Trudy Gold
The Jews of Romania

Trudy Gold - The Jews of Romania

- [Trudy] We are now beginning a two week exploration of the Jews of Romania. Now, before that, before I get onto that, I just want to talk a little bit about the whole sweep of Jewish history. What is obvious is since the diaspora, Jews have had to try and survive in other people’s lands, depending on the kind of circumstances they found themselves in, depending on the kind of rulers they had, and quite often they were the buffer between the peasantry and the landowners. And the further east you went, the more likely that was because the less education there was. And the other issue, of course, is the power of the Christian Church. And when you are dealing with Romania and the old provinces of Wallachia, Transylvania, and it’s important to remember that the bordering Hungary, of course, that the dominant religion of Romania is Orthodoxy. Today, 80% of the population are Orthodox Christians. And it’s fascinating. I remember when I first went to Bucharest, which wasn’t long after communism collapsed, something on a Sunday, 80% of the population in what was quite a sophisticated city went to church. And other groups that are now there in Romania, the Catholics, and of course think Hungary, there’s a small section of Muslims because at one stage, the provinces were under the control of Islam. There are Protestants who are both Calvinists and Luther. And today there are about between seven and 8,000 Jews. There once were in 1934, they were 700,000 Jews. So what is the story of the Jews of Romania? And by going from country to country, does it help us try and weave out the whole destiny of the Jewish people? Because to me, to a large extent, despite the horror that the Jews have faced, I still think it’s one of extraordinary survival.

I mean, of course this week is Holocaust Memorial Week. On Friday is the day that the countries of Europe in the main commemorate. And of course I will be interviewing Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, one of the few survivors of Auschwitz, who was an adult when she was liberated, to talk to her about the place of the Shoah in the Jewish world today. So, but going back to my original point, what we are looking at from country to country to country is how these people survived, how they honed their survival genes, and what happened to them. So let’s have a look at the first map, if you don’t mind, Lauren. Yeah. Because of course it all begins for the Jews with Roman Dacia. This, of course, was a Roman colony called Dacia. And you can see that part of the world where it was, and this after the expulsion from Judea, when the Romans renamed it Palestrina after the Philistines, Jews spread throughout the old Roman Empire. Now, there was a diaspora before the exile from Rome, which is another interesting aspect for Jewish history, but not for today. And this territory in Dacia, Jews might well have come as merchants or in other capacities with the Roman legions that were garrisoned there from 101 of the common era. They found Jewish tombstones in this area, so we know that Jewish presence in the area that later becomes known as Romania, goes back a long, long time. And then of course, the problem with this kind of ancient history is that we don’t have enough sources. But let’s come to the next map, please. Here you see, of course, the extraordinary kingdom of Khazaria and Khazaria did dominate quite a lot of this territory for a while.

Also, as far as the Jewish community was concerned, it was close enough to Byzantium for Jews to be able to live a Jewish life. Now, those of you who know about Khazaria will know that it was a kingdom in the Crimea that may or may not have converted to Judaism entirely, or was it just the ruling class? And there’s a fascinating book by Arthur Koestler called “The 13th Tribe”. I, myself, don’t give much credence to it because his contention is that the majority of Eastern European Jews are descended from the Khazars. That doesn’t actually work for all sorts of reasons. But there was this fascinating phenomenon. So another, we also know that another wave of Jews spread through Wallachia after they’d been expelled from Hungary in 1367. And now we come to one of the biggest problems that face the Jews, the rise of Christianity. By 1367, the last Christian power in Europe, the last power in Europe to be Christianized was Lithuania. Lithuania was the last, the Church had swept through all these countries. There’s already a split between the Roman Catholic Church based in Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy, but they are Christian kingdoms. And unfortunately, and this is one of the real bug bears of Jewish history and something that I’m going to explore in a lot more detail when we begin Germany. I want to put an idea to you, and it’s quite a strong, complex idea because I think it’s important to try and understand what it was that marked Jewish history. And we have a real problem because Christianity, and I’m sure that for practising Christians listening today, Christianity is a religion of morality. It’s a religion of love. Now, having said that, unfortunately in its foundation myth is the notion of the deicide. And it doesn’t take much imagination.

All you have to read is the gospels or the church’s fathers to find out that Jesus is totally de-Judafised. So is his mother. And by the time it becomes the religion of Rome, the Jews are singled out as the enemy, the killers of Jesus. It’s deicide, it’s the greatest crime in history. So in order to kind of understand the horror of the Jews, for many of these peoples who adopt Christianity, but they come, they are relatively uneducated, particularly in areas like this, where probably the only person in the village who could read would be the priest. And in the churches, if you think of the churches, the imagery, the Easter imagery, the Jewish Christ killer. The fact that the Hebrew Bible is called the Old Testament, The fact that what has happened is the Old Testament is there merely to announce the coming of the Christian Messiah. So that is the backdrop that we really have to take on in order to understand the role of the Jews, particularly in the East, in these kind of societies. Now, so Jews are expelled from Hungary in 1367. There had been a plague. In 1348 was a really, really bad year. It was the year of the Black Death. It lasted from 1348 to 1354. Something like a third of the population of Europe died of the Black Death. And of course, in the end, who was blamed? Do we always need a scapegoat? We don’t know the real facts. Some scholars have suggested that because of the laws of ritual purity, Jewish communities were not attacked as much as the non-Jewish communities. However, what happens is, the people, and it must have been one of the most terrible situations imaginable. Can you imagine to the primitive mind, the Black Death? No idea of medical science, what on earth has caused this terrible calamity? And it led to extremism of every kind. And tragically, the Jews are blamed for it. And there are riots, there are expulsions, and horrible murders.

