Moses Rosen - His Activity and Leadership in The Years 1960s-1980s

His Activity and Leadership in The Years 1960s-1980s

In 1964 the Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen added to his functions that of the chairman of the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Romania and kept it until his death.

The position of Rabbi Rosen got strengthened following the change in the Romanian foreign policy after 1964. The regime of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej in his last days and then the new Romanian Communist leaders, Nicolae Ceaușescu and Ion Gheorghe Maurer were interested to increase the independence of their country from Soviet Union and to develop good relations with the West.

After the big waves of Jewish emigration in the years permitted by the Communist Party in the years 1947-1952 and again in the first years of the 1960s, approx. 40,000 Jews have remained in Romania (in 1956 they were 146,000 as per the official census). The Ceauşescu regime decided to strengthen the relations of Romania with Israel and with the Jewish communities in the world, especially in the United States and to benefit from that economically and politically. In fact even earlier in, since the 1950s Israel and western Jewish organizations, were ready to help economically the Romanian state for the opening of the emigration gates. This time, in the 1970s to 1980s, they were allowed also to help the local Jewish community institutions and life. With the authorization of the regime were founded with the help (after 1967) of the Joint Distribution Committee etc. a net of elderly homes, were opened kosher community restaurants, was given medical and social assistance to ill and persons in need. Also flourished a Jewish cultural life with summer camps for the Jewish youth, Talmud Torah and Hebrew language courses, series of lectures and concerts on Jewish items.

In 1979 he founded, again with the permission of the Romanian regime, the Museum for the history of the Romanian Jews in the building of "Unirea Sfântă" Jewish Temple in Bucharest.

The activity of Rabbi Rosen in those years, with the silent approval of the regime, in the direction of encouraging the emigration to Israel, the study of the Hebrew language, diffusion of the Jewish traditions and values, in managing of the social works among the needy and old Jewish population, his leadership and diplomatic abilities, and also his Jewish and general culture, won esteem among the Jewish leaders in the world. On an occasion, the chief rabbi of England, Sir Immanuel Jakobowitz expressed his enthusiastic admiration for Rosen's achievements.

Rabbi Rosen, who felt always a proud Jew and had a good acquaintance with the Romanian culture, found a place in the frame of the new Romanian diplomacy and became one of Romania's important non official "ambassadors" on the international scene. (So did also other religious leaders, for example the Muslim mufti of the Romanian Turks and Tatars, Yakub Mehmet who became one of his country's speakers during his visits in Arab and Muslim countries) In the 1970s he enrolled himself to the efforts of the Bucharest regime to get for Romania the Most favoured nation clause in the trade relations with USA.

In March 1979, Rabbi Rosen and Patriarch Justinian, head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, jointly sponsored a Jewish and Orthodox Christian Dialogue in Lucerne, Switzerland. . In the same spirit, he maintained very good relations with the Armenian bishop of Bucharest, who became later the Patriarch Catholicos of Armenia, Vazgen I. A public square in Jerusalem is named after Rabbi Rosen and his wife Amalia.