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Brahm, Otto (Abrahamsohn)

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Invasion of the Chazars.

Kingdom of southern Europe. If the assertions of Rumanian historians are to be accepted, Jews lived in Rumania for a considerable time before the advent of the hordes of Roman convicts brought by Emperor Trajan for the purpose of populating the fertile country of the Dacians, which he had desolated after his bloody conquest. Decebalus, King of the Dacians, accorded to the Jews of Talmaci special privileges which they did not enjoy in other places of Dacia, although they had the right of residence everywhere. A decree of the Roman emperor (397) granted protection to the Dacian Jews and their synagogues ("Cod. Theod. de Jud." 16:8). At the Roman invasion Jews followed the army of occupation as purveyors and interpreters. In the eighth century it is said that an armed force of Jews from southern Russia, presumably the Chazars, entered both Moldavia and Wallachia and united with the Jews who were already living there; and "for a number of years the Jewish religion reigned supreme in the country."

After about 400 years, during which nothing is heard of Jews in Rumania, it is related that when the principality of Berlad was established, which included Little Halitz (Galatz) and Tecuci, Jews lived there and were actively engaged in commerce. When Radu Negru crossed the Carpathian Mountains (1290) in search of a new country he was followed by a number of Jews, who assisted him in the establishment of his rule over Rumania, and who settled in various towns in which Jewish communities were already in existence. In 1349, when the Moldavian principality was founded, the ruling prince invited traders from Poland to settle in his domains, offering them special privileges; and many Jews responded to the invitation. When Roman I. (1391-94) founded the city to which he gave his name Jews were among the first settlers; and their houses were the finest in the new capital. Roman exempted the Jews from military service, in lieu of which they had to pay three löwenthaler for each person.

In Wallachia, under Vlad Tzepesh (1456-62), the Jews were the greatest sufferers from the cruelty of that tyrant. In Moldavia, Stephen Voda (1457-1504) was a more humane ruler, and the Jews were treated by him with consideration. Isaac ben Benjamin Shor of Jassy was appointed steward by this prince, being subsequently advanced to the rank of "logofet" (chancellor); and he continued to hold this honorable position under Bogdan Voda (1504-1517), the son and successor of Stephen.

Under Turkish Suzerainty.

At this time both principalities came under the suzerainty of Turkey, and a number of Spanish Jews living in Constantinople migrated to Wallachia, while Jews from Poland and Germany settled in Moldavia. Although the Jews took an importantpart in the Turkish government, the Rumanian princes did not much heed this fact and continued to harass them in their respective principalities. Stephen the Younger (1522) deprived the Jewish merchants of almost all the rights given to them by his two predecessors; and despite the fact that Peter Raresh was assisted in the recovery of his throne, and was afforded pecuniary aid, by a Jewess, the confidante of the sultan's mother, his first step when he took up the reins of government (1541) was to rob the Jewish traders in a most dastardly manner. Alexander Lapushneanu (1552-61) cruelly treated the Jews until he was dethroned by Jacob Heraclides, a Greek, who was lenient to his Jewish subjects. When Lapushneanu returned to his throne, however, he did not renew his persecutions.

During the first short reign of Peter the Lame (1574-79) the Jews of Moldavia suffered under heavy taxation and were otherwise ill-treated until he was dethroned. In 1582 he succeeded in regaining his rule over the country with the help of the Jewish physician Benveniste, who was a friend of the influential Solomon Ashkenazi; and the last-named then exerted his influence with the prince in favor of his coreligionists. In Wallachia, Prince Alexander Mircea (1567-77) engaged as his private secretary and counselor the talented Isaiah ben Joseph, who used his great influence in behalf of the Jews. In 1573 Isaiah was dismissed, owing to the intrigues of jealous courtiers; but otherwise he was unmolested. He went to Moldavia, where he entered the service of Prince Ivan the Terrible. Through the efforts of Solomon Ashkenazi, Emanuel Aaron was placed on the throne of Moldavia. Although of Hebrew descent, he was very cruel to the Jews. The entire Jewish community of Bucharest was exterminated; and by Aaron's orders nineteen Jews of Jassy were brought before him and, without any process of law, decapitated. Almost all the Jews had to leave Wallachia; and those that remained in Moldavia were delivered from the inhuman oppression of Aaron only when he was deposed and replaced by Jeremiah Movila.

It was late in the seventeenth century before Jews could once more enter Wallachia and reside there in security. In Moldavia, Vasili Lupul (1634-53) treated the Jews with consideration until the appearance of the Cossacks (1648), who marched against the Poles and who, while crossing Rumania, killed many Jews. Another massacre by the Cossacks occurred in 1652, when they came to Jassy to claim Vasili Lupul's daughter for Timush, the son of Chmielnicki.