And there’s another plague in Hungary in 1367. And Jews fleeing from Hungary flee into Wallachia. Now, at this stage, Romania doesn’t exist as a central unit. It is Wallachia, Moldova, and later Transylvania. So, can we go on, please? I just wanted to give you a notion because something else that we often forget when we think about these lands, is just how beautiful they are. I’ve had the privilege of travelling in many of these areas, and honestly, it is wondrous. The castle in the corner, by the way, is Bran Castle. The castle, of course, that is ascribed to Dracula in the legends and myths. But of course it isn’t. But it just gives you a notion, also that riverview, just how desperately beautiful the geography, the actual land is. It’s wondrous. Anyway, the next wave of Jews is actually refugees from the Iberian Peninsula. Think Spain, think the expulsions from Spain in 1492, 1497 from Portugal, Marriage Treaty between… I always find this fascinating, so I often tell you this. The Jew hatred is so much that when the daughter of the King of Spain marries the King of Portugal, written into the marriage treaty is the expulsion. And as you know, many Jews had converted to Christianity and stayed behind. They became known as the Conversos. They were under the, unfortunately, under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, and many of them fled. And we know that refugees from the Iberian Peninsula actually flee to this land. And many of them, that is interesting, because at the Wallachian court, they served as diplomats, they serve as physicians. Because if you think about Iberia, think about the great Muslim tradition of scholarship in the Iberian Peninsula, where for centuries, Jews and Muslims had worked together. Now, these people expelled from Spain, as were the Moriscos.

They find refuge in courts, they have languages, they’re useful as diplomats, they’re useful as translators. And another point, Romania is important on the trade route. How did Jews live at this time? And this is, again, the balance which comes up so often. Sometime we’re going to have to pull the whole picture together. And what is the balance? The secular ruler, who wants to control his kingdom, who needs a good firm economy, and the Church that considers the Jews the evil ones. Now, the Church doesn’t want to destroy the Jews. I have to say this carefully. There’s no move from the papacy or the Grand Metropolitan to actually murder the Jews. But there’s so much hatred in gender that it quite often comes from the lesser clergy and the peasantry who are whipped up. So you’ve got this incredible tension between the rulers who find the Jews useful and the power of the Church. And the power of the Church is very important because of the notion that after death, your sins are weighed up. And the whole notion of purgatory, even a king can be excommunicated, which meant that he could never, ever enter the kingdom of heaven. So in a world where outwardly, everybody was religious, it’s quite extraordinary. And what it had done, it had excluded the Jews from most normal trades and occupations. Why? Because of the Christian guilds. So you have a situation where Jews are traders, they are money lenders. As traders, they’re very, very useful. Think about it. Not only are they useful, they’re well suited to it. Those of you who heard me lecture on the Radhanites, you know, those extraordinary merchants who ran the trade route through India and China. Think about it. There are Jewish communities in every country.

They can communicate with each other, they can trade with each other. So consequently, the Jews, if you like, live in this nether world where they have to learn to survive through skill. And they’re there because they’re useful to the ruler. So, and we know that some of them became very, very important. So what you have, we know that Jewish merchants were travelling through Moldova, which is, of course, the second Romanian principality in the Northeast. And they’re also found in the middle of the 14th century in a town called Iassy. I’ve always called it Jassy, but it’s I-A-S-S-Y. We also find Jews in Surat. We begin to see settled… We have documents, Documents of a settled community. What does that mean? It means they would’ve had a house of worship. It would’ve meant that they would’ve had a burial ground and that they would somehow have lived a Jewish life. Now, so another wave of immigration follows the horror of 1648, which I mentioned to you when I was talking about Albania. When the Ukrainian Cossacks attempted to break away from the Polish Crown, you know, it is very important. One of the problems we always have when we’re studying Jewish history is how much history of the world do you need? Important to remember. And we’ve already discussed this with Lithuania.

Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine were one country. 1648, the Polish Crown was very weak. And the Ukrainian Cossacks on the Bohdan Khmelnytsky go on the rampage. And it’s the deluge. They murder about a hundred thousand Jews according to Nathan of Hanover. But they are Orthodox Christians. They also murder Catholics. They murder Catholic priests and they also murder landowners. So during this horror, Jews, of course, were looking for a messiah. And you come to that strange case of Sabbatai Zevi and I’m pleased to tell you that another colleague of mine, Mark Levine, will be coming in and talking about this and the Jews of Solanica later on in the course. So, what then happens is Jews fleeing persecution from that terrible period, they come in. And we know that from the beginning of the 18th century, Moldovan rulers granted special charters to attract Jewish settlement. It’s not a very well populated land. And they even offered tax exemptions for Jews who were already living in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. And they gave them land for cemeteries. They offered them land for mikvah. So these are the aristocrats, the king and also his war lords. You’ve got to get a picture of what it was really like in Eastern Europe at this period. They are also invited to establish some sort of trade and commerce in war ravaged towns. You know, this area is constantly fought over. Think where it is. Think of the Ottoman Empire. Think of the Hapsburg Empire. Think of the rise of the Russian Empire. And it’s squeezed between. Of course you all know that fascinating comment. I believed it was Disraeli, but a colleague of mine tells me it was actually Peel.

Maybe someone can find out for us. My story is that when Prince Albert died, Disraeli sent Queen Victoria a very creepy letter. This is true. And evidently, when asked to see the Queen, he went over the top, as he always did, about Prince Albert. And he said, “There are only two people in Europe who now understand the Balkans. And one of them is dead.” But what you do need to know, the whole issue of the Balkans is so complex and it’s going to become even more complicated as the Turkish Empire goes into decline. So against the backdrop, the squeezing of empires, secular rulers trying to build up their economy and the hatred of the peasantry in the Church, the Jews are having to survive. They have to hone their survival genes. So what they are encouraged to do, and this is very important, they’re actually encouraged by the boyar class, the landowning class, these warlords, to establish commercial centres, bergs, as it were, and they’re even offered seats on town councils and to try and encourage settlement into Moldovia and into Wallachia. So it’s absolutely fascinating and, of course, bearing in mind that they’re living in a very kind of frightening world of lots of conflicting empires.

