Moses Rosen
Encyclopedia
Moses Rosen (July 23, 1912 - May 6, 1994) was Chief Rabbi
(Rav Kolel) of Romania
n
Jewry between 1948–1994 and president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania between 1964-1994. He led the community in his country through the entire Communist era in Romania
and continued in that role after the restoration of the democracy by the Romanian Revolution of 1989
. Since 1957 was deputee from an electoral section of Bucharest
in the Romanian parliament (the Great National Assembly) during the Communist regime, and after 1989 in the democratic parliament.In the 1980s was allowed by the Romanian authorities to get also the Israeli nationality and was elected as president of the Council of the Jewish Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv
.
of Moineşti
, in the district of Bacău
, as son of a
known rabbi
, the rav gaon Avraham Arie Leib Rosen (1870–1951), of Galician origin.
In 1916 the father,Avraham Arie Leib Rosen, became rabbi in another Moldavia
n town, Fălticeni
and moved there with the whole family. He used to preach in the "Habad" synagogue and was one of the most esteemed rabbis. Through the mediation of his son-in-law, the rabbi dr Wolf (Zeev) Gottlieb from Glasgow
, his responsa
and other religious law works of him were edited and printed in Rav Kook Publishing House in Jerusalem (Shaagat Arié, Eitan Arie, 1912; Pirkei Shoshana, 1920).
As child, Moses Rosen lived in Fălticeni a part of his childhood years, learned Torah
and Talmud
with his father for many years along and studied at the local high school
. Once, at age 14 after having expressed publicly an opinion against the antisemitism was arrested and judged for false Lèse majesté
charges. Fortunately was granted amnesty after a month.
After having passed the state maturity exams in Dorohoi
, in 1931 the young Moses Rosen entered the Law faculty in the University of Bucharest. But the antisemitic atmosphere which dominated then the university life in the Romanian capital caused him to prefer to stop the law studies there and to go to renew them in Vienna
. In the same while started studies at the Viennese Rabbinical Seminary. For economical reasons had to come back to Romania and this time, despite of the hardships, succeeded to learn to the end at the Faculty of Law and to get the licence (Dr. Juris) in 1935. Then made his duty military service for two years in his residence town Fălticeni, most of the time as military rabbi and confessor.
In 1937 came back to Vienna in order to end them his Rabbinical studies. Learned there with the rabbi Altdorf. The Anschluss
in May 1938 forced him to leave soon.
On coming back to Romania, got in 1939 the licence of rabbi from some of the greatest rabbis of the country: Haim Rabinovici, Baruh Glanz, Moses Berger, members of the Rabbinical Council of Bucharest and from the chief rabbi of Romania, dr Jacob Itzhak Niemirower
and the chief rabbi of Bucovina, dr.Abraham Jacob Mark.
, then, in May 1940 was appointed rabbi
in the town of Suceava
. But, after September 6, 1940, when the Iron Guard
or the Legionnaires, the Romanian extreme right, arrived to the power, Moses Rosen was arrested under the charge of being "Communist" and deported to an internment camp in Caracal
, in south of Romania. After several months, after the defeat of the Legionnaires rebellion by the forces loyal to the prime minister, the General Ion Antonescu
, Rosen was discharged and fulfilled a part-time job as rabbi in two synagogues in Bucharest - "Reshit Daat" and "Beit El". Meanwhile he also taught Talmud
in a Jewish school. The entering of Romania in the war against the Soviet Union
, as ally of Nazi Germany
, brought more hardships to the Jewish population. Rosen had to hid himself in order to avoid a very probable deportation to Transnistria
as suspected "left wing" or "Bolshevik
Jewish activist". After the coup of August 23, 1944 which brought Romania to abandon the alliance with Hitler
and put an end to the Fascist-style
antisemitic regime, the freedom for Jews was reestablished and Moses Rosen advanced on the steps of the rabbinical hierarchy in Bucharest. He became the head of the religion
department of the Jewish community, was elected as member in the Rabbinate Council and as rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Bucharest
(Sinagoga Mare).
, was deported from Romania by the new Communist leadership of the country, which was installed under the pressure of the Soviet occupation force. Rabbi Alexandru Şafran was considered too close to the Royal family and to the old "bourgeois" leadership of the Romanian Jews (the Union of Romanian Jews
,dr Wilhelm Filderman
, the Zionist
representatives and others) which was hated by the new government. He was ordered to leave Romania within 2–3 hours.
The Communist party, which meanwhile changed its name to "Romanian Workers Party" (Partidul Muncitoresc Român)
imposed on the Jews a new ethnic organization called "The
Jewish Democratic Committee", somehow an imitation of the former Yevsektsiya
from Soviet Russia
. Under the supervision of the Jewish Democratic Committee, the rabbis and the communities representatives from all around Romania met in Bucharest on June 16, 1948 and elected by secret vote Dr Moses Rosen as the new Chief Rabbi instead of Alexandru Şafran who was accused as a traitor who "abandoned" his "sheep and goats".