The first blood accusation in Rumania was made April 5, 1710. The Jews of Neamtz, Moldavia, were charged with having killed a Christian child for ritual purposes. The instigator was a baptized Jew who had helped to carry the body of a child, murdered by Christians, into the courtyard of the synagogue. On the next day five Jews were killed, many were maimed and every Jewish house was pillaged, while the representatives of the community were imprisoned and tortured. Meanwhile some influential Jews appealed to the prince at Jassy, who ordered an investigation, the result being that the prisoners were liberated, and the guilty persons discovered and severely dealt with.

This was the first time that the Rumanian clergy participated in Jew-baiting, and they were the only persons who declared that they were not convinced of the innocence of the Jews as regards the accusation of ritual murder. It was due to the clergy's continued manifestations of animosity against the Jews that in 1714 a similar charge was brought against the Jews of the city of Roman. There a Christian girl, a servant in a Jewish family, had been abducted by some Roman Catholics and strangled. The crime was immediately laid at the door of the Jews. Every Jewish house was plundered; two prominent Jews were hanged; and probably every Jew in the city would have been killed had not the real criminals been opportunely discovered.

The Wallachian prince Stephen Cantaeuzene (1714-16) mulcted the Jews at every possible opportunity and ill-treated them outrageously. This state of affairs lasted until his successor, Nicholas Mavrocordatos (1716-30), came into power. He invited Jewish bankers and merchants into the country, and accorded to the entire Jewish community many valuable privileges.

Under John Mavrocordatos.

The most baneful influence on the condition of the Jewish inhabitants of Moldavia was exercised during the reign of John Mavrocordatos (1744-47). He was a profligate character who sacrificed many Jewish women to his evil desires. A Jewish farmer in the district of Suchava, in whose house he had indulged in the most unnatural orgies, preferred charges against the prince before the sultan, whereupon John Mavrocordatos had his accuser hanged. This act at last aroused the sultan's Mohammedan representative in Moldavia; and the prince paid the penalty with the loss of his throne.

Under the subsequent Moldavian and Wallachian princes, the Jews of both principalities enjoyed many liberties until the arrival of Ephraim, patriarch of Jerusalem. The last-named at once commenced a bitter arraignment of the Jews, which ended in riots and the demolition of the newly erected synagogue at Bucharest.

During the Russo-Turkish War, 1769-1774.

During the Russo-Turkish war (1769-74) the Jews of Rumania had to endure great hardships. They were massacred and robbed in almost every town and village in the country. When peace was at last restored both princes, Alexander Mavrocordatos of Moldavia and Nicholas Mavrogheni of Wallachia, pledged their special protection to the Jews, whose condition remained favorable until 1787, when the Janizaries on one side and the Russians on the other invaded Rumania and vied with each other in butchering the Jews.

Freed from these foreign foes, the Rumanians themselves embittered the lives of the Jews. Jewish children were seized and forcibly baptized. The ritual-murder accusation became epidemic. One made at Galatz in 1797 led to exceptionally severe results. The Jews were attacked by a large mob, driven from their homes, robbed, and waylaidon the streets; many were killed outright; some were forced into the Danube and drowned; others who took refuge in the synagogue were burned to death in the building; and only a few escaped, to whom an old priest gave protection in his church.

In 1806 war was renewed between Russia and Turkey. The invasion of the Russians into Rumania was, as usual, attended by massacres of the Jews. The Kalmucks, a horde of irregular Turkish soldiers, who appeared at Bucharest in 1812, became a terror to the unfortunate Jews. They passed daily through the streets inhabited by the latter, spitted children on their lances, and, in the presence of their parents, roasted them alive and devoured them. Before the Revolution of 1848, which swept over Rumania also, many restrictive laws against the Jews had been enacted; but although they entailed considerable suffering, they were never strictly enforced. During the time of the revolutionary upheaval the Jews participated in the movement in various ways. Daniel Rosenthal, the painter, distinguished himself in the cause of liberty, and paid for his activity with his life.

After the close of the Crimean war the struggle for the union of the two principalities began. The Jews were sought after by both parties, Unionists and anti-Unionists, each of which promised them full equality; and proclamations to this effect were issued (1857-58).

Negotiations with Alexander Cuza.