What then happens is that when Bukovina is taken by Austria in 1775, Bessarabia is taken by Russia in 1812, and Jews from these territories preferred to move into remaining Moldova where they had family businesses and connections, and they weren’t harassed by the authorities. So it became a kind of place to go. And we know the kind of trades they were involved in. Again, it’s trades. They are the middlemen between the peasantry and the aristocrats. The middlemen between the peasantry and getting the goods out of the country and the markets abroad. So what did they trade in? They trade in corn. Eastern Europe is so rich, it should be rich because the soil is so fertile. They traded in leather goods, they traded in cattle. Now, some of them were farriers, depends where the guilds were. They were farriers. Think about forest lands, the furs coming in. Some of them became tailors. They were boot makers, they were tinsmiths. They were watchmakers. Many of the trades and professions that they later brought to the West, because of course, certainly from about the 1870s onwards, you’re going to see a huge outpouring of Eastern European Jews and Romanian Jews. So that’s important. And they’ve already acquired the skills. One of the other components of anti-Jewish feeling actually was commercial competition because German traders are also invited in. Now in 1579, can we move to the next slide, please?

This is Peter Schiopul. He’s the sovereign of, Petro, I should say, of Moldavia. That means Peter the Lame. He was actually, because there was such a problem, I’m just going back a bit, with the traders, he actually ordered the banishment because he said the Jews are ruining the merchants. But ironically, in the basin, in the Danube Basin, it was the Greek and the Bulgarian merchants who most incited against the Jews. And anti-Jewish excesses unfortunately in neighbouring countries, often spilled into Romania. Because think where we are place. Think where we are placed. You have the world of Islam, you have the world of Catholicism, you have the world of Orthodoxy. Who are the non-Christians? Who are the guilty ones? It’s the Jews. And again, you go back to that notion. Does every society need a scapegoat? And that is really something for you to make your minds up. Does every society need a scapegoat? Now, the first we begin to see as society becomes more educated, it doesn’t lessen the Jew hatred. Ironically, and a study of Nazism should teach you, that many of the top Nazis had huge education. Education is no bar to prejudice. So we know that physicians were the only Jews who were accepted of witnesses at trials. Every other Jew had a very humiliating oath that they had to sign. Let’s say someone had committed an offence against a Jew, it was very, very difficult to get justice. But the first books of anti-Jewish incitement, which were religious, it’s “The Golden Order” of Jassy in 1771, “The Challenge to the Jews”.

Now, moving on, can we move on, please? Can we go to the next slide, please? Okay, I just wanted to show you Iassy. It’s such a beautiful city. And tragically in 1640 and 1648, there was a terrible incident when the Cossacks went on the rampage in the town and it was a period of horror for the Jews. But I wanted you to also to see just how beautiful this part of the world is. Now, moving on the 1821, this is the beginnings of the stirrings of all kinds of independence movements. Wallachia and Moldova are still in theory under the Ottoman Turks, but the Ottoman Turkish Empire is falling apart. It’s the sick man of Europe. And one of the problems with English policy, the English and the French wanted very much to bolster up the sick man of Europe against the increasing threat to Russia. Now, you begin to see the first stirrings of your Romanian nationalism. Now, where does this come from? Think French Revolution, think ideas, think the beginnings of middle class, think the beginning of more learning. And also what is going on in Europe? The revolution in France, the revolution in America. What stirs everything up, of course, is also the invention of the penny post.

Also the invention of better means of transport. If you’d been born in Iassy in 1648, how far do you think you would’ve travelled in your lifetime? But think within 150 years, how everything is going to change against the backdrop of the beginnings of the railway networks, the beginnings of modernity. The beginnings of real modernity and industrialization in a country that is still great forests, great lakes, and still quite a tribal primitive country with a landowning class. But you have the stirrings because of the war of Greek independence. And of course the Greeks, who do they rebel against? In English history, it’s famous because of course, Lord Byron, the great Romantic poet, died fighting for the Greeks. And in the course of the rebellion against the Turks, Greek volunteers crossed Moldova and went up to the Danube and tragically they actually murdered the Jews as they went on their way. Then between 1819 and 1834, Moldavia and Wallachia are occupied by Russia. They have a unified constitution from 1835 to 1856. So, now that these principalities are part of Russia, I don’t need to tell you who is on the throne. It’s Nicholas I, one of the most autocratic, the least bending of all the czars, who was violently anti-Semitic. And basically what comes out in the literature, Jews are the exploiters of the Christian population, and the Russians forbid the Jews to settle in villages, to lease land, and to establish factories. In those areas controlled by the Russians, it becomes more and more horrific. And of course, the corrupt Romanian administration used the opportunity to either take bribes from Jews. Because one of the problems with Russia, it was far too vast to manage.

So in the provinces you would have a lot of corruption. So they would also force Jews to give them money to be allowed to have a sort of any livelihood. And in the new provisions, the authorities were given the rights to determine which Jews were useful in the country, and who were vagrants and had to be expelled. Now, I’m going to tell you a little bit about the communal institutions. In 1719, somebody called the Hakham Bashi was appointed by the sultan. He’s in charge of the Jewish community in Wallachia and Moldova. Now the Hakham Bashi resided in Iassy and he had a representative in Bucharest as well. So he is in Moldova, but he has his representative in Bucharest. It’s a hereditary right, which is always a problem. It went from father to son. They were responsible for collecting the taxes. One of the issues, and I think in a way, it’s had a very interesting side effect. Even today, Jewish communal organisations take responsibility for the communities, do they not? And it goes back to this period of history. The same thing is happening in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, going back to the Council of Four Lands. With the Hakham Bashi, the Jewish community, they would decide what each family could award to the central pot. They would have to pay taxes to the ruler for his protection. But also, it meant that what they could do, they would pay the money for religious ceremonial artefacts, they would make sure that the burial ground was kept up, the chevra kadisha, they would look after the orphans.

