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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Romanian Jews. Romania was definitely a more suitable target than Russia for 
Jewish diplomacy to attack.  
 
Unlike during and after the First World War, wrangles between the old-
style Anglo-Jewish establishment and rising Zionists did not manifest 
themselves in matters relating to Jewish diplomacy. Zionism did not play a 
large role in relation to Romanian matters, although it was sometimes 
mentioned in the context of Romanian emigration. Certainly there were some 
signs of discord, however, especially when the Jewish Chronicle criticised the 
Conjoint Committee for secrecy or when Rabbi Moses Gaster offered his 
opinions on Romanian matters.   
 
 
Anglo-Jewish co-operation with other Jewish organisations in Western 
and Central Europe was for the most part smooth. With American Jews, there 
was not a lot of joint action as far as the Romanian problem was concerned. 
Anglo-Jewish leaders had ambiguous attitudes towards Romanian Jewish 
opinions. On occasion, the wishes of Romanian Jews were respected, and in 
some situations there was also intensive co-operation with Romanian Jewish 
leaders.  This was particularly apparent in the period immediately preceding 
the First World War. Sometimes, however, it seemed as though the Anglo-
Jewry overlooked the Romanian Jewish viewpoint. On the other hand, it was 
not easy to adopt a consistent attitude towards Romanian Jewish desires, since 
Romanian Jews were not a united front that held one single opinion.  In any 
case, it was only the views of the Romanian Jewish elite that were taken into 
account in Britain.  
 
The Foreign Office: congruence or discord? 
 
Anglo-Jewish leaders often perceived that the British Foreign Office was on the 
same side as the Conjoint Foreign Committee. To a certain extent, this 
interpretation was correct: both institutions would have liked to see the 
extension of legal rights for the Romanian Jewry. This congruence 
notwithstanding, the interests of the British government and the Anglo-Jewish 
leaders sometimes clashed. They had somewhat different perceptions of the 
importance of Jewish emancipation in Romania and the intensity of the 
campaign that should be targeted at Romania. While the Conjoint Committee 
saw the issue of Romanian Jewish minority rights as crucial, the Foreign Office 
was not ready to use aggressive pressure on Romania.  
 
Therefore, the British government agreed, in principle, that Romanian 
policy on Jews should be modified. The Foreign Office repeatedly made 
sympathetic noises on behalf of Romanian Jews. The careful policy that was 
chosen was precisely the one that was most in accordance with British interests: 
Britain did not want to alienate Romania, but it did not want to provoke the 
domestic Jewish lobby either.  
 
The Romanian Jewish question was, from the British point of view, very 
much a part of the international system as created at the Congress of Berlin. The 
British government was always concerned with the stance of the other 
international players. Effective intervention could only happen in co-operation 

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with the other Great Powers. This attitude became more apparent from about 
1907 onwards. The first years of the century had seen relatively lively action by 
the British government, for example in the form of the ‘supplementary note’ 
that followed the American note in 1902, but British reactions became more 
passive as the first decade of the twentieth century was nearing its end. The 
difference, however, was quite small, since the British government’s outlook 
was consistently very cautious and tentative.  
 
It has sometimes been alleged that anti-Semitic attitudes on the part of 
diplomats and Foreign Office bureaucrats contributed to the fact that the 
Foreign Office was not very forthcoming to Anglo-Jewish requests for 
intervention. This does not appear, however, to have been a decisive factor in 
Foreign Office policy.  True, there were occasional – though very rare – derisive 
remarks made about Jews, and some diplomats seemed to adopt the attitudes of 
their Romanian contacts and Romanian statesmen a little too easily. Still, it has 
to be noted that the Romanians in fact received a greater share of Foreign Office 
suspicion than the Jews, as well as a very patronising attitude sometimes.  
 
Romania’s arguments remained the same throughout the years: when the 
Great Powers had recognised Romanian independence in 1880, they had given 
up their right to intervene in Romanian internal affairs. The Romanian 
government maintained that Jews were not being persecuted, but were, on the 
contrary, enjoying religious freedom. And if there was any anti-Jewish 
legislation, it was only due to the fear that ‘foreigners’ might overrun Romania. 
Despite the fact that the British government did not believe Romania’s 
assurances of the good treatment that Jews were receiving, this had no 
fundamental effect on the relations between the two countries. The relations 
remained cordial, although not very close. 
 
The Romanian government sometimes attempted to explain their Jewish 
policy in a favourable light. These were typical legation undertakings by 
distributing ‘correct’ information through the press and in discussions with the 
Foreign Office personnel. In addition, there was one occasion when a pamphlet, 
sponsored by the Romanian government, was circulated among British 
notables. However, if the Romanians published one pamphlet and an 
occasional apologetic article, the Jewish pressure groups in turn published 
dozens of pamphlets and newspaper articles. In short, while the Jews had a 
strong domestic lobby which acted on behalf of Romanian Jews, the efforts of 
the Romanians were comparatively weak. This cannot have been without effect 
on the governmental and public opinion in Britain.     
 
Aspects relating to Romanian Jewish migration 
 
Mass emigration from Romania began in 1900, stimulating internal and 
international debate on the causes of the phenomenon and on possible 
solutions. Britain became directly involved due to the transmigration of 
Romanian Jews via England to America. Only a small number of migrants were 
planning to stay in Britain or would remain in Britain in the end, but this was 
not known at the time. Besides, many transmigrants did not leave the country 

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