."