So on one level it’s social awareness. On another level, it is also making sure that money is paid to the representatives of the ruling classes. Now, the problem is what is it about the Jews? The growing Russian and Galatian population, which is now coming in after Russia takes on the protectorates, they regarded the whole notion of a Hakham Bashi was totally foreign to them. This is a Sephardic tradition. And many of them will have become Hasidic and who led the Hasidic community? The tzadik. So against the backdrop of a tough life they’re living anyway, there’s a huge amount of infighting in the Jewish community. I sometimes wonder what we could achieve if only we united over serious matters. Now so what it did, in the Prince of Moldova actually decided that the Hakham Bashi could only have jurisdiction over the native Jews, not those who are coming in from the Russian Empire. But by 1834 there was so much internal strife that it was abolished. And what was established was a Jews Guild. It was 32 different guilds were set up according to nationality. So for the Armenians there was a guild, for the Greeks, there was a guild, and also for certain professions. And they had to ensure that tax collection was duly carried out properly. And if it was not proper, then everyone in the guild would suffer. So for the Jews, it becomes, if you like, the legal body of the community. So again, it covers the expenses of the community. So against the backdrop, nevertheless, you have a Jewish life that is really going on. And something else that is often forgotten about Romania, it later becomes the home of the Yiddish theatre. Now the centre of the guild was in Iassy and it had what was called the Rosh Medina.

And later on, unfortunately all these ideas are going to be thrown away. And collective tax was then enforced directly by the government and the functions devolved on the various prayer houses and the guilds. So you do have though, what I wanted to get over to you, you still had a vibrant Jewish life. Okay. 1848, revolutions break out throughout Europe. There were 52 different revolutions, including a revolt against the Russians. Now the revolutionaries, because what is happening now is the stirrings of Romanian independence. It’s fascinating, isn’t it? Because you have the different principalities, mainly ruled from a great distance by the Muslims, but an Orthodox population with the boyars and, if you like, a peasant population. But now you are beginning to see a small educated class and revolutionaries. And they did appeal to the Jews for participation in the revolution and said, “In return, we will give you civic equality.” And some Jews did take part in the 1848 Revolution. Shall we have a nice shot at the Revolution, please? There you see the Cossacks on the rampage, of course. But let’s see the next one. There, you see. That, of course, is the French Revolution. 52 revolutions. Britain’s a fascinating case, bearing in mind that as a result of the Revolution, Karl Marks came to London and he was really formulating because the British could only manage Chartist demonstrations. And back to my hero, Disraeli, what did he say? “It’s because of the fog you will never have a revolution in England.” And you know, I still believe that’s true. I’m going to tell you a tiny little personal story. Travelling down to Cornwall this week, we were all taken off the train at Exeter because there was a problem on the line. There were no buses, there were no trains.

And everybody just sat there and put up with it. I just find something very, very interesting about the British. Me, and my daughter said that’s cause I’m a Jew, I went and got myself a cab, which I believe British Royal will pay for. But that’s not the point. The point I’m making, and it’s a much more severe, a serious point, that with revolutions, people wanting more of a slice of the cake and then something else. The Crimean War. The Crimean War, the French and the British fighting the Russians. And it was all concluded at the Treaty of Paris. At the Treaty of Paris… Can we see the next slide, please? There you see the Treaty of Paris. The Treaty of Paris didn’t actually solve the problem of the Balkans. It didn’t solve the eastern question. There wasn’t peace. But Russia had to give her claim… Russia always managed to say that she had the right to protect Christian subjects in the Turkish Empire. And in fact, in 1870, the Great Congress of Berlin was again, because Russia had gone to war because of Turkish atrocities in the Balkans. Now the reality is that it was a holding device. Here, you see Alexandru at the front. But what it led to was the independence or the semi-independence of Moldavia and Wallachia. Now, the Treaty of Paris, remember the British and the French are on the winning side despite the charge of the light brigade. Think of the liberalism that is falling, is coming through both Britain and France. They proclaimed that all the inhabitants should enjoy religious and civil liberties, the right to own property, to trade, and to occupy political posts. The Jews actually addressed the authorities and the great powers and they asked for the revocation of all discriminatory laws. Now there was total opposition on this from both the Russians and from the Romanians.

And what happens is the two principalities unite in 1859 under, and can we see the next picture, please? Alexandru Cuza, Prince Cuza. And they unite. And he’d been a revolutionary in the 1848 war. And there are now 130,000 Jews in his new kingdom. They are 3% of the population. Unfortunately, this is nationalism on the march now. And the Jews are going to become a very prominent factor in the politics. There’d already been a blood libel riot in 1859. So who was this man? You can see his dates. He was born into the boyar class, which is the highest rank of nobility in Eastern Europe under princes, second only to ruling princes. He was a landowner. Interesting, like many characters who participated in the revolutions of 1848, he received a Western education. He’d been first educated in Iassy, then in Bologna and in Athens. He then becomes a colonel in the Moldavian army. But then goes on to study in Paris. France and Romania are becoming closer and closer. Romania is more or less becoming… France is sort of their protectorate. He married a boyar, a woman from the boyar class, called Elena. She couldn’t have children of her own, which kind of sparked the marriage. He had a mistress and after the mistress died, she herself raised his two children. And one of them, Milan, later became Prince of Serbia. Unfortunately, her youngest son committed suicide, but her eldest son became a prince of Serbia. And he, as I said, he’s first elected Prince of Moldova on the 1st of January 1859, and Prince of Wallachia on the 24th of January, 1859. So he is now the head of a combined Romania and it’s officially united in 1862. And what he wanted to do, look, he’s been educated in the West, he’s of the ruling class, he’s a strong man.

