The Jewish Democratic Committee or Democratic Jewish Committee (, CDE, also Comitetul Democrat Evreesc, Comitetul Democratic Evreiesc; ; , DZSK) was a left-wing political party which sought to represent Jewish community interests in Romania. Opposed to the orientation of most Romanian Jews, who supported right-wing Zionism as embodied by the Jewish Party (PER), the CDE was in practice a front for the Romanian Communist Party (PCR); its chairmen M. H. Maxy, Bercu Feldman, and Barbu Lăzăreanu were card-carrying communists. Initially, its anti-Zionism was limited by a recruitment drive among Labour Zionists, which allowed the party to absorb the local variant of Poale Zion. Additionally, the CED was directed against the Union of Romanian Jews (UER), a more traditional vehicle of assimilationism. It annexed an UER dissidence under Moise Zelțer-Sărățeanu, while also taking over chapters of Ihud and accepting in Jewish affiliates of the Romanian Social Democratic Party.
For the November 1946 elections, the CDE ran a Jewish Representation list, closely allied with the PCR. It took one of two Jewish seats in the Assembly of Deputies, and joined the parliamentary coalition backing Petru Groza's cabinet. Such support hinged on Groza's promises to restore Jewish property that had been confiscated in the Holocaust. At the time, the CDE was also involved in relief efforts for homeless returnees, as well as singling out alleged Holocaust perpetrators. Part of its mission was a control over religious Jews through the Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania, which was placed under the left-leaning rabbi Moses Rosen.
The CDE was averse to the illegal exodus of Jews into Mandatory Palestine, seeking to document, control, and finally suppress it. It presented Jews with the option of integrating into a socialist economy, emphasising producerist guidelines and condemning parasitism. The Romanian regime recognised Israel, but failed in its project of communising the Romanian Jewish colony. Following this, the CDE was given the go-ahead to publish criticism of Israeli society, hoping to persuade Jewish workers into renouncing Zionism. It opposed Hebrew revivalism and promoted instead a Yiddishist alternative, as manifested by its direct supervision of the Barașeum.
The CDE could still join the People's Democratic Front for the elections of March 1948, when it increased its representation to five deputies. However, its activities were restrained by the newly-inaugurated communist regime, whose leadership came to suspect that Zionism had seeped into CDE policies. In late 1948, the Labour Zionists parted ways with the CDE, with some attempting to reorganize as a local section of Mapam. Under Feldman's leadership, the CDE began "unmasking" campaigns, which, from 1949, resulted in a thorough purge of its own national and regional structures; it also opposed the regime's temporary relaxation of emigration restrictions. The Committee was pressed into dissolving itself in March 1953, when it proclaimed that Jews had been fully integrated into the new society. The regime's clampdown on Zionism contradicted this statement, as did the large-scale popularity of emigration projects, lasting into the 1980s, and directly encouraged by Rabbi Rosen.
History Creation Historian Corneliu Crăciun notes that the PCR attempt to dominate the Romanian Jewish community upon the end of World War II was part of an "aggressive and all-encompassing strategy" to extend control into all areas of society. In doing so, communists relied on political traditions (including the over-representation of Jews within its own ranks), as well on the monopolisation of anti-fascist discourse by the Soviet Union after the Holocaust: "Given the Jewish people's suffering at the hands of fascism, it seemed that PCR members could do no wrong, and that their moral-political investment would turn a profit."Crăciun, p. 173 In September 1944, some days after the anti-fascist coup, the PCR contributed to the creation of a General Jewish Council. This initiative crumbled in October, when other Council representatives, rejecting the implication that "all Jews are communists", refused to join Petru Groza's National Democratic Front.Crăciun, pp. 173–174 From September 1944, Labour Zionism was taken up in Romania by Ihud, which immediately signed up to the National Democratic Front's platform and, internationally, acted as a section of Mapai.Gligor & Caloianu, pp. 407–408 In November, Romania's Labour Zionists formed a Union of the Working Land of Israel (Brith Eretz Israel HaOvedet, BEIH)—federating Ihud, Poale Zion, Ahdut HaAvoda, as well as a former affiliate of Hashomer Hatzair called Mishmar.Kuller, p. 26
The PCR had more success in Northern Transylvania, which had been reattached to Romania during the Budapest Offensive. At Cluj, survivors of extermination camps set up the Jewish Democratic Group (GDE), an association backed by communist agents.Olosz, p. 190; Orzac, p. 272 A Jewish People's Democratic Community (CPED), originally called Jewish Anti-hitlerite Group,Gidó (2018), p. 22 was co-opted on the Northern Transylvanian Democratic Committee, which functioned as a quasi-government of the region. It was led by a communist cadre and Holocaust survivor, Hillel Kohn, Attila Gidó, Cionizmustól a kommunizmusig. Egy politikusi életpálya Erdélyben: Kohn Hillel (1891–1972) 2., on Transindex – a napos oldal, 26 October 2013Nagy & Vincze, pp. 61–62, 71, 130, 140, 180 but failed to obey PCR commands by insisting for the restitution of assets confiscated during the Holocaust, as well as for the "protection of unhindered freedom of emigration".Zoltán Tibori Szabó, East European Perspectives: October 13, 2004. Transylvanian Jewry during the Postwar Period, 1945–48 (Part 2), Radio Free Europe Reports Archive, Volume 6, Number 19 More to the south, Arad hosted a Union of Democratic Jews, which, in October 1944, inaugurated a process to restore property confiscated under fascism.Hord, pp. 124–125
