The Temple (Louisville, Kentucky) (October 1, 1909)
ROUMANIA PERSISTS IN HARASSING JEWS. The Roumanian Minister of Industry and Commerce has again sent out circulars to the authorities reminding them of the law that contracts for public work must be let out only to those contractors who employ Roumanians, which excludes Jews. The Minister informs them that they are at liberty to prefer such contractors, even if their bids are higher than those of the excluded. Still, the government insists that the Jews should not spread abroad information about its unfair methods.
Typhoid fever now rages in Jassy, and the anti-Semites are using this fact to agitate against the Jews. The Evenimentul, a daily paper, accuses the Jews of being the cause of the disease, for, it says, there are 50,000 Jews in Jassy, which is conclusive evidence.
The Roumanian law prohibits Jews from residing in the rural districts in order, it says, to protect the peasants from the rapacious Jewish traders. This law is invoked with a cruel disregard of consequences. A young woman, residing in a city, was stricken with consumption and was advised by physicians to live in the country. She could not go abroad, for she was poor. So she rented a room near Jassy, intending to get the fresh air there. She was notified , after a few days, to leave immediately, the authorities insisting that she had no right to live there, according to article 5, which prohibits the residence of "foreigners" in the rural districts. Protests were useless and she had to return to Jassy, which means a lingering death. — American Hebrew.