He’s a great Romanian nationalist. He wants to modernise Romanian society and all the state structures. But the problem was, the minute you start reforming, you alienate many of the conservative class and also business owners. And as a result of that, there’s going to be a coup and he’s going to be forced in exile. And today, by the way, he is one of the great heroes of Romania. Now what about the Jews? In 1864, in theory, under him, the Jews were granted suffrage in the local councils. But Jews who were foreign subjects, remember a lot of them are foreign because they’ve come in from the Russian protectorates, they couldn’t acquire property. And political rights. Political rights, in theory, are granted to non-Christians, but only Parliament could vote on naturalisation. And the only Jews who were naturalised were over 800 of them who had fought for the Romanian army. So the point is, Jews are still having a very, very difficult time. Now what he’s remembered, it’s still in theory under the overlordship of the Turks. And it’s only when the big powers recognise an independent Romania that he has his control. He wants very much to liberate the peasants. His dream had been universal male suffrage. Because he’s so attracted to France, he’d had adopted the Napoleonic Code. Think who is on the throne in France. Of course, Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon.

He had fallen in love with French society. He took on both the criminal and civil code. What he wanted was compulsory public education. He wanted to wipe out illiteracy in Romania. Ironically, it’s not until under communism that it is wiped out. He founded the University of Iassy. He founded the University of Bucharest. And he also created a very modern Romanian army, closely linked to and trained by the French. He was also a very religious Christian. He endorsed the use of Romanian in the liturgy. He replaces the Cyrillic alphabet with the Romanian alphabet. You see how important this is? And the first faculty of Russian Orthodoxy is founded in Iassy. And the Romanian Orthodox church is actually proclaimed independent. Unfortunately he had working for him was as the Minister of the Interior, was Mihail Kogălniceanu. He was an intellectual, he was a lawyer, he was a historian. He later became prime minister. He was very much an opinion former in shaping the development of Romania. This is a description of him by a major historian, Nicolas Jorga. “He’s the founder of modern Romanian culture. The thinker who has seen clearly the free and complete Romania. The redeemer of peasants thrown into serfdom. The person understanding of all the many secretive and indissoluble connections linking the life of the people to the life of the soul.” Unfortunately, he was also violently anti-Semitic, this Minister of the Interior. He uses anti-Semitism very much as a unifying factor in Romanian independence. You want to unify people, find your scapegoat. And of course the Jews were the ideal scapegoat. He referred to the Jews as yidani and he said there are too many of them, they’re too powerful in Europe.

And yet he is going to be a little more nuanced insofar he’s going to try and stop the expulsion of a very important man called Moses Gaster who I’ll get onto to later. He did also say the only men who work in this country are the Jews. So the reason he wanted to stop the expulsion of Moses Gaster is he said Romanian literature owes so much to the Jews. Ironic, this particular Jew. Because who do you think, again, the Haskalah. Who do you think in Romania is beginning to push for enlightenment? A bunch of Jewish intellectuals. Anyway, as I said, he is ousted and can we see the next picture? Here you see King Carol of Hohenzollern. He is elected, you know, these Balkan countries, like so many countries, they adopt this is a minor German princeling. And it’s very much the will of Napoleon III that he is made king of Romania, just as a Habsburg prince is made by Napoleon, the king of Mexico. This is, you’ve got to think back to colonialism. And he is elected. There’s a coup, a new constitution is adopted. But you can understand. Cuza’s been expelled. You now have a new king. You have a king. The country is fighting itself. You’ve got the growth of Romanian nationalism and of course who are going to be the scapegoats? The Jews. There’s going to be demonstrations organised by the police during which the wonderful choir synagogue in Bucharest was demolished. The Jewish Quarter was plundered.

And it’s at this stage that the article of the Constitution restricting citizenship to the Christian population, was adapted. Only Christians can be citizens. And it’s this stage that a fascinating man called Adolphe Cremieux… Can we see him, please? Adolphe Cremieux, he was head of the Alliance. I’m going to skirt over him for one reason only. Next week, Lynn Julius is going to be giving lecture on him. He was an important French Jew, a wonderful lawyer and statesman, and head of the Alliance. And whenever Jews were in trouble throughout the world, they turned throughout, not America, but in Europe, Eastern and Western Europe, they turned to Cremieux and to another man I’m coming to in a minute. So in the spring of 1867, can we see the next figure, please? This is Ion Bratianu. He’s the Minister of the Interior. He begins to expels Jews from the villages and begins to ban non-citizens from the country. So it’s at this stage that the Jewish authorities, things are really bad. So who do they turn to? They turn to Sir Moses Montefiore. And can we see the picture of Moses Montefiore? Yes, he is a joy for any historian. He died aged 101. His life spans Victorian England. He was a close friend of Queen Victoria’s because he had his stately home in Ramsgate. Those of you who live in England, I’m sure many of you would’ve visited. And in the next door garden, played a little girl called Victoria, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Kent, having a rotten childhood. And you think befriended her? Moses Montefiore. And he, well, he came from a very old Sephardic family. He married the daughter of a man called Levy Barent Cohen, one of the richest Jews in England. And he married Judith. Her sister, Ann, married Nathan Rothschild, lived next door to each other in Park Lane. He was actually Rothschild’s stockbroker.

The two of them become very, very, very close. And Montefiore, with the blessing of the British Crown, he makes his fortune. I’ve talked about him in the past. I hope that that lecture will be available. He really does become the shtadlan of the Jewish world. For example, the time in the Mortara affair, he goes to try and intervene with the papal authorities. He interferes at the time of the Damascus affair. And then he’s called upon by the Jews of Romania. And he always goes with the blessing of the British Crown. He becomes Sir Moses Montefiore. He is also an ultimate of the city of London. He is chairman of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. He is a very close friend of Benjamin Disraeli. And, of course, by marriage and also close to the Rothschilds. He visited the land of Israel seven times. I don’t have to talk to you about Montefiore’s windmill and his charity in the land of Israel. And also a very interesting American called Judah Touro, another huge philanthropist, gave him money. He’s left money after his death for him to invest in Jewish causes. So, Cremieux and Montefiore are the two that people turn to. So Moses Montefiore, he goes to Romania and he’s offered the aid of the British government and he does try and he seeks assistance, believe it or not, from the Russians and from the Prussians. Why the Russians? Because you have a more liberal czar, Alexander II, and Prussians. So he leaves London with his nephew, Arthur Cohen, and he’s doctored a large party. Now he’s 83 years old. He’s received by Napoleon III in Paris. He expresses his gratitude for his intervention in Moldova. He stops off in Vienna. He keeps a diary, this is how we know all of this. He fasted on the Ninth of Av. He’s a very religious man.