The rival of Moses Rosen in this election was Dr David Şafran,a nephew of the former chief rabbi,known as fervent Zionist activist. Following the item written on the scrap of paper
he had pulled out, David Şafran had to give a sample of sermon about the fight for peace
on basis of a week pericope
from the Torah
. At his turn, following the same procedure, Moses Rosen was demanded to preach at the inauguration of a craftsmen cooperative on basis of other pericope.
On 20 June 1948 Moses Rosen, as winner of the contest, was installed as "Rav Kolel of the Moses' cult" in Romania, at a ceremony in the Choral Temple, in the presence of many officialities, among them the vicepresident of the Great National Assembly (the Romanian parliament under the communist regime), Ştefan Voitec
and the minister of cults, Stanciu Stoian. The rabbi David Şafran was in the next years to be victim of the Communist terror
, persecuted and imprisoned for several years for his Zionist convictions.
After his liberation, he was allowed in the end to emigrate to Israel, where he wrote many books, in many of them giving a very negative opinion about Moses Rosen, the "Red rabbi" ("Rabinul roşu").
To oppose frontally the regime, which used then Stalinist terror methods would have attract cruel individual and collective repression and revenge measures.
After having been allowed on 1948, June 27 - July 6 to take part to the meeting of the World Jewish Congress
in Montreux
, Switzerland
, following Moscow's directives, the Romanian communist regime disconnected totally the Jews of Romania from the other Jewish communities in the world for a period of 8 years. In those difficult circumstances only remained active the diplomatic mission in Bucharest of the newly founded Jewish state of Israel.
In 1948 the Rabbinical Council of Romanian Jews led by Moses Rosen was coerced to sign a declaration of condemnation of the so called "Zionist activity" of the former chief rabbi Dr Alexandru Şafran, who meanwhile was elected chief rabbi of Geneva
.
Nevertheless, despite his formal membership in the Jewish Democratic Committee, Moses Rosen tried to keep a distance from the policy of the leaders of the Committee (Bercu Feldman, H. Leibovici-Şerban, Israel Bacalu etc.) who desired to encourage a Jewish secular culture in Yiddish on account of the Hebrew religious and secular one, this from positions near to the ideology of the Communist regime.
The reserved attitude of Moses Rosen
vis a vis the political and cultural line of the Jewish Democratic Committee proved to be a right diplomacy.
In march 1953, the regime, again inspired by Moscow, decided to rid itself from the Committee and led to its "voluntary" dissolution. The press organ of the Committee, "Unirea" was closed.
After Stalin's death and later, after the beginning of de-Stalinization
in USSR, the Communist authorities in Romania decided to use the good offices of the leaderships of the different religious cults in Romania, including those of religious minorities, in order to improve their image in the world and to improve the economic relations of Romania with the foreign countries.
In 1956,the same year when many of the Zionist activists were freed from the Romanian prisons,the authorities allowed to Rabbi Rosen to took part again to Jewish meetings and conferences abroad. The first occasion was the contacts with the Chief Rabbi of Sweden
, Kurt Wilhelm. The same year in October 1956 Rosen was authorized to found the "Revista Cultului Mozaic" (The Mosaic Cult Review), official press organ of the Romanian Jewry in Romanian, published in Romanian, Yiddish and Hebrew. With its last one page in Hebrew it was for more than thirty years the sole journal in Hebrew printed in all the communist world. The prestigious scholar Ezra Fleischer
former Prisoner of Zion in the Romanian prisons, and Israel Prize winner, before its emigration to Israel.
was one of the first editors of the journal,
Since 1957, Dr Rosen, following a renewed tradition existing during the pre-Fascist epoch—was elected member of the Romanian Parliament, representing a Bucharest
constituency (then still with a rather large Jewish population).
Moses Rosen added to his functions that of the chairman of the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Romania and kept it until his death.
The position of Rabbi Rosen got strengthened following the change in the Romanian foreign policy after 1964. The regime of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
in his last days and then the new Romanian Communist leaders, Nicolae Ceausescu
and Ion Gheorghe Maurer
were interested to increase the independence of their country from Soviet Union
and to develop good relations with the West.
After the big waves of Jewish emigration in the years permitted by the Communist Party in the years 1947-1952 and again in the first years of the 1960s, approx. 40,000 Jews have remained in Romania (in 1956 they were 146,000 as per the official census).
The Ceauşescu regime decided to strengthen the relations of Romania with Israel and with the Jewish communities in the world, especially in the United States
and to benefit from that economically and politically. In fact even earlier in, since the 1950s Israel and western Jewish organizations, were ready to help economically the Romanian state for the opening of the emigration gates. This time, in the 1970s to 1980s, they were allowed also to help the local Jewish community institutions and life. With the authorization of the regime were founded with the help (after 1967) of the Joint Distribution Committee etc. a net of elderly homes, were opened kosher community restaurants, was given medical and social assistance to ill and persons in need. Also flourished a Jewish cultural life with summer camps for the Jewish youth, Talmud
Torah
and Hebrew language courses, series of lectures and concerts on Jewish items.
