Final Report of the International Commission on the - Minority Rights ...

Echoing <strong>the</strong> voices that decades earlier had charged <strong>the</strong> Jews with wanting to displace <strong>the</strong> Romanians
from <strong>the</strong>ir lands, Iorga argued that <strong>the</strong> Jewish question was <strong>the</strong> most significant issue facing <strong>the</strong>
Romanian nation, since its essence was
...<strong>the</strong> question <strong>of</strong> our rights in all areas and in <strong>the</strong> whole expanse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> territory to which we alone
have ethnic and historical claim .
In ano<strong>the</strong>r speech published <strong>the</strong> same year, Iorga attacked Zionism as a movement intended not to
create a homeland for Jews in Palestine, but aimed at expelling Romanians, so that Romania might
become <strong>the</strong> Jewish homeland:
Zionism, represented by <strong>the</strong> newspaper Adevarul, is cultivating Jewish national sentiment, and it is
cultivating it against us....Some non-Zionist Jews do not hate us, but <strong>the</strong> Zionist Jews all hate us and
cannot forgive us for <strong>the</strong> fact that we are where we are and that, because <strong>the</strong>re is not room for both <strong>the</strong>m
and us here, we do not depart for Zion, in order to leave this space for <strong>the</strong>m .
After Iorga and A.C. Cuza parted ways in 1922 —after a dozen years <strong>of</strong> political partnership — Iorga
tempered his antisemitic language for a period, though never denying that he was antisemitic . Still, in
1937, with Nazi Germany threatening <strong>the</strong> peace <strong>of</strong> Europe, with extreme right-wing movements on <strong>the</strong>
verge <strong>of</strong> power inside Romania, and with <strong>the</strong> sovereignty and territorial integrity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> country clearly in
jeopardy, Iorga issued a call to arms against <strong>the</strong> Jews in his Iudaica (Judaica). It is difficult to understand
his motivation. Perhaps he hoped to ride a wave <strong>of</strong> popular sentiment back to political prominence. It is
possible that he wanted to deflect growing sympathy for extreme action against <strong>the</strong> Jews by directing
Romanians to overcome <strong>the</strong> Jewish menace by competing with <strong>the</strong>m. This would have been in keeping
with <strong>the</strong> more moderate antisemitic stance Iorga had adopted following World War I and his criticism <strong>of</strong>
<strong>the</strong> radical antisemitism <strong>of</strong> Cuza’s League <strong>of</strong> National Christian Defence (Liga Apărării Naţional
Creştine) and Corneliu Z. Codreanu’s Iron Guard (Garda de Fier) . Whatever his intention, however,
Iudaica was not moderate in tone by objective standards. Writing in response to a series <strong>of</strong> articles on <strong>the</strong>
history <strong>of</strong> Romanian Jewry by Dr. Wilhelm Filderman, President <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Federation <strong>of</strong> Jewish
Communities, Iorga asserted that <strong>the</strong> country had no need for Jews, as could be seen in his beloved
Valenii-de-Munte, “a Romanian place without Jews” (o localitate românească fără evrei). He <strong>the</strong>n
dredged up all <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> canards <strong>of</strong> Romanian antisemitism–national, economic, religious, moral, social,
cultural, demographic, and political–<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> previous 90 years to support <strong>the</strong> following assault on <strong>the</strong> Jews:
[The Jews] are at work to accumulate for <strong>the</strong>mselves, as an invading nation, as much as <strong>the</strong>y can.
Even in <strong>the</strong> liberal pr<strong>of</strong>essions, in education, in science, in literature, as lawyers, as doctors, as architects,
as pr<strong>of</strong>essors, more and more <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m, with philologists, with philosophers, with journalists, with poets,
with <strong>the</strong>ir critics, <strong>the</strong>y are quite simply throwing us out <strong>of</strong> our own country….They are razing our
churches, taking over our shops, occupying our jobs, and, what is even more devastating, <strong>the</strong>y are
falsifying our soul, <strong>the</strong>y are degrading our morality by means <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> journalistic and literary opiates with
which <strong>the</strong>y enchant us.
Instead <strong>of</strong> preferring to relieve <strong>the</strong> pressure, which through prudently organized emigrations would
reduce <strong>the</strong>ir proportion in cities to a level that could be acceptable in a national setting, <strong>the</strong>y seek to
advance <strong>the</strong>ir banner at every moment and with whatever means lie at <strong>the</strong>ir disposal, and in order to hide
<strong>the</strong>ir advance, <strong>the</strong>y resort to changing <strong>the</strong>ir names in real life and to pseudonyms in literature.