Jewish Party (Romania)

Jewish Party Partidul Evreiesc din România (Partidul Național Evreiesc) המפלגה היהודית הרומנית אידישע פארטיי Országos Zsidó Párt Jüdische Reichspartei
President	Tivadar Fischer (1931–1938) A. L. Zissu (1944–1946) Collective leadership (1946) Mișu Benvenisti (1946–1947)
Founded	May 4, 1931 August 30/September 18, 1944 (reestablishment)
Dissolved	March 30, 1938 (first) December 4, 1947 (second)
Succeeded by	Social Zionist Council (1940)
Headquarters	Bucharest 1934: Strada Bradului 31, Văcărești;[1] 1944: Strada Oțetari 5, Armenian Quarter;[2] 1946: Strada Popa Soare 30, Mahalaua Sfântul Ștefan[3]
Newspaper	Tribuna Evreiască Renașterea Noastră Új Kelet Neue Zeit–Új Kor
Youth wing	Tineretul Partidului Evreiesc (TPE)
Regional wing	Transylvanian Jewish National League (EZNSz/UNET)
Ideology	Jewish community interests Zionism Communitarianism Integral nationalism Liberal conservatism (Jewish) Antifascism Factions: Religious Zionism Revisionist Zionism Jewish left (after 1944)
Political position	Right-wing to far-right (1931–1938, 1944–1946) Left-wing (1946–1947)
National affiliation	Central Council of Romanian Jews (1936, 1938) General Jewish Council (1944) Jewish Representation (1946)
International affiliation	World Zionist Organization (1930s) World Jewish Congress (1937–1938, 1944–1947)
Politics of Romania Political parties Elections

The Jewish Party, in full the Jewish Party of Romania (Romanian: Partidul Evreiesc din România, PER; Hebrew: המפלגה היהודית הרומנית; Yiddish: אידישע פארטיי, Idishe partey) or the Jewish National Party (Partidul Național Evreiesc or Evreesc, PNE; Hungarian: Országos Zsidó Párt),^[4][5] was a right-wing political party in Romania, representing Jewish community interests. It originally followed an undercurrent of Zionism, promoting communitarianism as a prerequisite of resettlement in Palestine, and later progressed toward Religious Zionism and Revisionism. Founded by Tivadar Fischer, József Fischer, and Adolphe Stern, it had particularly strong sections in Transylvania and Bessarabia. In the Old Kingdom, where it registered least support, it was mainly represented by A. L. Zissu, Mișu Benvenisti, and Renașterea Noastră newspaper.

The PER was strongly opposed to the liberal and assimilationist program of Wilhelm Filderman and his Union of Romanian Jews (UER). Its core belief in Jewishness as a distinct political body was controversial, opposed by Filderman's disciples, by members of Orthodox and Sephardi groups, as well as by Romanians who wanted Jews to be socially desegregated; likewise, the PER's appreciation for Religious Zionism, including its recruitment of clerics such as Yehuda Leib Tsirelson, was resented by secular Jews. The Fischers managed to undermine the UER's spread into Transylvania and other regions, presenting its own candidates in elections for Parliament for most of the 1930s, and emerging as a vocal opponent of antisemitism. Repeatedly stating its respect for the central tenets of Romanian nationalism, the PER was generally committed to collaboration with the non-Jewish groups, including the National Peasantists and the National Liberals, but also the Magyar Party.

Effectively pushed out of national politics due to unfavorable circumstances which existed during the elections of 1933, the PER formed a Central Council of Romanian Jews together with the UER. The Fischers' alliances compromised the party's reputation during the 1937 legislative elections, when it had a non-aggression pact with the National Peasantists; by proxy, this deal also involved the antisemitic Iron Guard. During the final months of its existence, it fought against the antisemitic laws introduced by Prime Minister Octavian Goga, including by organizing an economic boycott. The PER was ultimately banned, together with all other political groups, in early 1938; the National Renaissance Front, formed later that year, explicitly barred entry to the Jews. The PER's support base was scattered by territorial changes which occurred during World War II, and it was decimated during the Holocaust. Some of its leaders, in particular Zissu, were involved with a Zionist network of resistance, and helped over 10,000 Jews illegally emigrate into Palestine.

The PER reemerged days after the anti-Nazi coup of 1944, with Zissu as its chairman. It was more successful in its competition with the similarly reestablished UER, managing to draw away supporters of the latter. Its brand of nationalism clashed with the Romanian Communist Party and its satellite Jewish Democratic Committee, as well as with Ihud-type Labor Zionism. After failing to obtain government recognition for its communitarian platform, the party was split between two camps. One, which was anti-communist, supported Zissu's platform of mass emigration into Palestine, and stood by the Revisionists during their conflict with Britain. The other camp, led by Benvenisti, was more open to cooperation with the communists, and it was in control of the PER by October 1946. Under Benvenisti, the PER adhered to a communist-controlled "Jewish Representation", presenting officially vetted candidates during the elections of November 1946. Within two years, the communist regime dissolved all of the Zionist organizations, imprisoning Zissu and Benvenisti. The PER's youth wing was absorbed by the National Federation of Democratic Youth, with which it merged into the Union of Working Youth in 1949.