THE DAY WHEN ROMANIA WAS DECLARED TO BE FREE OF ANTISEMITISM They Don’t Learn by Maximillian Marco Katz Founding Director of MCA Romania According to the Jerusalem Post newspaper, when concluding his successful visit in Israel, The Prime Minister of Romania, Mr. Viorel Ponta said “we don’t have anti-Semitism in Romania”. In the same article The Jerusalem Post wrote reported that when asked about the anti-Semitism emerging in countries where the Jewish communities are shrinking, Mr. Ponta said “…populist forces (in Europe) used anti-Semitism for electoral and political purposes”. We could not agree more with this opinion. It should be noted that by the end of this year, Romania is electing a new President. While anti-Semitism hits its highest levels in Europe since the WWII, saying that Romania is free of anti-Semitism is like saying that Romania is free of pollution. In the 1980’ the late dictator of Romania, Nicolaie Ceausescu, repeatedly insisted in his public speeches that there was no AIDS in Romania. Ceausescu also repeatedly declared that in the socialist-communist Romania there was no political oppression or anti-Semitism or racism. December 1989, when the communist regime was overthrown, the reality on the ground shocked the international community: the number of people suffering from untreated AIDS was beyond any estimations: the effects of the communist oppression became visible and are still affecting Romanian society until this date, and the racism and anti-Semitism came out into the open. That happened 25 years ago. Mr. Ponta was a teenager at the time and he should have remembered the consequences of that denial. But as mentioned in The Jerusalem Post, Mr. Ponta admitted that he never studied the Holocaust at school. We know for a fact that neither he nor any other youngster from his generation, was ever taught about the crimes committed by the Legionnaires Movement, about the 1940 Pogrom in Dorohoi, about the 1941 Pogrom in Bucharest or about the 13000 Jews killed in June 1941 in Iasi. Not long ago, in 2012, Mr. Dan Sova, a member of the Government and a leader of the party led by Mr. Ponta, publicly denied on TV, the 1941 killing of Jews in Iasi. The reaction triggered by Mr Sova’s denial of the Holocaust in Romania shocked Mr. Sova. In favour of Mr. Sova he took a little time to understand the enormity of his statement and he then promptly apologized and admitted publicly that his statement was a mistake made out of ignorance. When living in a country where, since 1989, anti-Semitism has been maintained and manipulated by some prominent public figures also for electoral purposes, we appreciated Mr. Sova’s open and direct attitude as well as his public apologies issued following his unfortunate blunder. It was only logical to think that other leading politicians would be interested in understanding the sensitivity of subjects such as the Holocaust and the anti-Semitism. Reading the title and the statements made in the article mentioned above it becomes more and more apparent that this presumption is not valid: they don’t learn. They don’t learn that who claims that Romania is free of anti-Semitism actually builds up the platform on which anti-Semitism grows free and uncontrolled. They don’t learn that it is for the Jews to say if there is or not anti-Semitism in the communities in which they live. They don’t learn that statements such as “in my country there is no anti-Semitism” means turning a blind eye to the revival of fascism (Miscarea Legionara), to the rehabilitation of war criminals such as WWII Marshal Ion Antonescu, on the ultra-nationalism (Noua Dreapta, Totul pentru Tara, etc), to the bigoted ideas that are openly expressed against gay people and the Roma community, to the religious anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial still promoted by clerics serving within the Romanian Orthodox Church. They don’t learn that presenting the Holocaust in Romania teaching program as an achievement, at a time when this program is optional and almost inactive, is counter-productive. They don’t learn that speaking about anti-racial legislation which is not complete and which is not enforced generates mistrust. They don’t learn that by saying that Romania is free of anti-Semitism, they actually are saying that there is no need for measures to be taken against anti-Semitism, that there is no need for the Holocaust teaching program (which Romania is so proud of it) to exist. On the same day when Romania was declared to be free of anti-Semitism, the head of a monastery in Romania declared that the Romanian fascist, Jew killers, were a gift of the Holy Spirit. In May 2014 the same priest openly said that the Holocaust is an invention, a fake perpetuated by Jews for helping the State of Israel in taking over the World. For all those still claiming that there is no anti-Semitism we recommend ADL’s findings regarding the anti-Semitism in Romania published here global100.adl.org/#country/romania
Posted on: Sat, 28 Jun 2014 15:44:54 +0000
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