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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHVK
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DE RUEHBM #0616/01 2511056
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 081056Z SEP 09
FM AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9882
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000616 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
EUR/CE FOR ASCHEIBE, EUR/OHI FOR CKENNEDY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV RO
SUBJECT: ROMANIA'S JEWS: DYING OFF, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN 
 
SUMMARY 
 
¶1.  (SBU) As the Government of Romania prepares to inaugurate 
the Bucharest Holocaust Memorial October 8, Romania's Jewish 
community finds itself in a paradox.  Anti-Semitism - though 
still prevalent and in some ways ingrained in Romanian 
society - has lost much of its virulence and overtness.  At 
the same time, the small and aging Jewish community is dying 
out with diminishing hope for renewal.  Cultural life for 
Jews is becoming sufficiently barren that the chief rabbi in 
Bucharest, a young father of two, may emigrate.  End Summary. 
 
MEMORIALIZATION AND REMEMBRANCE... 
 
¶2.  (U) Construction of the Bucharest Holocaust memorial is 
on track after numerous bureaucratic delays.  Dedication of 
the concrete plaza and structure in a small downtown park is 
scheduled for October 8, with President Basescu and 
high-level government officials expected to attend.  The 
event will undoubtedly receive wide coverage and contribute 
to Holocaust awareness.  Although Holocaust denial in Romania 
is limited to right-wing extremists, only in the late 1990's 
did the country's education curriculum acknowledge Romania's 
unique role as the only country besides Germany to implement 
its own system of concentration camps.  (Note: Authorities 
deported approximately  150,000 Jews to Romanian-controlled 
camps in the Transnistria region of present-day Moldova, 
where 80,000-90,000 died.  An additional 55,000 Jews were 
killed in mass pogroms in Romania.  End note).  Today 
awareness is on the rise; high schools offer an optional 
course on the Holocaust, and an Embassy contact in Bacau 
county administers a nation-wide teacher training program for 
Holocaust studies. 
 
...AND CONTEMPORARY SUFFERING 
 
¶3.  (U) Ironically, while more Romanians become more aware of 
Jewish history, the 6,000 strong Jewish community in Romania 
is suffering through a difficult period.  The Jewish 
Federation of Romania, the primary source of social 
assistance for elderly Jews, has cut back programming.  Until 
recently, the Federation received almost all of its 
assistance funds from the American Jewish Joint Distribution 
Committee (JDC, known as "The Joint").  The JDC cut its 
funding by two-thirds as part of a plan in which the 
Federation would sell some real estate holdings to make up 
the difference.  However, the decline of real estate values 
during the economic crisis led to a severe funding shortfall, 
forcing the Federation to raise the minimum age for elderly 
Jews to qualify for aid.  The result: an increase in the 
number of pensioners 60-plus years old in need of medical and 
social assistance, yet too young to qualify for it. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The slow pace of Jewish property restitution makes 
matters worse. The executive director of Caritatea, the 
Jewish foundation that files claims with the Romanian 
Restitution Agency (ANRP) to recoup confiscated properties, 
told us that outstanding claims have inhibited sales and 
other transfers of Jewish-owned properties, preventing 
much-needed access to cash.  While the ANRP appears no slower 
in processing Jewish claims than those of the general 
population -- it has resolved about 300 of the approximately 
2,000 claims filed by Caritatea -- the process has not always 
worked as it should.  For example, in the northeastern city 
of Iasi, local authorities assigned hundreds of acres that 
used to belong to the local Jewish community, including part 
of a cemetery, to other petitioners as replacement for their 
non-returnable properties.  Such swaps are permissible under 
Romanian law, but in this case the authorities did not take 
into account that the Jewish community had active claims on 
the same plot of land.  The dispute now sits in court. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Another concern is an aging leadership unwilling or 
unable to groom a younger generation of leaders.  In separate 
conversations, the president of the Committee to Monitor 
Anti-Semitism and Bucharest's chief rabbi explained the 
generation gap as resulting from different historical 
experiences.  Romania's older Jews suffered through a Fascist 
regime, the Holocaust, 40 years of communism and a tumultuous 
transition to capitalism.  For them, Romania's younger, more 
urbane Jews -- some of whom came of age in a relatively 
prosperous, free Israel - have not paid their historical 
dues.  In other communities, however, there is no 
identifiable younger generation.  Septuagenarian Jewish 
leaders in Bacau County said the small community there 
overwhelmingly consisted of individuals 60 or older. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Back in Bucharest, home to half of Romania's Jews, 
cultural life suffers.  In recent years attendance at 
religious and secular events has sharply declined, especially 
 
BUCHAREST 00000616  002 OF 002 
 
 
among the youth, the Bucharest rabbi said.  He fears that the 
bonds of community will weaken further when the current crop 
of leaders dies off.  Only 30 years old and the father of 
two, the rabbi surmised he may emigrate to offer his children 
a chance to grow up within a community, lest Romania be left 
with only empty buildings and memories. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Comment.  Ironically, even as Romanians are slowly 
coming to grips with the Holocaust and the insipid 
anti-Semitism that continues to plague their country, the 
shrinking Jewish population here may be reaching the point of 
no return.  By the time Judaism is finally able to enjoy a 
tolerant and accepting environment in Romania, there may be 
few Jews left to benefit from it.  End comment. 
GITENSTEIN