When he married Judith, they were both 28 years old and they decided they were going to keep strictly kosher. And even when he died at the palace, kosher food was brought in for him. And when the Duke of Wellington, he dined with the Duke of Wellington, kosher food was brought in. He was a very tall, imposing character. And I think he had, in liberal England, you know, there aren’t that many Jews at the time. And England was running the world basically. And you didn’t have the same kind of level of horror. It’s another story for another time. Anyway, the group arrived in Bucharest in August, 1867. Now those of you who’ve been to Bucharest in the summer will know that it’s almost unbearable. He is received by King Carol. Remember, he is coming with the blessing of the British Crown. The foreign minister comes to see him. The private secretaries come to visit him in his hotel. But the right wing press go mad. They publish violently anti-Semitic articles. They attack his intervention. “How dare a foreigner be involved in the affairs of a sovereign state?” But nevertheless, he’s invited to dinner at the court. He himself is confronted by a demonstration at his hotel of over a thousand people. The local Jewish community, they tell him to stay inside, but he goes out in an open top car and he says to them, “Shout if you want. I’ve come here in the name of justice in humanity to defend the cause of innocent people who suffer.” He takes a drive for two hours in an open carriage. So he’s received by King Carol, but there’s no satisfactory conclusion. And the Romanians are furious. The right wing Romanians are saying, “How dare anyone interfere?” And now let’s turn to the Congress of Berlin. Yes, this is Bismarck and you see Disraeli there.

This is to secure the piece of Europe to try and sort out the issue of Russia and the Turks, okay? Britain and the balance of power. Also Bismarck and Disraeli and the balance of power. And the powers make a big business about civil liberties. And Disraeli refuses to ratify Romanian independence unless the Jews are awarded civil liberties. Now let’s have a picture of Disraeli, please. Okay, he’s Prime Minister of England. He comes back from, and it’s true that he and Bismarck did manage to keep this peace of Europe right up until the first World War. Because just think, if everyone was off the leash. The Turks, the British dropped the Turkish Empire against the Russians. They hate Russia. The French have got their angle. Germany unified in 1871 under the brilliant Bismarck, who was very close to Disraeli, by the way. More about that when we look at Germany. But Disraeli, the great statesman. And by the way, not only did he manage to create peace, he was awarded Cyprus for Britain. He comes back to England on the train. He is not well. And that’s when he issues that famous statement, when he gets off the train. “I bring you back peace, that peace with honour.” And later on, of course, that’s completely defiled by another Englishman called Neville Chamberlain. Anyway, his first private visit was to Moses Montefiore. We don’t know what was happened, what happened there. But despite all of this, the anti-Semitic measures do continue.

And Prince Carol, unfortunately, when he opened Parliament, declared that the Jews did have a harmful effect on the economic life, especially on the peasants. It was a very stormy, there was a very, very stormy meeting in Parliament because there was also a liberal trend in Romanian politics. So it’s the conservatives versus the liberals. And in the end, nationality is dependent on citizenship, on Christianity. But naturalisation of Jews would be carried out individually. And during the following 38 years, only 2000 Jews were naturalised. And this is when the great powers, of course, have recognised Romanian independence. But what happens is the big powers don’t keep to their sanctions. Why? The Germans were bribed with railway shares. The situation grows worse. Austria and Germany withdrew their demands. And the situation of Jews does become worse. They are forbidden from certain of the professions. They’re not allowed to be railway officials. They’re not allowed to work in state hospitals. In 1893, Jewish pupils are expelled from schools. That means they have to work in their own schools. Intimidation continues. And some Jewish leaders who had participated in the struggle for emancipation, were expelled, including the great Moses Gaster and Eli Schwartzfeld. When you get to the situation where gradually many of the major politicians in Romania were become anti-Semitic. Now I do not want to rush because I do want to talk about Gaster and I do want to talk about up until the First World War. So I suggest I’d stop there. And if you don’t mind, Lauren, can we start the slideshow back with Benjamin Disraeli on Thursday? Thank you, everyone. Let’s have a look at the questions.

Q&A and Comments:

“This is an incredible story about the Jews of Romania. I’ve never heard of how Jews were sold for pigs and tractors. Sonia Devillers wrote about it in new book, "Les Exportés”, not translated into English.“ Yes, "Everybody’s talking to me about "J'Accuse!” Lithuanian complicity in the Holocaust and its coverup.“ Yes, we all know about this. And some of you will remember that we have the Romanian Nazi hunter who now heads up the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem. He’s given a couple of lectures for us. We are working on a way of being able to show more films for you. I’ve been discussing it. I’ll be discussing it with Wendy.

Yes, a lot of you have mentioned this film. Yes, there is a terrible story about Lithuania. There’s a terrible story about Romania, I’m afraid. And there are many, many brilliant documentaries made. We are trying to think of a way of being able to show it. So please bear with us. Thank you.

"Watched with great sadness. We have no acknowledgement of culpability.” You’ve got to remember, and this is important, and it applies to Romania as well. What is going to happen to all these countries, they’re going to become communist after the Second World War. And Starling did not want to pick out the Jewish issue. And unfortunately, with the rise of nationalism in Eastern Europe after the collapse of communism, and of course the Jews are still blamed for communism, even though such a small minority of them were, but enough of the leadership were to make it a problem that of course there’s no culpability. In fact, I don’t know if Debbie Kagan’s listening, but her father, Jack, who was in the partisans, who was involved in the trial of Lithuanians. Ironically, most of the war criminals wanted in England and and Scotland were Lithuanian, I think, and Ukrainian. There were 17 of them. I don’t think any of them were brought to justice.