In 1979 he founded, again with the permission of the Romanian regime, the Museum for the history of the Romanian Jews in the building of "Unirea Sfântă" Jewish Temple in Bucharest.
The activity of Rabbi Rosen in those years, with the silent approval of the regime, in the direction of encouraging the emigration to Israel, the study of the Hebrew language, diffusion of the Jewish traditions and values, in managing of the social works among the needy and old Jewish population, his leadership and diplomatic abilities, and also his Jewish and general culture, won esteem among the Jewish leaders in the world.
On an occasion, the chief rabbi of England, Sir Immanuel Jakobowitz expressed his enthusiastic admiration for Rosen's achievements.
Rabbi Rosen, who felt always a proud Jew and had a good acquaintance with the Romanian culture, found a place in the frame of the new Romanian diplomacy and became one of Romania's important non official "ambassadors" on the international scene. (So did also other religious leaders, for example the Muslim
mufti
of the Romanian Turks
and Tatars
, Yakub Mehmet
who became one of his country's speakers during his visits in Arab
and Muslim countries)
In the 1970s he enrolled himself to the efforts of the Bucharest regime to get for Romania the Most favoured nation
clause in the trade relations with USA.
In March 1979, Rabbi Rosen and Patriarch Justinian
, head of the Romanian Orthodox Church
, jointly sponsored a Jewish
and Orthodox Christian
Dialogue in Lucerne
, Switzerland
. http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?id=982.
In the same spirit, he maintained very good relations with the Armenian bishop of Bucharest, who became later the Patriarch Catholicos of Armenia, Vazgen I
.
A public square in Jerusalem is named after Rabbi Rosen and his wife Amalia.
era, Rabbi Rosen's articles in the Yiddish-language
weekly IKUF-Bleter showed him to be "one of the staunchest leaders of the anti-Zionist
and anti-Israel
campaigns, and one who praised the Romanian Communist
leaders." http://www.jewish-theater.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=411
Hadassah
magazine wrote in 2000 of the "alliance" between Nicolae Ceauşescu
, "From Rosen's viewpoint, anything he could do to help Romania's Jews was legitimate. So he became as close to Ceauşescu as he could-in the name of preserving Jewish life in Romania and keeping the exit doors open. After the Six-Day War
Romania did not break diplomatic relations with Israel
. In return Rosen praised Ceauşescu in the West, undoubtedly contributing to the Romanian chief's reputation as a benign Communist leader. What didn't become clear until later was that he [Ceauşescu] was extorting a princely sum for his leniency toward the Jews."http://www.hadassah.org/news/content/per_hadassah/archive/2000/March/travel.htm
In this connection Rabbi Rosen, in his short 1987 piece "The Recipe", quoted Charles de Gaulle
: "I have no enemies, I have no friends, I have interests," and added "I succeeded in convincing the Romanian Government that, by doing good to the Jews, by meting out justice to them, it could obtain advantages in matters of favourable public opinion, trade relations, political sympathies... The 'business transaction' was profitable to both sides." Millions of Jews, he wrote, were living "in Eastern Europe, in a socialist society. No matter if one likes this or not, it represents a reality... Can they, somehow remain Jewish? The answer given by the past 40 years of the life led by a Jewish community in socialist Romania is categorical and irrefutable. Yes, indeed. They can. "Our 'balance-sheet' proves that, without making any noise, demonstrations or rows, we have succeeded in making Romania's interests correspond to ours..." He also wrote proudly of the fact the Jews who had left Romania had overwhelmingly made aliyah
to Israel: "More than 90 per cent of the Romanian Jews reached Lod
. They did not 'lose their way' heading for other continents..." [Rosen, 1987]
In the 1980s in his opposition to antisemitism and xenophobic trends which were sometimes encouraged by Ceauşescu himself, dr Rosen dared to rise his voice even against some
protégés of the regime as the poet Corneliu Vadim Tudor
. the writer Eugen Barbu
and the literary historian
Dumitru Vatamaniuc who edited posthumously, and without adequate critic notes, the antisemitic articles of the Romanian national great poet, Mihai Eminescu
.
, Rabbi Rosen was a harsh critic of the efforts to rehabilitate the image of Ion Antonescu
, Romania's leader during the period when it had been allied with the Axis Powers
during World War II
, and continued to advocate emigration to Israel: "Demagogy
is very strong here... Neofascist propaganda... plays on xenophobia
. Jews are a very easy scapegoat... I advise every Jew who can do so, to go to Israel." http://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/history_wing/antisemitism/primary_resources/Periodicals/sptimes91.pdf
In 1992, he became an honorary member of the Romanian Academy
.
Rabbi Rosen was married since 1949 to Amalia, born Ruckenstein, from Burdujeni-Suceava
. The couple had no children.
