Benjamin Piexotto (1 results)

Softcover. Condition: vg+. First edition. Octavo. 14pp. No wrappers, with printed text starting on the first page. The printed text, date May 14th 1872, relays an official Executive Communication from U.S President Ulysses S. Grant, granting the United States Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations' previous request for information concerning the ongoing persecution of Jews in Romania, and authorizing the transfer of said information from the U.S. State Department. The information here remitted to the Senate consists of a series of 14 pieces of correspondence, dated October 6th 1871 - May 13th 1872, between the then U.S Consul to Romania Benjamin F. Piexotto (1834-1890), Second Assistant Secretary of State William Hunter Jr. (1805-1886) and U.S Secretary of State Hamilton Fish (1808-1893). The initial sections include the President's order, the Secretary of State's introductory statement, and a full list of correspondences included, in chronological order. In the 1860s and 70s - following newly established autonomy from the Ottoman empire, the unification of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, and the ascendancy of the newly elected Prince Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza - Romania saw a new extreme wave of anti-Semitic measures, laws and attitudes. At the prompting of their respective Jewish citizens, a number of countries in the international community voiced their opposition to these developments and sought to put pressure on the new Romanian government. In 1870 the United States entered the fray with the appointment of Jewish-American lawyer Benjamin F. Piexotto (1834-1890) as the new American consul in Bucharest. Piexotto served in Romania from 1871-1876, and was able to improve the conditions for Romania Jews during his tenure. He promoted the ideas of the Haskalah (The Jewish Enlightenment) and modernization to the community, and among his numerous endeavors, was responsible for improvements in modern Jewish education, through the establishment of the Society for the culture of the Israelites in Roumania (Societate Pentra Cultura Israelit Romania). Piexotto also funded the Roumänische Post in an effort to combat anti-Semitism in the Romanian Press. Ultimately his efforts are credited for strengthening Jewish community structures in the country, and ultimately laying the groundwork for eventual Jewish emancipation, as allowed for in the provisions of the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. Minor age toning and smudges to pages throughout. In overall very good+ condition. Protected in modern mylar. Full title: Message from the President of the United States, Communicating, In compliance with a resolution of the Senate of March 28th, 1872, correspondence in regard to the persecution and oppression of Isrealites in Roumania. Resource: Gartner, Lloyd P., Roumania, America, and World Jewry: Consul Peixotto in Bucharest, 1870?1876. American Jewish Historical Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 1 (September, 1968), pp. 24-56, 59-117.