This is from Karen. “Father’s parents born in 1893 in Iassy. Left when he was drafted in 1913 into the army. Mother’s parents from Piatra Neamţ, born in 1986, came around 1904 to Canada, founded the Romanian shul in Toronto.” Yes, because of course, and I’m coming onto that. From the 1870s onwards, up until the First World War, you had a huge exodus out of Romania. It’s not just Russia, Eastern Europe that Jews are getting out of. When I talk about Russia, remember I’m talking about Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, they’re all under Russian rule. The Jews of Eastern Europe go on the move and the majority of them go to America. But there’s a community, of course, in Canada, South Africa, particularly for the Lithuanians in England, and they recreate a different kind of life.

Q: “Whilst the Roman Catholic Church ruled that contemporary Jews should not be held liable for deicide, has any other Christian Church done the same?”

A: Now, the Church of England does not blame the Jews for the deicide. I don’t think the Orthodox Church has recanted. And we have a real problem with Lutherism when I talk about Germany. But don’t forget what I said to you. I made a huge statement at the beginning and so far nobody’s picked me up on it. Look, one of the foundation documents of Christianity, one of the more important, one of the foundation myths. How do you break a myth? Okay, you can break a legend. You can’t break a myth, is the deicide. Now if you take that and add to it 2000 years, now that doesn’t mean Jews at all times lived terrible lives. They didn’t. And when I talk about people like Moses Gaster and of course many of those Romanians who fled to the States, to Canada, they had incredible lives. You know, that’s the point about the Jews.

“Now, lots of Spanish Jews converted in the 1390s almost.” Yes, of course, Shelly. Yes, of course they did. Many of them converted because they wanted to maintain their position in Spain and for a hundred years. And it all boils up when Ferdinand and Isabella unify Spain and kick out the last Muslim stronghold in Grenada and that’s when they unite. Okay?

“Some sources believe the Moriscos were not expelled.” No, they were. They were expelled a little later, but the last Muslim stronghold was finished, remember? The Conversos were never expelled. That’s the point. Nor were the Moriscos. In fact, Heine’s wonderful play, “Mansour”, where he talks about that wonderful phrase.

“Any society that burns books will one day burn people,” that comes from “Mansour” and it’s about the burning of the Quran.

Stephen, “More like 1506.” “Today, January the 24th is the anniversary of the day when the two principalities were united and became the country of Romania.” Oh, isn’t that an incredible coincidence? Yes, of course it is.

The second when he becomes, oh, that is fantastic, Adriana, thank you.

Iași, I beg your pardon. Lynn, I have a real problem with pronunciation. You know the one thing very few Brits are is good linguists.

Q: What is true history?

A: That’s a lovely, lovely debate. What is true history? Well, if my clock’s right, it’s six o'clock. You know, everything else is commentary.

This is from Harry. “I have a British certificate of registration from my paternal grandfather stating he was born in Iași in Romania.” Yep. “I’m certain the Jews will always be scapegoats.” Yeah, but look at the lives so many of us do manage to live. It’s not a terror. It’s not just the dark side of the moon, you know? It’s also a story of a people who’ve accomplished much. Don’t forget 24% of Nobel Prize winners are of Jewish blood.

“The message about the British registration for us, my wife’s grandfather issued in June ‘33.” Iasi, thank you Naomi.

“I recommend "The Dean’s December” by Saul Bellow, written after his Nobel Prize for context into remain in modern Romanian society.“ Yes. Your mother pronounced Iasi as Yosh. Is it Yash or Yosh? Thank you, Harry.

You are confused? I’m confused. Moldova is a separate modern country boarded by Romania. It’s Moldavia, not Moldova. It’s Moldavia. I hope I said Moldavia. Moldavia and Wallachia. Thank you.

"Jews are also very involved in the timber businesses.” Of course they were, Monty. Yeah, think of the forestry. Very important point.

It’s Moldavia you know. It’s Moldavia, not Moldova, Moldavia.

“Hakham Bashi, linguistic. It’s Turkish for head wiseman. In other words, the function wasn’t changed. Rather there was a language to suggesting a political change and perhaps a change in the status of the primary Jewish representative.” Yeah, nice point.

Barbara’s saying, could I slow down? I will try. I get excited. I’m sorry, Barbara.

Q: “My maternal grandparents came from Botosani in Romania. My grandfather was in the Romanian army. He was a linen merchant. The family corresponded with each other, mostly in German, but sometimes in French. Although they could speak Romanian. Would you have an opinion on this use of Romanian of language, Trudy?”

A: I think that for Romanian’s, French was the second language.

“The Crimean War began when the Ottoman sultan allowed the transfer of the keys to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to the Catholics. The Russian plans to emancipate the church from the Catholics.” Yes, this is the Russian Orthodox fighting the Catholics. Thank you for that, Adrian. I believe that we’ve had lectures on the Church of the Nativity from Julian Barnett. It’s an incredible story. The story of the Church of the Nativity.

Myrna, “As a humorous society, there’s a department store, Dillard’s, in the southwest that has Daniel Cremieux as their house brand in the men’s department. I always chuckle when I see it.” Intentional, I love that.

Q: “If ruling England is liberal to the Jews, why there was so much antisemitism from the ruling class in the 1930s?”