His elder brother (from the first marriage of his father)
Eliyahu Rosen, was the erudite rabbi of the Jews in the Polish
town of Oświęcim
(Auschwitz) and perished in the Holocaust with his family and whole community.
The Moses Rosen's sister, Betty Bracha Rosen married the future chief rabbi of Scotland
, the scholar Zeev Wolf Gottlieb.
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
(Rav Kolel) of Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n
Jewry between 1948–1994 and president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania between 1964-1994. He led the community in his country through the entire Communist era in Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
and continued in that role after the restoration of the democracy by the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
. Since 1957 was deputee from an electoral section of Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
in the Romanian parliament (the Great National Assembly) during the Communist regime, and after 1989 in the democratic parliament.In the 1980s was allowed by the Romanian authorities to get also the Israeli nationality and was elected as president of the Council of the Jewish Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
.
His family and youth
He was born on July 23, 1912 in the townTown
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
of Moineşti
Moinesti
Moineşti is a city in Bacău County, Romania, with a population of 24,210 . Its name is derived from the Romanian-language word moină, which means "fallow" or "light rain". Moineşti once had a large Jewish community; in Jewish contexts the name is often given as Mojnescht...
, in the district of Bacău
Bacau
Bacău is the main city in Bacău County, Romania. It covers a land surface of 43 km², and, as of January 1, 2009, has an estimated population of 177,087. The city is situated in the historical region of Moldavia, at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, and on the Bistriţa River...
, as son of a
known rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
, the rav gaon Avraham Arie Leib Rosen (1870–1951), of Galician origin.
In 1916 the father,Avraham Arie Leib Rosen, became rabbi in another Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
n town, Fălticeni
Falticeni
Fălticeni is a city in Suceava County, Romania, capital of the former Baia County . As of 2003 the population is 28,899, and the city covers an area of 28,76 km², of which 25% are orchards and lakes. The city is 25 km away from Suceava, the capital of the county...
and moved there with the whole family. He used to preach in the "Habad" synagogue and was one of the most esteemed rabbis. Through the mediation of his son-in-law, the rabbi dr Wolf (Zeev) Gottlieb from Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, his responsa
Responsa
Responsa comprise a body of written decisions and rulings given by legal scholars in response to questions addressed to them.-In the Roman Empire:Roman law recognised responsa prudentium, i.e...
and other religious law works of him were edited and printed in Rav Kook Publishing House in Jerusalem (Shaagat Arié, Eitan Arie, 1912; Pirkei Shoshana, 1920).
As child, Moses Rosen lived in Fălticeni a part of his childhood years, learned Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
and Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
with his father for many years along and studied at the local high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
. Once, at age 14 after having expressed publicly an opinion against the antisemitism was arrested and judged for false Lèse majesté
Lèse majesté
Lese-majesty is the crime of violating majesty, an offence against the dignity of a reigning sovereign or against a state.This behavior was first classified as a criminal offence against the dignity of the Roman republic in Ancient Rome...
charges. Fortunately was granted amnesty after a month.
After having passed the state maturity exams in Dorohoi
Dorohoi
Dorohoi is a city in the Botoşani County, Romania, on the right bank of the Jijia River, which broadens into a lake on the north.Dorohoi used to be a market for the timber and farm produce of the north Moldavian highlands; merchants from the neighboring states flocked to its great fair, held on...
, in 1931 the young Moses Rosen entered the Law faculty in the University of Bucharest. But the antisemitic atmosphere which dominated then the university life in the Romanian capital caused him to prefer to stop the law studies there and to go to renew them in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. In the same while started studies at the Viennese Rabbinical Seminary. For economical reasons had to come back to Romania and this time, despite of the hardships, succeeded to learn to the end at the Faculty of Law and to get the licence (Dr. Juris) in 1935. Then made his duty military service for two years in his residence town Fălticeni, most of the time as military rabbi and confessor.
In 1937 came back to Vienna in order to end them his Rabbinical studies. Learned there with the rabbi Altdorf. The Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
in May 1938 forced him to leave soon.
On coming back to Romania, got in 1939 the licence of rabbi from some of the greatest rabbis of the country: Haim Rabinovici, Baruh Glanz, Moses Berger, members of the Rabbinical Council of Bucharest and from the chief rabbi of Romania, dr Jacob Itzhak Niemirower
Jacob Itzhak Niemirower
Rabbi Dr. Jacob Itzhak Niemirower was a Romanian Modern Reform rabbi, close to reformistic trends in the Western European Judaism, theologist, philosopher and historian...
and the chief rabbi of Bucovina, dr.Abraham Jacob Mark.
His activity as young rabbi in Romania
His first job as rabbi was in a small synagogue in the Mahala quarter of FălticeniFalticeni
Fălticeni is a city in Suceava County, Romania, capital of the former Baia County . As of 2003 the population is 28,899, and the city covers an area of 28,76 km², of which 25% are orchards and lakes. The city is 25 km away from Suceava, the capital of the county...