From Bucharest, painter M. H. Maxy and lawyer Iosif Șraier resumed the project to give pro-communist Jews a national representation.Florin Mihai, "PCR și evreii din România", in Jurnalul Național, 25 March 2008 Șraier was a noted PCR middleman, having spent the interwar as a public defender for communist prisoners.Iuliu Crăcană, "Generalul de Justiție Alexandru Petrescu — o biografie a corupției", in Caietele CNSAS, Vol. VII, Issue 1, 2014, p. 290 The CDE effort was officially sanctioned by PCR Secretary Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej while visiting Templul Coral on 25 April 1945, and advanced on 2 June, when Șraier negotiated with David "Dadu" Rosenkranz.Clit, p. 405 The latter, a wartime humanitarian, had been active with the UER before moving into left-wing politics. Lucian Zeev-Herșcovici, "David (Dadu) Rosenkranz. Din viața unui avocat și lider evreu din România în secolul XX", in Revista ProLitera, 3 February 2018 The Committee was established with a constitutive session on 7 June 1945, though it was only truly active from 22 July.Crăciun, pp. 174, 176. See also Nastasă, p. 178; Stan, p. 16 Its first Chairman was Maxy, but only for a short period. According to various reports, it was originally named "Jewish National Committee", and was led in 1945–1946 by Lică (Abramovici) Chiriță. Andi Mihalache, "Devictimizarea evreului: cauzalități imaginare și modele explicative în discursul antisemit de după al doilea război mondial (1945–1950)", in Caietele Echinox, Issue 13, 2007Wexler & Popov, passim
From the beginning, it was a satellite organisation of the PCR: its first-ever meetings were attended by PCR envoy Vasile Luca, supported by two Jewish party colleagues—Maxy and industrialist Emil Calmanovici.Crăciun, p. 174 According to historian Idith Zertal, it functioned as "an impossible conglomerate of the Communists, the socialist Zionist groups, and leftist political parties, as well as Yiddishist organizations. Its true, main purpose was to mobilize support for Groza's government within the Jewish community".Zertal, p. 98 Scholar Carol Iancu moreover argues that: "The Communists tried to control the communities by positioning their representatives in key positions, and finally by imposing their will. The Jewish Democratic Committee [...] was to put this policy into practice by both weakening (and later on suppressing) the two large pre-war Jewish organizations, the Jewish Party and the Union of Romanian Jews."Iancu, p. 52
Imitating communist organisational structures to the point of creating its own Politburo, the new group was both formally and informally dominated by PCR activists, some of whom were integrated into its official leadership. Examples include Maxy, writer Barbu Lăzăreanu, doctors Maximilian Popper and Arthur Kreindler;Zeev-Herșcovici (2007), p. 533 Maxy returned as the CDE's Chairman in 1946–1948.Cărăbaș, p. 188. See also Stan, p. 16 They served alongside writers Ury Benador and Emil Dorian, the latter leaving skeptical notes with insight into the CDE's role as an amorphous organisation serving PCR commands. Historian Lucian Lucian Zeev-Herșcovici notes that power in the party rested mainly with second-rank PCR cadres, namely Bercu Feldman, Herman Leibovici-Șerban, and Israel Bacalu. According to Iancu, Feldman was a "fanatical" among his fellow communists.Iancu, p. 53
Expansion
Local bodies were quickly integrated into the countrywide structure—on 25 March, the Cluj GDE became a CDE territorial office.Olosz, pp. 188 In October, it was joined by other Northern Transylvanian organisations,Orzac, p. 273 with the CPED, gradually diminished in importance, also finally recorded as a regional CDE branch.Gidó (2018), pp. 22–23; Nagy & Vincze, p. 61 Kohn remained in charge of the CDE provincial chapter (seconded by Sándor Neumann). His past had by then come under review, resulting in his expulsion from the PCR on grounds that he was a "Hungarian nationalist"; he was allowed to maintain his CDE profile, but gradually withdrew from active politics.
CDE figures other than the communist core had double affiliations, including, from April 1946, Jewish members of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR), six of whom were co-opted on the CDE leadership board.Crăciun, p. 176 BEIH was absorbed as an autonomous section of the CDE, with 9 representatives in leadership; through it, the Committee exercised authority over the Romanian chapters of Ihud, Poale Zion, and Mishmar.Crăciun, p. 176. See also Kuller, p. 26 Theodor Loewenstein-Lavi of the Ihud joined the ranks of CDE activists. With this incorporation of Labour Zionism, the CDE effectively split the Romanian Zionist Executive, isolating the PER's right-wing. CDE influence eventually grew within the Executive, which came to be controlled by the Ihud.Nastasă, p. 181. See also Vago, p. 497 The CDE youth section, called Front of the Jewish Democratic Youth (FTDE), included Zionist factions within the BEIH, as well as all groups federated into the HeHalutz: Bnei Akiva, Borochovia, Dror, Gordonia, and several more.Clit, p. 434