09 - Cultural Life

Since most Rumanian Jews were of Polish or Russian extraction, their religious and cultural traditions were similar to those of the Jews of Eastern Europe. Their rabbis and teachers, as well as their religious trends, came from there. Hasidism was particularly widespread in the Moldavia province, which borders on Galicia and Russia and where hasidic centers were established at the "courts" of the zaddikim of the Ruzhin dynasty in the towns of Stefanesti, Buhusi, Adjud, and Focsani. The spoken language of the Jewish population was Yiddish; Rumanian became more widely used among them only in the second half of the 19th century, at the time when the first Rumanian universities were established (Jassy in 1860 and Bucharest in 1864). In that period, too, the development of modern Rumanian literature began. In the middle of the century Julius Barasch, of Galician origin, brought Mendelssohnian haskalah to Rumanian Jewry. In 1857 he published the first newspaper in Rumanian and French—Israelitul RomDn—whose function was to fight for equal civil rights for Rumanian Jewry. In 1854 another two newspapers—Timpul (Di Tsayt; Bucharest) and Gazeta Roma (Jassy)—appeared in Rumanian and Yiddish, but all three papers ceased publication before the end of a year. Other such attempts met the same fate. Only in 1879 did the weekly Fraternitatea begin to appear, lasting until 1885, when it ceased publication upon the expulsion from Rumania of its chief editors, Isaac Auerbach and E. Schwarzfeld, for their stand against persecutions. This paper, which represented the assimilationist trend, was opposed to the incipient pre-Zionist movement which sponsored the establishment of the colonies of Zikhron Ya'akov and Rosh Pinnah in Erez Israel. Then two papers in Rumanian also appeared, supporting aliyah: ApGrGtorul, which was published in Bucharest from 1881 to 1884 with E. S. Gold as editor, and the weekly Stindardul, which was published in Focsani from 1882 to 1883. The Yiddish paper Ha-Yo'ez which appeared in Bucharest from 1874 to 1896 also supported aliyah. Eleazar Rokeah, an emissary from Erez Israel, published as special organs of the pre-Zionist movement the Hebrew paper Emek Yizre'el in Jassy (1882), and the Yiddish Di Hofnung in Piatra-Neamt (1882), and Der Emigrant in Galati (1882). Of the Jewish press in Rumania the weekly Egalitatea, edited by M. Schwarzfeld, survived for half a century. The weekly Curierul Israelit, edited by M. Schweig, began to appear in 1906 and continued up to 1948, becoming the mouthpiece of the Uniunea Evreilor RomDni ("Union of Rumanian Jews") after World War I. In the time of Herzl several Zionist papers appeared in Rumania but did not last long. In 1913 the monthly Hatikva in Rumanian was issued in Galati under the editorship of L. Gold who gathered round him the outstanding Jewish authors in Rumanian. Apart from original articles they also published translations of a high literary standard from modern Hebrew poetry and classical Yiddish literature. After World War I, from 1919 to 1923, there was published in Bucharest a daily newspaper in Rumanian with a Zionist national tendency, MDntuirea edited by A. L. Zissu with Abraham Feller as chief editor. This paper stood for the idea of a Jewish political party and sharply attacked the tendencies of assimilationist circles. The weekly Renasterea NoastrG (1923–42, 1944–48), edited by Samuel I. Stern, continued in this direction subsequently. The Zionist Federation published the weekly Ctiri din Lumea EvreeascG, edited by I. Ludo and later by Theoder Loewenstein. Between the two world wars the Zionist students' association published the monthly Hasmonaea. The number of Jewish journalists grew between the two wars, some of them even becoming chief editors of the great democratic papers. They included Constantin Graur, B. Branisteanu, Em. Fagure, G. Milian (Bucharest); A. Hefter (Jassy), and S. Schaferman-PGstoresu (BrGila). After they had acquired a knowledge of Rumanian, several Jewish scholars at the end of the 19th century became distinguished in the field of philology and folklore: Lazar SGineanu (SainMan), compiler of the first practical dictionary of Rumanian (1896); M. Gaster, who did research on early Rumanian folklore; Heinrich Tiktin, author of a scientific grammar of Rumanian in two volumes (1893–94). This tradition continued down to later times. I. A. Candrea also compiled a Rumanian dictionary (1931), as did J. Byk and A. L. Graur after World War II. A number of these scholars also devoted time to research on the history of Rumanian Jewry. The pioneer in this field was the historian J. Psantir, whose two Yiddish volumes contained Hebrew headings: Divrei ha-Yamim le-Arzot Rumanyah (Jassy, 1871) and Korot ha-Yehudim be-Rumanyah (Lemberg, 1877). A society for research into the history of Rumanian Jewry was established in 1886 and named for Julius Barasch. Among its active members were J. Psantir, M. Gaster, Lazar CGineanu, Elias Schwarzfeld, M. Schwarzfeld, and others. In the three publications of their bulletin they published source material, memoirs, and bibliographical notes, as well as some combined research and monographs of Jewish communities. Although the society ceased activities after four years the scholars continued their researches. Part of their works appeared in the 19 volumes of the annual Anuarul pentru IsraeliTi and in a weekly published by M. Schwarzfeld. Between the two world wars Meir A. Halevy published several monographs on the history of the Jews of Rumania. The Templul Coral ("Choir Synagogue") then erected in Bucharest a museum, library, and archives for the history of Rumanian Jewry. In some bulletins of these institutions and in the annual Sinai (1926–32), edited by Meir A. Halevy, there also appeared researches on the history of Rumanian Jewry.

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* Historia: Rumania