Foreign Relations of the United States, 1981–1988, Volume X, Eastern Europe

185. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Romania¹

418828.

Washington, December 30, 1988, 1011Z

SUBJECT

• Romanian Chief Rabbi Calls on Deputy Secretary.

1. Confidential—Entire text.

Summary

2. Romanian Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen called December 19 on Deputy Secretary Whitehead and DAS Simons to discuss Romanian developments. The Rabbi reported that, contrary to earlier fears, the Jewish community has held its own in the wake of Romania’s renunciation of most-favored-nation trade status. He also stated that the regime has reduced its pressure on him to avoid contacts with U.S. officials and other foreigners. In what may have been intended as a GOR “good-will message” to the U.S., Rabbi Rosen said that GOR First Deputy Premier Ion Dinca recently presented him with an emigration list which purports to show that GOR approvals are at normal levels. Dinca also assured the Rabbi that rural “systematization” would be carried out gradually and with full consent of the affected population. End summary.

Conditions in Romania Are Bad and Worsening

3. In his December 19 meetings with the Deputy Secretary and DAS Simons, Rabbi Rosen described a worsening socio-economic situation in Romania in graphic human terms. Old people and children were freezing to death because of stringent energy rationing coupled with inability to pay exorbitant household electricity bills. There were long lines for bread, milk and other essential but scarce foodstuffs. Toilet paper, for example, was so scarce that people steal it from restaurant bathrooms and other public facilities.

4. The principal source of the economic disaster, in the Rabbi’s view, was the regime’s accelerated repayment of the country’s foreign debt, but conditions were exacerbated by chronic bureaucratic corruption and laziness and by insensitivity at the top to the people’s hardships. Rabbi Rosen noted that at a recent meeting of the Socialist Democracy and Unity Front, Ceausescu announced to the country’s scientists that Romanians were too fat and needed to diet, and he urged religious leaders to remind their flocks to observe their denominations’ fast days. The Romanians’ desperation had reached such a point that they openly applauded Soviet leader Gorbachev when he visited Bucharest in May of 1987.

5. When the Deputy Secretary asked Rabbi Rosen why people did not rise up and protest, the Rabbi acknowledged that the Romanians had learned passivity and fatalism over many centuries. Unlike other Eastern European societies, Romania lacked a revolutionary tradition. Rabbi Rosen admitted the remote possibility of a palace coup, but said that until now Ceausescu had made effective use of his security apparatus and had been careful not to threaten anyone in the leadership directly. Ceausescu’s most likely successors at present were First Deputy Premier Ion Dinca or party organization chief Emil Bobu, both of whom were described as having a “slave mentality” vis-a-vis their boss. Leaders with potential like Stefan Andrei and Ion Iliescu were largely ignored by Ceausescu’s inner circle. Although Rabbi Rosen noted that Elena Ceausescu could possibly inherit her husband’s throne, his tone when discussing her tended to dismiss this scenario.

Jewish Community Under Pressure, But Able To Prevail

6. Rabbi Rosen reviewed the status of the dwindling (20,000-member) Jewish community in his country. He said that there had been great apprehension following Romania’s February renunciation of its most-favored-nation (MFN) trade status with the U.S. that the Jewish community would lose a significant degree of protection for the exercise of religious liberty and freedom of emigration. However, the deteriorating climate of U.S.-Romanian relations had so far not had any negative impact on the Jewish community.

7. Rosen attributed the community’s “stability” to his own obstinacy with regard to preservation of Jewish buildings in Bucharest from “urban renewal” as well as President Ceausescu’s unexpected willingness to extend special privileges to the community. The Rabbi said that the GOR Department of Cults ordered him three times to vacate three key Jewish community structures in Bucharest—the Sephardic Synagogue, the Grand Synagogue and the Jewish Museum—to permit their demolition, but he refused on all occasions by appealing directly to Dinca, with whom he acknowledged an enduring working relationship. In the end, the word had come down from Ceausescu himself that the buildings should be preserved. While standing his ground on these buildings, Rabbi Rosen admitted that he could not in good conscience oppose demolition of other Jewish buildings which were under-utilized, while those of other faiths were also being bulldozed.

8. The regime had shown other signs of favoritism toward Rabbi Rosen and the Jewish community. In the course of their meetings on the building preservation question, Dinca had told the Rabbi that he should henceforth bypass the Department of Cults on all but the most technical, administrative matters and come directly to him. Rabbi Rosen also said that, over the repeated objections of the Foreign Trade Minister, Ceausescu had approved the duty-free importation of kosher wine donated by Israel in such quantity that the community was able to sell the considerable excess amount to non-Jewish Romanians. There had, in fact, been no interference whatsoever from the GOR with the importation of special Jewish foods and religious materials, including those used for religious education, or with financial contributions from abroad. Contrary to many other Romanians, no Jew lacked either food or shelter.

Rabbi Rosen as Emissary?

9. Although Rabbi Rosen acknowledged that he had recently encountered difficulties with the GOR regarding the ready access he enjoyed with Westerners, especially USG officials, he hinted that this phase appeared to have passed. As a courtesy, the Rabbi had informed Dinca on the eve of his departure from Romania that he would be calling on the Deputy Secretary while in the U.S. Dinca offered no objection. Instead, Rabbi Rosen was presented with an end-of-year list of 2,000 Romanians who had been permitted to emigrate to the U.S., as well as comparably large lists of departures for West Germany and Israel. Dinca announced that these lists proved that Romania was committed to maintaining “normal” emigration flows.

10. Dinca also volunteered that the policy of rural “systematization” would take 15–20 years to fully implement. Dinca stressed that the regime would not touch any peasant’s house without the owner’s go-ahead, but no new privately-constructed housing would be allowed. Dinca added that urban restructuring in Bucharest would be extended to accommodate continued in-migration from rural areas. The Deputy Secretary commented that the GOR had previously claimed that systematization would be implemented only on the basis of consent of those affected, but that all evidence still pointed to forced relocation into inadequate apartment dwellings.

Rabbi’s Relations With Dissident

11. Rabbi Rosen touched briefly on his delicate relations with literary figure/dissident Aurel-Dragos Munteanu. Prior to the latter’s public renunciation of his Commnist Party membership, the two were collaborating on the writing and translating into English of the Rabbi’s memoirs. Rabbi Rosen said he warned Munteanu at the time that their partnership could not continue if Munteanu continued to criticize the Ceausescu regime for political and religious repression. Munteanu agreed to cease his attacks for the sake of their continued collaboration. Rabbi Rosen had considerable praise for Munteanu’s talents and human sensibilities; the writer had been very helpful in mobilizing support within party and literary circles in support of the Jewish community’s efforts to preserve its buildings threatened with demolition.

Comment

12. The meeting between Rabbi Rosen and the Deputy Secretary was a useful, timely renewal of an association intended by both sides to reinforce the U.S. bond to independent-minded religious and political figures in Romania. As a reliable interlocutor with both the U.S. and Romanian Governments, the Rabbi may also have been the medium through which the Ceausescu regime has sought to deliver an oblique but important message—that the Romanian Jewish community is secure and that our apprehensions about emigration figures and systematization are misplaced.

Whitehead

1. Source: Department of State, Records from Ambassador Thomas W. Simons, Jr., Lot 03 D 256, Chron December 1988. Confidential; Priority; Exdis. Sent for information to Vienna for the delegation to the CSCE. Drafted by Becker; cleared by Seymour, Deal, Simons, T.J. Rose (D), James Collins (S/S), and D. Trotter (S/S–O); and approved by Whitehead.