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Abstract.
The Jews of Romania had to bear difficult times within the communist Romania. The Romanian communist state tried to assimilate the minorities and to erase all differences. Emigration was possible after the Second World War, but the Jews who immigrated to Israel lost their jobs when they decided to leave Romania, together with their properties. The diplomatic relations between Romania and Israel were influenced by the emigration problem of the Romanian Jews. The persecutions of Zionist leaders in Romania together with the periods when emigration was prevented constituted moments of tension in the Romanian - Israeli relations. Often, the Israeli diplomats reminded their Romanian counterpart that the process of emigration had to continue. The process of emigration of Romanian Jews depended closely on the development of Romanian - Israeli economic relations. Almost all Romanian Jews emigrated from Romania during the communist years.
Keywords: Jews, Romania, emigration, immigration, communism, Israel, economic relations, Zionism, diplomacy, Embassy, postwar
Not much has been written in Romania on the immigration of Jews from Romania to Israel during the years 1945-1953. Valuable are the contributions of Liviu Rotman and Radu Ioanid, Cristina Pâiuçan Nuicä2. Also a collection of documents was published by Daniela Bleoancä, Nicolae - Alexandru Nicolescu, Cristina Päiucan, Romania - Israel. Diplomatic documents 19481989, coordonated by Victor Bostinaru (Bucuresti: Editura Sylvi), 2000.
At the end of the WW II Jewish population was living in conditions of poverty, fear, misery. They did not have enough food and shelter. There were a very small number of Jewish children after the war. The International organization Joint Distribution Committee provided to the Jews from communist states food and medicines. Thus were helped Jews from countries such as Romania, Hungary, Poland, Austria3. The context when this emigration happend was extremely tensioned. After the agreement from Yalta and Teheran, Romania fell under the Soviet zone of influence. The frontiers were closed and emigration was prohibited. During the whole communist period, the Romanian Jews succeeded to emigrate but, as Liviu Rotman and Radu Ioanid shows, this happened under very difficult circumstances. Moreover, the Jews who emigrated lost all their properties together with their and jobs when they decided and subsequently applied for emigration. Starting with 1949, the Zionist leaders who tried to convince...