Great Britain, British Jews, and the international protection of Romanian Jews, 1900-1914: a study of Jewish diplomacy and minority rights

 
36 
affairs with those relating to Turkish interests.
25
 As Nicolae Iorga argued in his 
classic study on the British-Romanian relations, ‘English interests in the 
Principalities were purely economical’.
26
 During this period, however, Britain 
also became very interested in the treatment of Romanian Jews. 
 
There was a considerable amount of disagreement over the issue of legal 
sovereignty over Jews, and this is where the issue of the consular jurisdiction of 
the Great Powers comes into the picture. The problem from the Romanian 
national point of view, on the eve of their independence, was that foreigners 
were enjoying prerogatives that gave them a competitive edge over native 
Romanians in commerce. This was a situation the Romanians were not happy to 
tolerate. There was also the question of dual nationality and the problem of 
determining which government actually held legal sovereignty over Jewish 
newcomers in Romania. The Moldavians and Wallachians argued that they 
held suzerainty over the Jews because of their continuing residence in 
Moldavian and Wallachian territory. In the second half of the nineteenth 
century, the Jews argued that they were under the protection of the countries 
from which they had arrived, especially since the Romanians refused to give 
them citizenship rights. This was true: sometimes Jews continued indeed to be 
under foreign protection and consular jurisdiction, and some of them newly 
appealed for foreign protection. This happened not only by claiming, for 
example, Austrian protection, if Austria was the country of origin, but also by 
registering with agents of countries like Britain and France.
27
  
 
The privileged status of foreigners in pre-independent Romania derived 
from the arrangements between the Western Powers and the Ottoman Empire, 
and was also a sign of the dependent position of the Danubian Principalities. 
When foreign states acquired trading rights with the Ottoman dominions, 
including the Danubian Principalities, they secured for their nationals special 
rights to immunity from Turkish law. These rights were defined in a series of 
‘capitulations’, which were signed by the Ottomans with several Powers mainly 
in the eighteenth century; although Great Britain had already signed them in 
1675. As a result, foreign consuls were allowed to exert some sovereign rights. 
Civil and criminal disputes involving foreign nationals were handled by their 
respective consuls in accordance with the laws of their own countries, rather 
than according to Turkish laws or the legislation of the Danubian Principalities. 
Furthermore, a foreigner could not be expelled without the consent of his 
consul.
28
 Eventually, Romania chose to try to solve the problem of consular 
jurisdiction by signing bilateral consular treaties with the Powers.
29
     
                                                           
25
  
Funderburk 1982, 430; Marinescu 1983, 238-239. 
26
  
Iorga 1931, 96. Iorga did not appreciate the British attitude over the Jewish question. 
27
  
L. Cohen 1982, 198-199. For example, during the anti-Jewish trouble in 1867, many 
Jews residing in Moldavia sought the protection of the British consulate, but the 
British representatives did not agree to take them under their wing. Henriques 1985, 
237. 
28
  
Kellogg 1995, 39; Riker 1931, 10-11. 
29
  
Kellogg 1995, 40. 

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37
 
An example from 1868 shows that consular jurisdiction mattered and was 
advantageous to Jews who were eligible for it: 30 Jews, who were Austrian 
subjects, were injured when a synagogue was plundered in Galaţi. After some 
negotiations, Romanians paid compensation to the Austrian consul for damages 
to Austrian subjects. Several non-Austrian Jews who had been maltreated on 
the same occasion were not protected by any country and were not given any 
reimbursement.
30
  
 
 
2.2  The Treaty of Berlin  
 
 
In 1877, when the war broke out between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, 
Romania sided with the Russians and declared independence. The Romanian 
situation was one of the issues discussed at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. The 
Congress promised to recognise Romanian independence on the condition that 
Romania guaranteed equal rights to persons of all religious confessions. The 
same principle applied to Serbia and Montenegro, but Romania was the only 
country in which problems arose; still, it has to be remembered that the earlier 
Serbian record on the treatment of Jews was not entirely clean either. The 
intention of the Great Powers
31
 was to decide the matter and to grant Romanian 
citizenship to Jews, in order to avoid the kind of commotion that had repeatedly 
occurred during the two previous decades.
32
  
 
The contribution of West European Jews, in insisting that Jewish rights 
should be included in the Treaty of Berlin, was significant.
33
  In  Britain,  the 
leaders of the Anglo-Jewry recognised the need for concerted diplomatic action.  
The Conjoint Foreign Committee was therefore established by the Board of 
Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association. 
34
 
 
Article 44 of the Berlin Treaty related to the Romanian Jewish question: 
 
 
‘In Roumania the difference of religious creeds and confessions shall not be alleged 
against any person as a ground for exclusion or incapacity in matters relating to the 
enjoyment of civil and political rights, admission to public employments, functions, 
and honours, or the exercise of the various professions and industries in any locality 
whatsoever. 
 
 
The freedom and outward exercise of all forms of worship shall be assured to 
all persons belonging to the Roumanian State, as well as to foreigners, and no 
hindrance shall be offered either to the hierarchical organization of the different 
communions, or to their relations with their spiritual chiefs. 
                                                           
30
  
Kellogg 1995, 52. 
31
  
The Great Powers that were present in the Congress of Berlin were Great Britain, 
France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy and Turkey.  
32
  
Welter 1989, 133. 
33
  
For Jewish influence and the general aspects of the Jewish question at the Berlin 
Congress, see Iancu 1987, 47-54 and Kohler & Wolf 1916, 40-52. On the efforts of the 
British Jews, see BDBJ 3121/C11A/1, Conjoint meetings, 6 June 1878, 22 July 1878 
and 9 Sept. 1878. For an account of the activities of the German Jewry, see Gelber 
1960. 
34
  
Levene 1992, 5-6. 

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