Moses Rosen - His Activity As Young Rabbi in Romania

His Activity As Young Rabbi in Romania

His first job as rabbi was in a small synagogue in the Mahala quarter of Fălticeni, then, in May 1940 was appointed rabbi in the town of Suceava. But, after September 6, 1940, when the Iron Guard or the Legionnaires, the Romanian extreme right, arrived to the power, Moses Rosen was arrested under the charge of being "Communist" and deported to an internment camp in Caracal, in the south of Romania. After several months, after the defeat of the Legionnaires rebellion by the forces loyal to the prime minister, the General Ion Antonescu, Rosen was discharged and fulfilled a part-time job as rabbi in two synagogues in Bucharest - "Reshit Daat" and "Beit El". Meanwhile he also taught Talmud in a Jewish school. The entering of Romania in the war against the Soviet Union, as ally of Nazi Germany, brought more hardships to the Jewish population. Rosen had to hid himself in order to avoid a very probable deportation to Transnistria as suspected "left wing" or "Bolshevik Jewish activist". After the coup of August 23, 1944 which brought Romania to abandon the alliance with Hitler and put an end to the Fascist-style antisemitic regime, the freedom for Jews was reestablished and Moses Rosen advanced on the steps of the rabbinical hierarchy in Bucharest. He became the head of the religion department of the Jewish community, was elected as member in the Rabbinate Council and as rabbi of the Great Synagogue of Bucharest (Sinagoga Mare).