From the beginning of the reign of Alexander Cuza (1859-66), the first ruler of the united principalities, the Jews became a prominent factor in the politics of the country. In 1864 the prince, owing to difficulties between his government and the general assembly, dissolved the latter and, in order to gain popularity with the masses, decided to submit a draft of a constitution granting universal suffrage. He purposed creating two chambers (of senators and deputies respectively), to extend the franchise to all citizens, and to emancipate the peasants from forced labor, expecting thus to nullify the influence of the boyars, whose enmity he had already incurred beyond hope of reconciliation, and at the same time to win financial support from both the Jews and the Armenians. It appears that after all the prince was very modest in his demands; for his aids, when they met the representatives of the Jews and the Armenians, asked for only 40,000 galbeni (about $90,000) from the two groups. The Armenians discussed the matter with the Jews, but they were not able to come to a satisfactory agreement in the matter.

Meanwhile the prince was pressing in his demands. It is claimed that one rich Armenian decided to advance the necessary amount of money, while the Jews quarrelled about the method of assessment. The rich Jews, for some reason or other, refused to advance the money; and the middle classes in maintained that it would be simply money thrown away, since they could see no benefits in political rights. The more devout even insisted that such rights would only interfere with the exercise of their religion. Cuza, on being informed that the Jews hesitated to pay their share, inserted in his draft of a constitution a clause excluding from the right of suffrage all who did not profess Christianity.

When Charles von Hohenzollern succeeded Cuza (1866), the first spectacle that confronted him in the capital was a riot against the Jews. A draft of a constitution was then submitted by the government, Article 6 of which declared that "religion is no obstacle to citizenship"; but, "with regard to the Jews, a special law will have to be framed in order to regulate their admission to naturalization and also to civil rights." On June 30, 1866, the great synagogue at Bucharest was desecrated and demolished. Many Jews were beaten, maimed, and robbed. As a result, Article 6 was withdrawn and Article 7 was added, which latter read that "only such aliens as are of the Christian faith may obtain citizenship."

Persecution by Bratianu.

John Bratianu, nominally Liberal, the first anti-Semite of the modern type in Rumania, was then called to the premiership. Charles was very timid, and dared not interfere in national affairs. Bratianu thus gained absolute power; and his first step was to ransack the archives of the country for ancient decrees against the Jews and to apply them with merciless rigor. The Jews were then driven from the rural communities, and many of those who were dwellers in towns were declared vagrants and, under the provisions of certain old decrees, were expelled from the country. A number of such Jews who proved their Rumanian birth were forced across the Danube, and when Turkey refused to receive them, were thrown into the river and drowned. Almost every country in Europe was shocked at these barbarities. The Rumanian government was warned by the powers; and Bratianu was subsequently dismissed from office.

However, when the Conservatives came into power they treated the Jews no less harshly. After some time the Liberals again secured the ascendency, and Bratianu resumed the leadership. He was an unscrupulous diplomat, and understood how to allay the wrath of the other European countries. Meanwhile the situation in the Balkans became threatening. The Turks in Bulgaria attacked the Christians, and the Russo-Turkish war was approaching. This war was concluded by the treaty of Berlin (1878), which stipulated (Article 44) that the Jews of Rumania should receive full citizenship. After many exciting scenes at home and diplomatic negotiations abroad, the Rumanian government at last agreed to abrogate Article 7 of its constitution; but instead thereof, it declared that "the naturalization of aliens not under foreign protection should in every individual case be decided by Parliament."

A show of compliance with the treaty of Berlin being necessary, 883 Jews, participants in the war of 1877 against Turkey, were naturalized in a body by a vote of both chambers. Fifty-seven persons voted upon as individuals were naturalized in 1880; 6, in 1881; 2, in 1882; 2, in 1883; and 18, from 1886 to 1900; in all, 85 Jews in twenty-one years, 27 of whom in the meantime died. Besides this evasion of her treaty obligations, Rumania, after theBerlin treaty, began a systematic persecution of the Jews, which was relaxed only when the government was in need of Jewish money. As soon as a loan from Jewish bankers in other countries had been obtained, the Jews were once more driven from the rural communities and small towns. Various laws were passed until the pursuit of all vocations followed by the Jews was made dependent on the possession of political rights, which only Rumanians might exercise. Even against the Jewish working men laws were enacted which forced more than 40 per cent of them into idleness.

Excluded from Education.

Similar laws were passed in regard to the liberal professions, affecting Jewish lawyers, physicians, pharmacists, veterinarians, etc. The most malicious law was one enacted in 1893, which deprived Jewish children of the right to be educated in the public schools. This law provided that the children of foreigners might be received only after those of citizens had been provided for, and that they should, moreover, pay exorbitant tuition-fees. In 1898 another law was passed, excluding the Jews from the secondary schools and the universities.

