The year 1998 saw no signs of a decline in the activities, and especially the
propaganda, of extremist parties and groups in Romania. While anti-Semitic
activities were mainly limited to threats, insults and graffiti, a new theme was
incorporated in anti-Semitic propaganda -- the developing Balkan crisis,
which was linked to an alleged conspiracy between Zionism and fascism.

THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
The dwindling Jewish community of Romania numbers about 12,000 out of
a total population of 23.5 million. The major centers are in Bucharest, Iasi,
Cluj and Oradea, where the local communities are well organized. Jewish life
is also fostered in some smaller communities, and relics of the past are
preserved in locations where there are no longer any Jews. The Federation
of Jewish Communities is the main organization promoting and coordinating
the activities of the communities. The federation publishes a monthly,
Realitatea Evreiasca, which covers all aspects of Jewish life in the country.
Among its other activities, the federation documents the history of Jewish life
in Romania and its publications and symposia are well covered by the
Romanian media.
Academic centers for Judaic studies at the University of Cluj, and since
1998 at the University of Bucharest, play an important role in researching the
Jewish past in Romania.

POLITICAL PARTIES AND EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY ORGANIZATIONS
Political Parties
The Greater Romania Party (PRM), led by Corneliu Vadim Tudor, is
considered the most nationalist and anti-Semitic among the parties
represented in the Romanian parliament. The party, led by former
communist hacks and pseudo-intellectuals now turned nationalists, received
some 4.54 percent and 4.46 percent for the Senate and Chamber of Deputies,
respectively, in the general elections held in November 1996. Themes linked
to the Jews and Israel have continued to remain a hallmark of the party,
exemplified by Tudor's attacks on President Emil Constantinescu for having
"sold Romania out to the Zionists," and vitriolic articles in the party's organ
Romania Mare on the alleged Jewish campaign "to destabilize Romania" and
"falsify history." In parallel, the party continued its anti-Hungarian and anti-Roma
rhetoric, focusing on the dangers of Hungarian irredentism and the
alleged anti-social nature of the Roma community. The PRM's contacts with
other European extreme right parties have been expanding and intensifying,
especially with the French Front National.
The Romanian Party of National Unity (PUNR), which received some
4.30 percent in the 1996 general elections, has a strong nationalist, anti-Hungarian
line. While not openly professing anti-Semitism, the party's
nationalist rhetoric and its ties with anti-Semitic individuals and groups
places it in the extremist camp. With the deepening crisis in the Romanian
government in early 1998, the PUNR increased its cooperation with the PRM.
The Socialist Labor Party (SLP), a leading offshoot of the now defunct
former ruling Communist Party, lost its parliamentary representation in 1996.
The party, led by Adrian Paunescu, pursues a nationalist line, critical of
alleged Jewish interference and participation in Romanian affairs. Freed from
the relative restraints imposed by parliamentary participation, it has
intensified its nationalist line.

Extra-parliamentary Groups
Several small, radical, nationalist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic groups
constitute the extreme right wing in Romania. The Party of the National
Right (PDN), formed in 1992, continues to promise a vague vision of law
and order through the exclusion of non-Romanians from public life and the
expulsion of Hungarians who refuse to accept the reality of a Romanian
national state. Its publications also suggest that anti-social Roma elements --
actually all Roma according to its definition -- should be interned. The party
logo resembles the symbol of the Romanian fascists in the interwar period.
The PDN is very active in preserving and rehabilitating the legacy of the
wartime fascist movement the Iron Guard. It has about 5,000-8,000
members, some of whom are organized into a para-military unit, the National
Guard, based on the Nazi model (of the Iron Guard).
The Movement for Romania, led by Marin Munteanu, is one of the
principal groups adhering to the legacy of the Iron Guard, and its journal
Miscarea (The Movement) is clearly anti-Semitic. The movement's influence
among the younger generation reportedly extends much further than its
actual membership of about 1,000. Small groups of fascists organized in
"nests" (the name of local branches of the fascist movement from the
interwar period) are active in various localities, and even though their
membership is small, such "nests" tend to cover many localities.
The Bucharest "nest" of the Legionnaire movement (as the Iron Guardists
are often referred to) has a publishing house, Majadahonda, which issues
works by Iron Guard founder Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and other books
about the movement.

