January 20, 2018 — Bucharest, Romania
An AJC delegation just completed a two-day trip to Romania.
The group, led by AJC CEO David Harris, had excellent, in-depth meetings with President Klaus Iohannis; Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Mihai Fifor; Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu; President of the Chamber of Deputies Liviu Dragnea; and U.S. Ambassador Hans Klemm. The delegation also had the chance to meet briefly with the incoming Prime Minister, Viorica Dancila, who is scheduled to take office at the end of this month.
Among the principal topics of discussion were: (i) The strong bilateral links between Romania and the U.S., including in the fields of defense cooperation, counterterrorism, and other key spheres, and the desire to forge closer ties between the Romanian-American community and AJC; (ii) The deepening strategic, political, and economic partnership between Bucharest and Jerusalem; (iii) Romania’s role in the EU, where it is currently the seventh largest member state, and the UN, where it is a candidate for a Security Council seat; and (iv) Issues of particular concern to the Romanian Jewish community, including communal property restitution, pensions for Holocaust survivors, and the status of the proposed Holocaust Museum in Bucharest.
“While able to maintain some contact during the Cold War, AJC became much more deeply engaged with Romania shortly after the dramatic events in the country of December 1989, when the communist dictatorship thankfully ended,” said Harris, who first visited Romania as a student in 1971 and saw up-close the denial of freedom and basic human rights. “As with other post-communist Central European countries, we believed that Romania could one day become a member of the democratic family of nations, including membership in NATO and the European Union, enjoy close links with Israel (even as Romania was the only Soviet-bloc country not to sever diplomatic ties with Israel after the 1967 Six-Day War), and robust engagement with the world Jewish community. Fortunately, that essential vision has been realized.”
“To fast forward, in 2017, AJC awarded President Klaus Iohannis the ‘Light Unto the Nations’ award at our Global Forum in Washington, after which he met with President Donald J. Trump, who, in the joint press conference, congratulated him on the ‘prestigious’ AJC award,” Harris noted. “President Iohannis stands for democratic values, including accountability and transparency, and proven friendship with the United States and Israel.”
The AJC group also used every opportunity in the meetings with the country’s top leaders to express appreciation for Romania’s recent vote at the UN on Jerusalem, where it was one of six European Union member states to abstain rather than support the harsh measure.
During the visit, the delegation was hosted for Shabbat dinner at the Choral Synagogue in Bucharest by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania (FEDROM). The group's admired president, Dr. Aurel Vainer, a longtime AJC partner and former member of the Romanian Parliament, accompanied the AJC delegation in all the government meetings.
The delegation also included Kim Pimley, Chair of AJC’s International Relations Committee, and Simone Rodan, Director of AJC Europe.
