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

 
205
 
As to the Romanian Jewish problems at this point, the danger of potential 
Romanian enlargement at the expense of Austria-Hungary raised the issue 
again of the expansion of the ‘area of religious intolerance’. Romania had been 
promised Transylvania in exchange for entry into the war. From the perspective 
of minority rights issues, there was, however, the prospect of a peace 
conference after the war. It was reasonable to expect that some kind of 
guarantee of religious liberty or minority rights would be included in the future 
peace settlement.  
 
The Romanian war effort ended disastrously when a large part of the 
country fell under German occupation. Romania was forced to conclude the 
Treaty of Bucharest
101
 on 7 May 1918 with the Central Powers. The treaty 
contained a provision concerning the naturalisation of those persons residing in 
Romania who did not possess any other citizenship. The provision was vague 
and had shortcomings, since it stipulated that a separate law would be passed 
to deal with naturalisations. It therefore met with criticism on the part of the 
Jewish organisations in most countries. In any case, the treaty was never 
ratified. After the Central Powers were defeated in November 1918, the solution 
to the citizenship problem was left for the peace conference to decide.  
 
Attempts were made in Romania to extend citizenship to some categories 
of Jews through domestic legislation. During the period from May 1918 to May 
1919, consecutive versions of naturalisation decree laws dealing with Jewish 
citizenship were passed in Romania. All those who had served in the army both 
during the First World War and the Balkan War were included, as were those 
who had been born in Romania and whose parents had also been Romanian-
born. The latter provision, however, was subsequently abandoned.
102
 
 
As a result of the First World War, Romania’s territory doubled. It 
acquired Transylvania, Bessarabia, and Bucovina. Sizeable Jewish communities 
resided in these areas. Consequently, the Jewish population in Romania tripled 
in comparision to the census results of 1912; the number of Jews in the Old 
Kingdom had been approximately 240,000 just before the World War, but now 
the number of Jews had risen to more than 750,000. Two-thirds of the Romanian 
Jewish population were now living in the new territories.
103
     
 
The conclusion to the problem of Jewish citizenship came through an 
international treaty — yet another instance of international minority protection. 
The role of the Jewish organisations such as the Joint Foreign Committee of 
British Jews, as well as individuals such as Lucien Wolf, was imperative in 
drafting the minority settlements at the peace conference. Romania had to sign 
a minority treaty in 1919, in accordance with other post-war minority treaties 
that were imposed on East European countries. The Romanian government did 
so very reluctantly.
104
  
                                                           
 
101
   Not to be confused with the Treaty of Bucharest concluded on 10 August 1913 (see 
 chapter 
9.1). 
 
102
   Gelber 1950, 235-236, 243-245; Iancu 1992, 171, 191-192; Rey 1925, 144. 
 
103
   RG 1930, xxiv, xxvii. The number of Jews by nationality was 728,115 (4.0 % of the 
 
population) and by religion 756,930 (4.2 %).   
 
104
   Spector 1962, 218.  

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206 
 
The Romanian Minority Treaty included a special clause on Jewish 
citizenship to tackle the perennial pre-war problem. In the case of Romania, it 
was considered necessary to strengthen the usual citizenship provisions that 
were in other respects constructed along a common patter. Romania agreed to 
recognise the full citizenship rights of its Jewish population. All Jews residing in 
the Romanian territory who could not claim any other nationality were to be 
acknowledged as Romanian citizens without any formality — this meant 
accordingly that Jews could not be discriminated against on the basis of anti-
alien legislation. Everyone in Romania was to enjoy equal civil and political 
rights, and the free exercise of religion was guaranteed. The treaty also 
stipulated that the provisions were to be acknowledged as fundamental laws 
and that no Romanian law or regulation was allowed to conflict with them.
105
 
 
Finally, the new Romanian Constitution of 1923 provided formal legal 
confirmation of the provisions of the Minority Treaty and granted citizenship to 
Jews.
106
 A separate law on the procedure for citizenship acquisition completed 
the process in 1924.
107
 Some requirements for proof of permanent residency 
were ambiguous, however, and the law was not always administered properly. 
Despite the constitution, a large number of Jews were left stateless due to a 
narrow interpretation of the residency qualification. An American estimate puts 
the number of Jewish family heads who were stateless in the late twenties at 
20,000, which was calculated to mean approximately 100,000 persons.
108
 Irina 
Livezeanu gives a figure of 80,000 as the number of stateless Jews.
109
 It has to be 
noted that these stateless Jewish individuals were not those who had lived in 
the pre-First World War Romanian Old Kingdom, but rather were Jews who 
resided in the vast new regions that Romania had been awarded in the peace 
treaty. 
 
The British Jewish foreign policy team, still led by Lucien Wolf, but now 
under the name of Joint Foreign Committee, did not give up its efforts on behalf 
of Romanian Jews in the 1920s.
110
 A careful watch was kept on developments in 
Romania, and the fulfilment of minority treaties all over Eastern and Central 
Europe was monitored.
111
 As the League of Nations, the new intergovernmental 
organisation, acted as a guarantor of the minority treaties, Jewish activists and 
associations conducted their foreign policy within the framework of the 
                                                           
 
105
   Iancu 1992, 293-297; Jackson Preece 1998, 74-76; Janowsky 1933, 371-378. 
 
106
   Monitorul Oficial, 282/1923. See also Iancu 1996b, 99-109; Rey 1925, 147-149; Wolloch 
 1988, 
99. 
 
107
   Iancu 1996b, 109-117. 
 
108
   American Committee 1928, 43; Starr 66-67. Starr accepts the information that is given 
 
in the American Committee publication. 
 
109
   Livezeanu 1995, 123. 
 
110
   Lucien Wolf died in 1930. 
 
111
   The Jewish Minority in Roumania 1927, no. 1, Joint Foreign Committee to the Romanian 
 
Government, 17 Sept. 1925. 

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