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



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6  
THE ROMANIAN PEASANT REVOLT OF 1907 ........................................131 
 
6.1   The background to the revolt.................................................................131 
 
6.2   The Peasant Revolt — responses and evaluations..............................137 
 
6.3   Anglo-Jewish diplomacy in the aftermath of the revolt ....................147 
 
7  
THE CONJOINT COMMITTEE CAMPAIGN ON BEHALF OF  
 ROMANIAN 
JEWS, 
1908-1909........................................................................151 
 
7.1   A renewed Anglo-Jewish campaign in early 1908..............................151 
 
7.2   The Romanian Jewish question at the time of the Balkan crisis .......154  
 
8  
THE ROMANIAN JEWISH PROBLEM DURING THE BALKAN  
 WARS, 
1912-1913 ..............................................................................................165 
 
8.1   The Union of Native Jews.......................................................................165 
 
8.2   Jewish concerns relating to the First Balkan War ...............................168 
 
8.3   The international Jewish campaign on behalf of South  
  Dobrudjan 
Jews........................................................................................172 
 
8.4   The Second Balkan War and the question of Jewish citizenship......177 
 
9  
ROMANIAN JEWS, JEWISH DIPLOMACY, AND MINORITY RIGHTS 
  
ON THE EVE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR...............................................185 
 
9.1   The Treaty of Bucharest ..........................................................................185 
 
9.2   The International Committee for the Defence of Religious 
  
 Liberty .......................................................................................................191 
 
9.3  Minority rights in the Balkans ...............................................................195 
 
9.4   Towards a new era ..................................................................................203 
 
10   CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................208 
 
FINNISH SUMMARY................................................................................................215 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................................................................................222 
 
APPENDIX 
 
INDEX 
  
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1 INTRODUCTION 
 
 
1.1 The scene 
 
 
At the turn of the millennium, the number of Jews in Eastern Europe and the 
Balkans is small. If we look back one hundred years or so, however, the picture 
was very different. Jews were found in large numbers in many countries of the 
region. The circumstances of Jews in Eastern Europe compared to Western 
Europe became markedly different during the late nineteenth century and the 
early twentieth century. The Jews of Western Europe were moving towards 
emancipation and acculturation, while the Jews of Eastern Europe, primarily in 
Russia and Romania, lacked political rights and their lives were restricted and 
regulated by a complex system of anti-Jewish legislation.
 1
  
 
The Jewish population in Eastern Europe increased rapidly during the 
nineteenth century. At the turn of the century, there were more than five 
million Jews in the Russian Empire. The number of Jews in Romanian by 1899 
was approximately 270,000, or 4.5 per cent of the total population.
2
 Comparison 
to the present-day number of Jews in Romania is striking: estimates today range 
from 6,000 to 11,000. 
 
According to the Romanian Constitution of 1866, Jews were treated as 
foreigners on the grounds of their non-Christianity, and they were increasingly 
discriminated against under subsequent legislation. The legislation stemmed 
from the twin issues of a fear of Jewish economic domination and an urge to 
preserve the Romanian national character in the newly-established nation state. 
The matter was also linked to the intensification of anti-Semitism in Europe 
during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Romanian government 
argued against any improvement of the Jewish legal position, while most of the 
Western Powers and all major international Jewish organisations wished to end 
                                                           
1
 
 
For the Russian Jews, see, for example, Gartner 2001, 162-165. 
2
 
 
RG 1899, xliv-xlvi. 


 
10 
Jewish disabilities. The Jewish situation in Romania was perceived as a ‘Jewish 
problem’ or a ‘Jewish question’.  
 
From an international legal viewpoint, the situation of Jews in Romania 
differed fundamentally from the situation of Jews in Russia, who otherwise 
lived in comparable circumstances. No formal international protection was 
awarded to Russian Jews, partly due to the Russia’s position as a great power. 
The Western Powers, on the other hand, with Britain on the frontline, were keen 
to control newly-established and relatively weak states such as Romania; by 
regulating the rights of minorities, for example, Britain could minimise conflicts 
and impose ‘Western’ standards of society. Consequently, the Romanian Jews 
and other Balkan Jewries were among the first minorities to be protected by 
means of international conventions and treaties.  
 
In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, the 
condition of East European Jewish minorities was widely publicised in Western 
and Central Europe, as well as in the United States. The role of emancipated 
Western Jewries became imperative in contemporary discourse over Jewish 
rights. The East European Jews had active co-religionists in the West, who were 
eager to right any wrongs that had been committed against Jews in less 
developed countries. The activities of emancipated Jewish political and 
economic elites on behalf of Jewish communities in oppressive or backward 
countries can be called ‘Jewish diplomacy’.
3
 One of the major proponents of 
Jewish diplomacy was the Anglo-Jewish community. 
 
 
 
1.2  Research on Romanian Jews 
 
 
Three main chronological themes can be distinguished in research relating to 
Romanian Jews. The first line of research discusses the situation of Romanian 
Jews before the First World War, the second examines the interwar era, and the 
third addresses the fate of the Romanian Jewry during the Second World War. 
The latter two directions are sometimes very closely linked, as those studies 
tend to emphasise developments that led to the mass destruction of Romanian 
Jews in the Second World War. The history of the Romanian Jews prior to the 
First World War is, as a rule, analysed separately. It is precisely the research on 
this earlier period that is relevant to the topic discussed in my study. It has to be 
pointed out that discussion on the fate of Romanian Jews in the Holocaust and 
previous research on the
 
Holocaust itself are not addressed in the present work.  
 
As well as these chronological themes, Romanian Jews have also been 
discussed from various perspectives in historical research. Perhaps the most 
popular approach has been to address the question as it is — that is without 
linking the issue to any particular theoretical framework or to any wider 
contexts. Several historians have attempted to discuss the Romanian Jewish 
question by collecting ‘facts’. A number of monographs and articles provide the 
                                                           
3
  
Gutwein 1991, 23-24.  


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