A: The world had moved on. You know, if you want me to be cynical, Shelly, by 1881 there were only 60,000 Jews living in England. And they were, you know, you’ve got the Sephardi who were very much into marrying into the British aristocracy. It was only after the great influx from Eastern Europe, 1881 to 1914, which was objected to by the Jewish establishment, by the way. That’s another time another, another place. And you’ve had the intervention of the First World War. You’d have the Aliens Act to restrict Jewish immigration, so a lot changes. That’s the point. But in England, you did have a liberal tide in England and you know, the English never went for emancipation at one stroke. In fact, it had a lot to do with Moses Montefiore and people like him. The city of London would elect Jews. They were prepared to go without, they changed the oath. In England, the bar to being an MP or going to any public office or graduating from Oxford or Cambridge, was on the oath of the King James’s Bible. It’s also accepted Catholics, non-conformists, and it’s gradually changed in England. And in the debate about parliament, Disraeli made such a strange speech. When he was in Parliament, the liberals were for it, the Tories against it. He was a Tory. He crossed the floor with Stanley. He said the man must never stand alone. And in a debate, he said, “How can the world, when half the world worship a Jew and the other half his mother, how can you not emancipate the Jews?”

Q: Can I talk about Bukovina?

A: “It’s now Ukraine.

My mother was born in Chernivtsi. She and her parents sailed to America in the summer of '40, just before war broke out. Others in the family went to Vienna, London, Palestine. My grandmother kept a photo of Franz Joseph over her bed till the end.” Yes, a lot of Jews loved Franz Joseph. Although he was terribly paternalistic and very authoritarian, he was not an anti-Semite. In fact, he didn’t want Karl Lueger to become mayor of Vienna. Thank you, Rita.

Solomon Schecter, yes. In fact, Marjorie, I don’t know if you know about the Kilburn Wanderers. There was a group called the Kilburn Wanderers and they tried to raise the level of Jewish scholarship in England and he was at the centre of it, Solomon Shecter. In the end, he gave up and went to America.

“Nothing to do with Romania, but the sixth form centre at JFS School in London is named for Montefiore because he was to be a role model to the students. We wanted our graduates to be like and emulate him.” Yeah, that’s interesting. Thank you for that, Vivian.

“My great-grandfather was at Sir Moses Montefiore’s a hundredth birthday in Ramsgate. Everyone who attended was given a commemorative coin, which I have. On one side a tribute to Sir Moses and lists of all the places he went to to help the Jews. Romania is listed there. The other side is an engraving of his bust.” Oh my goodness. I love lockdown. Could you send us a picture of that, Jay? You haven’t given a name. That is so interesting.

This is from David Harris, deputy head, JFS, 1986 to 2015. Thank you very, very much. “My father was from Iasi and fled to Russia in World War II and was put into forced labour there.” The story of the Jews.

Q: “What was the shape and size of Romanian immigration to UK and to which cities? My great-grandfather and my grandmother came to Manchester from Romania. Were they the only family?”

A: No, no, no, no, no. Not at all. Look, you’ve got to remember when Jews got out of Eastern Europe and this is in the main of the poor. Many of them went to Manchester because of the cotton industry and they could find work there. Some of them went to Cardiff. If you think where the port cities are in England, look, I promise you at some stage, we’ve already covered England at some stage. If we don’t get the website up and running, I think we’re going to have to redo some of these lectures.

Q: “Did Jews also immigrate to other parks of Africa?”

A: Yes. It’s not my field, but I know someone who it is. But I think the bulk went to South Africa. Some went to what became Rhodesia.

Yes, Jonathan is also recommending “The Dean’s December” by Saul Bellow. Look at Romanian postwar society. The western half of Moldavia is now part of Romania. The eastern side belongs to the Republic of Moldova and the North and Southeastern parts of territories of Ukraine. What a muddle of a muddle. No wonder nobody understands that part of the world.

This is from Enid. “My grandfather was a tinsmith in Targu Neamt. I hope I’ve spelled that right. And will repair the monastery route every year.” I love that.

Q: “Is it true that klesmer music originated in Romanian gipsies?”

A: I know that klesmer is very much influenced by Roma music. I know that the Yiddish theatre was created by Goldfaden, who was also a Romanian. Look, Romanian Jews have produced some incredible individuals, but unfortunately, you know, we can’t go everywhere and do everything. I chose Moses Guster. I have to make choices, but there are so many. I love film. And Edward G. Robinson from Romania, he kept the G. to remind himself, Goldenberg. He’s one of my favourite actors.

Q: “Is it possible for future presentations you could include some of your slides in the email?”

A: Is that possible, Lauren? I’ll have to ask. I’m a total baby when it comes to any kind of technology.

Oh, oh, it’s getting even… Judith, you’re obviously an expert. It’s getting even more confusing. Moldova is the name of both the Moldavia Republic ex-Soviet Union and Moldova, a big region in Romania.

“My father was born in Iasi and I was born in Bucharest. Learned many things I didn’t know. Thank you.” Thank you. Clive, “My paternal grandparents came to England and America in the early 1900s from Doraha. Some were farriers, which continued in the UK.” Yeah, that’s what’s so interesting, Clive. Of course, Jews bought with them their trades and professions. I mean, in America, in New York, I think something like 90% of the immigrants went into the right trade. No, not as far as I know.

“My grandfather came to Manchester from Moinesti in the early 20th century.” Yes, you see it was from Eastern Europe and Romania. Romania’s not part of the Russian Empire. So when I talk about Russian Empire, as I said, I’m talking about Romania, I’m talking about Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania. And it really depends where your families came from. South African Jewry, ironically, 80% is Lithuanian.

Oh, Yale Strom is an ethnomusicologist who can answer the question about klesmer music and the Romani.“ Maybe at some stage, Serena, we should introduce a lecture on such a subject. I will certainly put it into the pot boil. Anyway, thank you very much.

Oh Len is just saying, "Vine Street Shul in Manchester was called the Romania Shul when I was much younger. My grandfather, one of the founding members.” So we’ve had people whose grandparents founded a shul in Canada, now in Manchester. What a story, the story of the Jews. Jewish demography always fascinates me. I get a bit lost when I’m in the Balkans. I don’t think anybody…

Q: What was it Disraeli said?

A: “Only one person understood the Balkans after the death of Prince Albert.” And it was him and he’s dead.

So on that note, I wish you all well. And so I wish you all good evening. God bless everyone. And Lauren, thank you very much.