, then, in May 1940 was appointed rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
in the town of Suceava
Suceava
Suceava is the Suceava County seat in Bukovina, Moldavia region, in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1388 to 1565.-History:...
. But, after September 6, 1940, when the Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
or the Legionnaires, the Romanian extreme right, arrived to the power, Moses Rosen was arrested under the charge of being "Communist" and deported to an internment camp in Caracal
Caracal
The caracal is a fiercely territorial medium-sized cat ranging over Western Asia, South Asia and Africa.The word caracal comes from the Turkish word "karakulak", meaning "black ear". In North India and Pakistan, the caracal is locally known as syahgosh or shyahgosh, which is a Persian term...
, in south of Romania. After several months, after the defeat of the Legionnaires rebellion by the forces loyal to the prime minister, the General Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
, Rosen was discharged and fulfilled a part-time job as rabbi in two synagogues in Bucharest - "Reshit Daat" and "Beit El". Meanwhile he also taught Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
in a Jewish school. The entering of Romania in the war against the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, as ally of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, brought more hardships to the Jewish population. Rosen had to hid himself in order to avoid a very probable deportation to Transnistria
Transnistria (World War II)
Transnistria Governorate was a Romanian administered territory, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944...
as suspected "left wing" or "Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
Jewish activist". After the coup of August 23, 1944 which brought Romania to abandon the alliance with Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and put an end to the Fascist-style
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
antisemitic regime, the freedom for Jews was reestablished and Moses Rosen advanced on the steps of the rabbinical hierarchy in Bucharest. He became the head of the religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
department of the Jewish community, was elected as member in the Rabbinate Council and as rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Bucharest
Great Synagogue (Bucharest)
The Great Synagogue was raised in 1845 by the Polish-Jewish community. It was repaired in 1865, redesigned in 1903 and 1909, repainted in Rococo style in 1936 by Ghershon Horowitz, then it was restored again in 1945, as it had been devastated by the extreme right Legionaries. It nowadays hosts an...
(Sinagoga Mare).
His election as Chief Rabbi of Romanian Jewry - 1948
In December 1947 the much esteemed Chief Rabbi in office of Romania, Dr Alexandru ŞafranAlexandru Safran
Alexandru Şafran was a Romanian and, after 1948, Swiss rabbi. As chief rabbi of Romania , he intervened with authorities in the fascist government of Ion Antonescu in an unusually successful attempt to save Jews during the Holocaust.-Biography:Şafran was born in Bacău, and received his doctorate...
, was deported from Romania by the new Communist leadership of the country, which was installed under the pressure of the Soviet occupation force. Rabbi Alexandru Şafran was considered too close to the Royal family and to the old "bourgeois" leadership of the Romanian Jews (the Union of Romanian Jews
Union of Romanian Jews
The Union of Romanian Jews was a political organisation active in Romania in the first half of the 20th century.The UER targeted all Romanian Jews who had obtained citizenship and accepted its programme of integration into the Romanian state. It was organised based on geographic Jewish...
,dr Wilhelm Filderman
Wilhelm Filderman
Wilhelm Filderman was a leader of the Romanian-Jewish community between the two wars and a representative of the Jews in the Romanian parliament....
, the Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
representatives and others) which was hated by the new government. He was ordered to leave Romania within 2–3 hours.
The Communist party, which meanwhile changed its name to "Romanian Workers Party" (Partidul Muncitoresc Român)
imposed on the Jews a new ethnic organization called "The
Jewish Democratic Committee", somehow an imitation of the former Yevsektsiya
Yevsektsiya
Yevsektsiya , , the abbreviation of the phrase "Еврейская секция" was the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party. Yevsektsiya was established to popularize Marxism and encourage loyalty to the Soviet regime among Russian Jews. The founding conference of Yevsektsiya took place on October 20,...
from Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
. Under the supervision of the Jewish Democratic Committee, the rabbis and the communities representatives from all around Romania met in Bucharest on June 16, 1948 and elected by secret vote Dr Moses Rosen as the new Chief Rabbi instead of Alexandru Şafran who was accused as a traitor who "abandoned" his "sheep and goats".
The rival of Moses Rosen in this election was Dr David Şafran,a nephew of the former chief rabbi,known as fervent Zionist activist. Following the item written on the scrap of paper
Paper
Paper is a thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon, drawing or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
he had pulled out, David Şafran had to give a sample of sermon about the fight for peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
on basis of a week pericope
Pericope
A pericope in rhetoric is a set of verses that forms one coherent unit or thought, thus forming a short passage suitable for public reading from a text, now usually of sacred scripture....
from the Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
. At his turn, following the same procedure, Moses Rosen was demanded to preach at the inauguration of a craftsmen cooperative on basis of other pericope.
