Jewish Democratic Committee

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The Jewish Democratic Committee (Romanian: Comitetul Democrat Evreiesc, CDE) was a political party in Romania.

History

The CDE was established on 7 June 1945 as a satellite organisation of the Romanian Communist Party, and started publishing a newspaper, Unirea.[1][2] A 600-member body, it was expected to administer the affairs Jewish community.[3]

It initially consisted of Jewish Communists, left-wing Zionists, members of the Yidisher Kultur Farband, some Jewish members of the Romanian Social Democratic Party and dissidents from the Union of Romanian Jews.[4] At the party's national congress on 30 June 1946 it opted to support the Communist-dominated Bloc of Democratic parties in the November 1946 elections.[5]

In the March 1948 elections the CDE ran as part of the People's Democratic Front (FDP). The FDP won 405 of the 414 seats, with the CDE taking five. On 16 June 1948 the organisation elected Moses Rosen as the Chief Rabbi of Romania to replace the exiled Alexandru Șafran.[3] During this period the objective of the CDE was the suppression of religious and cultural Judaism; only secular Yiddish culture was tolerated.[3] In December 1948 non-communist party members were expelled.[4]

In April 1949 the party's youth movement was disbanded, as the Communist Party Youth (UTM) was established, with the party dissolved in March 1953.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 The Virtual Jewish World: Romania Jewish Virtual Library
  2. ↑ Idith Zertal (1998) From Catastrophe to Power: The Holocaust Survivors and the Emergence of Israel, University of California Press, p98
  3. 1 2 3 This Day in Jewish History / Romania’s first postwar chief rabbi elected Haaretz, 16 June 2014
  4. 1 2 Fred Skolnik & Michael Berenbaum (2007) Encyclopaedia Judaica: Blu-Cof, Granite Hill Publishers, p533
  5. ↑ The History of the Soviet Bloc 1945–1991 Cold War History Research Centre
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