The Roma Question and Xenophobia
In 1998 politicians and the Romanian media focused greater attention on the
problems existing between Roma and Romanians, but it seems that the gap
between the two is as wide as ever. Romania Mare, which leads the slander
campaign against Roma, publishes weekly columns listing acts of violence
committed by Roma against people and property.

ANTI-SEMITIC ACTIVITIES
Anti-Semitic activities consisted mostly of threats, insults and graffiti,
especially swastikas and fascist symbols, daubed at Jewish sites, such as
synagogues and cemeteries.
As in previous years, anti-Semitic propaganda in 1998 focused on the
following themes:
- the on-going campaign to rehabilitate the legacy of wartime fascist ruler
Ion Antonescu and to cleanse historical memory of the fate of Romanian
Jewry during the Holocaust, especially at the killing grounds of Romanian
Jewry in Northern Romania and Transnistria;
- Jewish demands for compensation and the restitution of property;
- alleged Jewish control of and participation in centers of power.

The media's handling of the issue of Romanian workers in Israel often
has clear anti-Semitic undertones, with "Jewish exploitation" presented as the
cause of their alleged mistreatment. Likewise the presence of Israeli
businessmen active in Romania is given as yet another example of the
"exploitation" of Romania and its "acquisition" by foreign interests. Israeli
and local Jewish businessmen are usually referred to as "Jewish adventurers"
and "mafia" who are to blame for Romania's economic problems.
The deepening crisis in the Balkans in late 1998 and early 1999 was
immediately incorporated into Romania Mare's racist and anti-Semitic line.
In its issue of 16 April 1999, the paper wrote of the "harmonious inclusion
of the swastika and the Star of David as symbols of the New World Order,"
and showed a picture of Hitler flanked by the US flag and a Star of David.
The paper stressed the "brotherly alliance" between Zionism and fascism,
claiming that "Hitler's grandchildren" were attacking Yugoslavia, as well as
the Jewish origins of top American policy makers, led by Madeleine Albright.
The Iron Guard's fascist ideology and propaganda appear in English on
the Internet, on the site of the International Third Position, which hosts both
East and West European fascist movements. Thus, articles from previous
issues of Gazeta de Vest, one of the most notorious fascist publications in
Romania, are available, as well as the biography and activities of Codreanu
and his fellow fascists. The rapid advance of computer technology in
Romania will undoubtedly be accompanied by further penetration of the
Internet by fascist groups, at a time when, mainly for economic reasons, the
extremist press has been suffering a decline.

ATTITUDES TOWARD THE HOLOCAUST AND THE NAZI ERA
The pro-Antonescu campaign of the last few years was maintained in 1998,
as the public debate on the role of Antonescu and his regime in the
Holocaust of Romanian Jewry continued. The presentation of Antonescu as
a "true Romanian patriot" overshadows and tries to localize, if not
completely disregard, the fate of the Jews.
A significant addition to the ongoing public debate on Romania's Jewish
past, the Holocaust and racism was the lengthy essay published in the
prestigious social science journal Sfera Politicii (July-August 1998) by
Michael Shafir of Radio Free Europe, Shafir is one of the best known analysts
of the Romanian scene and the author of numerous works on the subject.
He analyzed the process of "rhinocerization" of several leading Romanian
intellectuals, once known for their pro-Western attitudes, but who were
undergoing a "metamorphosis" in their discussions of victims and victimizers
in relation to the Holocaust and racism. The essay provoked responses by
two intellectuals criticized by Shafir, and generated a wide-ranging debate. It
should be noted that the phenomena analyzed by Shafir, that is, the trend
toward criticism of Jews, with undertones of anti-Semitism and racism, as
well as ignorance pertaining to recent Western debates on the Holocaust,
appear to be indicative of Central and Eastern Europe in general.

RESPONSES TO RACISM AND ANTI-SEMITISM
The Federation of Jewish Communities and its publication Realitatea
Evreiasca have been conducting an ongoing struggle against manifestations
of racism and xenophobia. Another channel for this campaign is the
parliament, to which the editor of Realitatea Evreiasca, Dorel Dorian, was
elected in 1996 as a representative of the federation.
While there is no doubt that the political factors that came to power in
the wake of the 1996 elections are determined to combat all forms of
extremism, no signs of a decline in the activities of radical groups, and
especially in their propaganda, were evident in 1998. Moreover, there were
no significant legal victories for the opponents of extremism.