Meanwhile the government was very active in expelling Jews from the country. This was in accordance with the law of 1881, which permitted the "expulsion of objectionable aliens." The authorities commenced with the expulsion of Dr. M. Gaster, Dr. E. Schwarzfeld, and other Jews of note who had dared to protest against the cruel treatment accorded by the government to their coreligionists; then journalists, rabbis, merchants, artisans, and even common laborers fell victims to such proscriptions. The See OATH MORE JUDAICO in its most disgraceful form was exacted by the courts, and was only abolished (in 1904) in consequence of unfavorable comments in the French press. In 1892, when the United States addressed a note to the signatory powers of the Berlin treaty, it was bitterly assailed by the Rumanian press. The government, however, was somewhat frightened; and after some time a ministerial council was called and the question discussed. As a result the Rumanian government issued some pamphlets in French, reiterating its accusations against the Jews and mantaining that whatever persecution they had endured they had fully deserved in consequence of their exploitation of the rural population.

The emigration of Rumanian Jews on a larger scale commenced soon after 1878; and it has continued to the present day (1905). It is admitted that at least 70 per cent would leave the country at any time if the necessary traveling expenses were furnished. There are no official statistics of emigration; but it is safe to place the minimum number of Jewish emigrants from 1898 to 1904 at 70,000.

Statistics.

According to the official statistics of 1878, there were then 218,304 Jews in Rumania. The excess of births over deaths from 1878 to 1894 being 70,408, the number of Jews at the end of 1894 ought to have been 288,712. But the census of December in that year showed only 243,225, or 45,487 less than the number expected. In 1904 it was estimated that the number of Jews who were living in Rumania did not exceed 250,000.

The administration of Jewish communal affairs in Rumania differs very little from that in southern Russia; and it has remained in almost the same state from time immemorial. There is the "gabella" (meat-tax), from which the rabbis and synagogues are supported, as well as the Jewish hospitals, Hebrew free schools, etc. In religious life Ḥasidism has the greatest number of followers; indeed. it is claimed that the cradle of Ḥasidism rested on Rumanian soil. There Ba'al Shem-Ṭob, the founder of the sect, expounded his doctrines; and his descendants are now represented by the Friedmann family, various members of which have taken up their abode in the townlet of Buhush.

Rabbis and Savants.

In the old graveyards of Jassy, Botushani, and other towns of Moldavia, tombstones indicate the resting-places of well-known rabbinical authors. Nathan (Nata) Hannover, rabbi at Fokshani at the beginning of the seventeenth century, was the author of "Yewen Meẓulah," a valuable account of the persecutions of the Jews during his lifetime. Julius Barasch is probably the most interesting Jew in the history of Rumanian literature. He was the first to introduce Western thought into that literature; and it is justly claimed that he taught the Rumanians how to employ in their own language a graceful style previously unknown to them. Hillel Kahane of Botushani wrote a laborious work in Hebrew on physical geography. Wolf Zbarzer and M. T. Rabener distinguished themselves in Hebrew poetry by their easy and elegant style. Baron Waldberg and D. Wexler contributed largely to modern Hebrew literature; and M. Brauenstein is a fluent and prolific Hebrew publicist.

M. Gaster, haham of the Portuguese Jewish community of London, is the author of a standard work, in the Rumanian vernacular, on Rumanian literature; M. Schwarzfeld, a prolific writer on the history of the Jews in Rumania; Lazar Shaineanu, a Rumanian philologist whose works have won prizes offered by the Rumanian Academy; and Heimann Tiktin, the most celebrated Rumanian grammarian. The last two have recently become converted to Christianity.

Ronetti Roman is undoubtedly the greatest of all Rumanian poets; his poem "Radu" is the highest poetic achievement in Rumanian literature, and of equal merit is his drama "Manasse," on the problem of Jewish apostasy, which evoked admiration and praise from the critics generally. A German poet who was born in Rumania is Marco Brociner. Solomon Schechter, discoverer of the Hebrew Ben Sira, and now president of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, was born at Fokshani, and received his early instruction at the bet ha-midrash there.

Among communal workers deserving of especial mention are Adolf Stern of Bucharest and Karpel Lippe of Jassy. The latter is also an author of works on Jewish subjects.

B'NAI B'RITH; JEWISH COLONIZATION ASSOCIATION; PEIXOTTO Benjamin Franklin; UnitedStates. For Jewish Rumanian periodicals see Jewish Encyclopedia, 9:608b, s. PERIODICALS, and the list given at end of that article.