On 20 June 1948 Moses Rosen, as winner of the contest, was installed as "Rav Kolel of the Moses' cult" in Romania, at a ceremony in the Choral Temple, in the presence of many officialities, among them the vicepresident of the Great National Assembly (the Romanian parliament under the communist regime), Ştefan Voitec
Stefan Voitec
Ştefan Voitec was a Romanian socialist and communist journalist, politician, and statesman of Communist Romania.-Biography:...
and the minister of cults, Stanciu Stoian. The rabbi David Şafran was in the next years to be victim of the Communist terror
State terrorism
State terrorism may refer to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against a foreign state or people. It can also refer to acts of violence by a state against its own people.-Definition:...
, persecuted and imprisoned for several years for his Zionist convictions.
After his liberation, he was allowed in the end to emigrate to Israel, where he wrote many books, in many of them giving a very negative opinion about Moses Rosen, the "Red rabbi" ("Rabinul roşu").
Leader of the Judaic cult in Romania in the years of Stalinism
As leader of the "Mosaic" religious institutions, the rabbi Rosen was submitted to the control of the Communist authorities which ran in the years of fifties a very harsh policy against expressions of Jewish national feeling, especially the Zionism, the Hebrew culture and the Jewish religion. There was some tolerance, but more and more limited, to the culture in the Yiddish language.To oppose frontally the regime, which used then Stalinist terror methods would have attract cruel individual and collective repression and revenge measures.
After having been allowed on 1948, June 27 - July 6 to take part to the meeting of the World Jewish Congress
World Jewish Congress
The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations...
in Montreux
Montreux
Montreux is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has a population, , of and nearly 90,000 in the agglomeration.- History :...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, following Moscow's directives, the Romanian communist regime disconnected totally the Jews of Romania from the other Jewish communities in the world for a period of 8 years. In those difficult circumstances only remained active the diplomatic mission in Bucharest of the newly founded Jewish state of Israel.
In 1948 the Rabbinical Council of Romanian Jews led by Moses Rosen was coerced to sign a declaration of condemnation of the so called "Zionist activity" of the former chief rabbi Dr Alexandru Şafran, who meanwhile was elected chief rabbi of Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
.
Nevertheless, despite his formal membership in the Jewish Democratic Committee, Moses Rosen tried to keep a distance from the policy of the leaders of the Committee (Bercu Feldman, H. Leibovici-Şerban, Israel Bacalu etc.) who desired to encourage a Jewish secular culture in Yiddish on account of the Hebrew religious and secular one, this from positions near to the ideology of the Communist regime.
The reserved attitude of Moses Rosen
vis a vis the political and cultural line of the Jewish Democratic Committee proved to be a right diplomacy.
In march 1953, the regime, again inspired by Moscow, decided to rid itself from the Committee and led to its "voluntary" dissolution. The press organ of the Committee, "Unirea" was closed.
After Stalin's death and later, after the beginning of de-Stalinization
De-Stalinization
De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...
in USSR, the Communist authorities in Romania decided to use the good offices of the leaderships of the different religious cults in Romania, including those of religious minorities, in order to improve their image in the world and to improve the economic relations of Romania with the foreign countries.
In 1956,the same year when many of the Zionist activists were freed from the Romanian prisons,the authorities allowed to Rabbi Rosen to took part again to Jewish meetings and conferences abroad. The first occasion was the contacts with the Chief Rabbi of Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Kurt Wilhelm. The same year in October 1956 Rosen was authorized to found the "Revista Cultului Mozaic" (The Mosaic Cult Review), official press organ of the Romanian Jewry in Romanian, published in Romanian, Yiddish and Hebrew. With its last one page in Hebrew it was for more than thirty years the sole journal in Hebrew printed in all the communist world. The prestigious scholar Ezra Fleischer
Ezra Fleischer
Ezra Fleischer was a Romanian-Israeli Hebrew-language poet and philologist.- Biography :...
former Prisoner of Zion in the Romanian prisons, and Israel Prize winner, before its emigration to Israel.
was one of the first editors of the journal,
Since 1957, Dr Rosen, following a renewed tradition existing during the pre-Fascist epoch—was elected member of the Romanian Parliament, representing a Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
constituency (then still with a rather large Jewish population).
His activity and leadership in the years 1960s-1980s
In 1964 the Chief RabbiChief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
Moses Rosen added to his functions that of the chairman of the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Romania and kept it until his death.
The position of Rabbi Rosen got strengthened following the change in the Romanian foreign policy after 1964. The regime of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was the Communist leader of Romania from 1948 until his death in 1965.-Early life:Gheorghe was the son of a poor worker, Tănase Gheorghiu, and his wife Ana. Gheorghiu-Dej joined the Communist Party of Romania in 1930...
in his last days and then the new Romanian Communist leaders, Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
and Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Ion Gheorghe Maurer
Ion Gheorghe Iosif Maurer was a Romanian communist politician and lawyer.-Biography:Born in Bucharest to a Saxon father and a Romanian mother of French origin, he completed studies in Law and became an attorney, defending in court members of the illegal leftist and Anti-fascist movements...
were interested to increase the independence of their country from Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and to develop good relations with the West.
