Freethinking, Freethinkers and the Jewish Question in Romania until the Outbreak of the First World War

The founding of the Romanian Free Thinkers Association (1909) prompted violent criticism against it. This arose out of a milieu influenced by the Romanian Orthodox Church targeting the Association’s anti-religious attitude. One of the allegations formulated against it was that the freethinking movement was only one facet of the wider Jewish universal conspiracy. This article aims to analyse to what extent there was a connection between the freethinking movement in Romania and the Jewish question. The main argument set forward in this article is that the Romanian freethinkers struggled to dismantle these accusations, while attempting to act towards Jewish emancipation in Romania as part of their wider program to transform society

Archaeology · Criticism · Emancipation · Jewish studies · Judaism · Linguistics · Political science · Politics · Romanian · Sociology · Classics · Gender Studies · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies