Mișu Benvenisti
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Mișu Benvenisti, also known as Mishu or Moshe Benvenisti (Hebrew: מישו בנבנישתי; July 1, 1902 – 1977), was a Romanian lawyer, Zionist militant, and leader of the Romanian Jewish community. Born into a family of printers and publishers, he was one of the few Sephardi Jews to reach prominence in political life during the Romanian Kingdom era. His association with Zionism began in his teenage years, and saw him emerging as leader of the Zionist Youth Organization (part of the HeHalutz, HH) in the early 1920s. Benvenisti was then primarily affiliated with the Renașterea Noastră group in Bucharest, joining the small Jewish National Party by 1930; through these, he participated in the formation of a nation-wide Jewish Party (PER), wherein he was youth organizer and general secretary. After 1936, he was also a member of the Romanian office of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), serving as its lawyer and as a rapporteur on the growth of local antisemitism.
Mișu Benvenisti | |
---|---|
President of the Jewish Party | |
In office July 21, 1946 – 1947 | |
Preceded by | Collective leadership |
Succeeded by | none (party dissolved) |
Chairman of the Romanian Zionist Executive | |
In office March/April 1941 – January 1944 | |
Preceded by | Leon Mizrachi |
Succeeded by | A. L. Zissu |
In office May 1, 1946 – May 30, 1948 | |
Preceded by | Bernard Rohrlich |
Succeeded by | triumvirate: Chaim Kraft, Sami Iakerkaner, Simon "Shmuel" Zalman |
Personal details | |
Born | July 1, 1902 |
Died | 1977 (aged 74–75) Israel |
Nationality | Romanian |
Other political affiliations | Jewish National Party (1930) Zionist Democratic Group Klal (1944) |
Spouse | Suzana Mărculescu |
Profession | Lawyer, accountant |
Signature | |
Nickname | Moshe |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Romania |
Branch/service | Romanian Land Forces |
Years of service | 1924, 1939–1940 |
Rank | Sublieutenant |
During the late 1930s, Romania drew closer to Nazi Germany and gradually introduced discrimination against Jews; the National Renaissance Front banned the PER, along with all other Romanian political parties, in early 1938. Zionists were allowed to form non-political bodies, which encouraged a wave of emigrations into Mandatory Palestine. As Nazi pressures increased with the arrival in power of Ion Antonescu, Benvenisti considered emigrating, but accepted appointment as chairman of the Zionist Executive. His political line there was one of moderation: he expressed loyalty toward Romania and increased control over the rebellious HH, intervening as a negotiator between the regime and the Jewish community. His stance was criticized by Jews on the right, including A. L. Zissu, as a form of collaborationism, especially due to his contacts with the submissive Central Jewish Office.
Faced with the Holocaust occurring on Romania's borders, Benvenisti also cultivated the Jewish resistance—in particular by helping Hungarian, Slovak and Polish Jews find temporary shelter in Romania, or by assisting survivors of Antonescu's own deportations to Transnistria. Benvenisti and other Jewish leaders persuaded the Antonescu government to relax pressures on the Jews, though the Executive also had to agree to collect large sums as contributions and bribes. The Romanian Zionists' role in sabotaging the Holocaust was documented by the local Judenberater, Gustav Richter. As a result of his investigations, Romanian authorities reluctantly arrested Benvenisti in January 1944. He was released in March, by which time he had lost the confidence of his peers, being replaced at the head of the Executive by his rival Zissu. For the rest of 1944, Benvenisti presided upon his own splinter party, the Zionist Democratic Group Klal.
Antonescu's downfall in August 1944 revived Romania's multi-party regime; consequently, Zissu and Benvenisti returned as factional leaders of the PER, with the former holding the party chairmanship. Benvenisti was moving toward the Jewish left, and embracing cooperation with the Romanian Communist Party and the Jewish Democratic Committee (CDE). In mid 1946, he replaced the anti-communist Zissu as president of both the WJC chapter and the PER, drawing the latter into an alliance with the CDE before the November elections. With the communists' turn to anti-Zionism, Benvenisti shut down the PER, criticized illegal emigration, and took political advice from CDE cadres such as Bercu Feldman. When the Romanian communist regime took over on the last days of 1947, he ended his Zionist involvement, though he and his wife Suzana still applied for emigration into Israel. Benvenisti was arrested in 1950 by the Securitate, tortured into confessing that he was a spy for Israel, and appeared at a show trial, alongside Zissu, in 1954. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but ultimately freed and allowed to settle in Israel, which became his home for the final two decades of his life.