After the big waves of Jewish emigration in the years permitted by the Communist Party in the years 1947-1952 and again in the first years of the 1960s, approx. 40,000 Jews have remained in Romania (in 1956 they were 146,000 as per the official census).
The Ceauşescu regime decided to strengthen the relations of Romania with Israel and with the Jewish communities in the world, especially in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and to benefit from that economically and politically. In fact even earlier in, since the 1950s Israel and western Jewish organizations, were ready to help economically the Romanian state for the opening of the emigration gates. This time, in the 1970s to 1980s, they were allowed also to help the local Jewish community institutions and life. With the authorization of the regime were founded with the help (after 1967) of the Joint Distribution Committee etc. a net of elderly homes, were opened kosher community restaurants, was given medical and social assistance to ill and persons in need. Also flourished a Jewish cultural life with summer camps for the Jewish youth, Talmud
Talmud
The Talmud is a central text of mainstream Judaism. It takes the form of a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, philosophy, customs and history....
Torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...
and Hebrew language courses, series of lectures and concerts on Jewish items.
In 1979 he founded, again with the permission of the Romanian regime, the Museum for the history of the Romanian Jews in the building of "Unirea Sfântă" Jewish Temple in Bucharest.
The activity of Rabbi Rosen in those years, with the silent approval of the regime, in the direction of encouraging the emigration to Israel, the study of the Hebrew language, diffusion of the Jewish traditions and values, in managing of the social works among the needy and old Jewish population, his leadership and diplomatic abilities, and also his Jewish and general culture, won esteem among the Jewish leaders in the world.
On an occasion, the chief rabbi of England, Sir Immanuel Jakobowitz expressed his enthusiastic admiration for Rosen's achievements.
Rabbi Rosen, who felt always a proud Jew and had a good acquaintance with the Romanian culture, found a place in the frame of the new Romanian diplomacy and became one of Romania's important non official "ambassadors" on the international scene. (So did also other religious leaders, for example the Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
mufti
Mufti
A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...
of the Romanian Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
and Tatars
Tatars
Tatars are a Turkic speaking ethnic group , numbering roughly 7 million.The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of around 5.5 million, about 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan.Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,...
, Yakub Mehmet
Islam in Romania
Islam in Romania is followed by only 0.3 percent of population, but has 700 years of tradition in Northern Dobruja, a region on the Black Sea coast which was part of the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries . In present-day Romania, most adherents to Islam belong to the Tatar and Turkish ethnic...
who became one of his country's speakers during his visits in Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
and Muslim countries)
In the 1970s he enrolled himself to the efforts of the Bucharest regime to get for Romania the Most favoured nation
Most favoured nation
In international economic relations and international politics, most favoured nation is a status or level of treatment accorded by one state to another in international trade. The term means the country which is the recipient of this treatment must, nominally, receive equal trade advantages as the...
clause in the trade relations with USA.
In March 1979, Rabbi Rosen and Patriarch Justinian
Justinian Marina
Justinian Marina was a Romanian Orthodox prelate...
, head of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
, jointly sponsored a Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Orthodox Christian
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
Dialogue in Lucerne
Lucerne
Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?id=982.
In the same spirit, he maintained very good relations with the Armenian bishop of Bucharest, who became later the Patriarch Catholicos of Armenia, Vazgen I
Vazgen I
His Holiness Vazgen I was the Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church between 1955 and 1994, in one of the longest reigns of the Armenian Catholicoi. A native of Romania, he began his career as a philosopher, before becoming a Doctor of Theology and a member of the local Armenian clergy...
.
A public square in Jerusalem is named after Rabbi Rosen and his wife Amalia.
Criticism of his relationship with Communist authorities
According to Elvira Groezinger, in the StalinistStalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
era, Rabbi Rosen's articles in the Yiddish-language
Yiddish language
Yiddish is a High German language of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, spoken throughout the world. It developed as a fusion of German dialects with Hebrew, Aramaic, Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages...
weekly IKUF-Bleter showed him to be "one of the staunchest leaders of the anti-Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
and anti-Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
campaigns, and one who praised the Romanian Communist
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
leaders." http://www.jewish-theater.com/visitor/article_display.aspx?articleID=411
Hadassah
Hadassah
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America is an American Jewish volunteer women's organization. Founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold, it is one of the largest international Jewish organizations, with around...
magazine wrote in 2000 of the "alliance" between Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
, "From Rosen's viewpoint, anything he could do to help Romania's Jews was legitimate. So he became as close to Ceauşescu as he could-in the name of preserving Jewish life in Romania and keeping the exit doors open. After the Six-Day War
Six-Day War
The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...
Romania did not break diplomatic relations with Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. In return Rosen praised Ceauşescu in the West, undoubtedly contributing to the Romanian chief's reputation as a benign Communist leader. What didn't become clear until later was that he [Ceauşescu] was extorting a princely sum for his leniency toward the Jews."http://www.hadassah.org/news/content/per_hadassah/archive/2000/March/travel.htm
In this connection Rabbi Rosen, in his short 1987 piece "The Recipe", quoted Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
: "I have no enemies, I have no friends, I have interests," and added "I succeeded in convincing the Romanian Government that, by doing good to the Jews, by meting out justice to them, it could obtain advantages in matters of favourable public opinion, trade relations, political sympathies... The 'business transaction' was profitable to both sides." Millions of Jews, he wrote, were living "in Eastern Europe, in a socialist society. No matter if one likes this or not, it represents a reality... Can they, somehow remain Jewish? The answer given by the past 40 years of the life led by a Jewish community in socialist Romania is categorical and irrefutable. Yes, indeed. They can. "Our 'balance-sheet' proves that, without making any noise, demonstrations or rows, we have succeeded in making Romania's interests correspond to ours..." He also wrote proudly of the fact the Jews who had left Romania had overwhelmingly made aliyah
Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...
to Israel: "More than 90 per cent of the Romanian Jews reached Lod
Lod
Lod is a city located on the Sharon Plain southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2010, it had a population of 70,000, roughly 75 percent Jewish and 25 percent Arab.The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod...
. They did not 'lose their way' heading for other continents..." [Rosen, 1987]
In the 1980s in his opposition to antisemitism and xenophobic trends which were sometimes encouraged by Ceauşescu himself, dr Rosen dared to rise his voice even against some
protégés of the regime as the poet Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor
Corneliu Vadim Tudor is leader of the Greater Romania Party , writer, journalist and a Member of the European Parliament...
. the writer Eugen Barbu
Eugen Barbu
Eugen Barbu was a Romanian modern novelist, short story writer, journalist, and correspondent member of the Romanian Academy. The latter position was vehemently criticized by those who contended that he plagiarized in his novel Incognito and for the anti-Semitic campaigns he initiated in the...
and the literary historian
Dumitru Vatamaniuc who edited posthumously, and without adequate critic notes, the antisemitic articles of the Romanian national great poet, Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
.
After the 1989 Revolution
After the Romanian Revolution of 1989Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
, Rabbi Rosen was a harsh critic of the efforts to rehabilitate the image of Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
, Romania's leader during the period when it had been allied with the Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and continued to advocate emigration to Israel: "Demagogy
Demagogy
Demagogy or demagoguery is a strategy for gaining political power by appealing to the prejudices, emotions, fears, vanities and expectations of the public—typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist, populist or religious themes...
is very strong here... Neofascist propaganda... plays on xenophobia
Xenophobia
Xenophobia is defined as "an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange". It comes from the Greek words ξένος , meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος , meaning "fear."...
. Jews are a very easy scapegoat... I advise every Jew who can do so, to go to Israel." http://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/history_wing/antisemitism/primary_resources/Periodicals/sptimes91.pdf
In 1992, he became an honorary member of the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
.
Rabbi Rosen was married since 1949 to Amalia, born Ruckenstein, from Burdujeni-Suceava
Suceava
Suceava is the Suceava County seat in Bukovina, Moldavia region, in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1388 to 1565.-History:...
. The couple had no children.
His elder brother (from the first marriage of his father)
Eliyahu Rosen, was the erudite rabbi of the Jews in the Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
town of Oświęcim
Oswiecim
Oświęcim is a town in the Lesser Poland province of southern Poland, situated west of Kraków, near the confluence of the rivers Vistula and Soła.- History :...
(Auschwitz) and perished in the Holocaust with his family and whole community.
The Moses Rosen's sister, Betty Bracha Rosen married the future chief rabbi of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, the scholar Zeev Wolf Gottlieb.
Sources
- Collection of "Revista Cultului Mozaic"
- Dalinger, Brigitte, English-language review of Groezinger, Elvira Die jiddische Kultur im Schatten der Diktaturen—Israil Bercovici (2003, in German), Philo, ISBN 3-8257-0313-4.
External links
- Moses Rosen: Obituary Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
Works by Rosen
- `Itim la-Torah (1988, in Hebrew). Ari'el, Jerusalem.
- The paper bridge; essays on Judaism (1973), Translated from the Romanian by Carol Kormos, revision of the English translation by Wolf Gottlieb. International Library, Washington, .
- Eseuri biblice. Ed. a 2-a. (1992, in Romanian). Editura Hasefer, Bucharest, ISBN 973-95006-7-6.
- Veha-seneh enenu ukal: zikhronot mi-tekufot ha-ma'avak le-hatsalat Yehude Romanyah me-et David Mosheh Rozen. (1993, in Hebrew) Sham, Jerusalem.
- "The Recipe", 1987 (with a post-1989 postscript), published as epilogue to Michael Riff, The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present, Valentine Mitchell, London, 1992, 215-222, ISBN 0-85303-229-7.