Ghetto veac XX – The Ghetto – The 20th Century – on the Jews’ confrontation with waves of antisemitism in the “ghetto” between the two World Wars. The most important work by Uri Ben-Dor (pen name of Shimon Moise Grinberg). Bucharest, 1934 – second edition. In Romanian.
This is one of the central novels in Jewish-Romanian literature of the interwar period, portraying the life of the Jewish community in Romania through the story of Baruch Landau. The novel follows the life of Baruch Landau, the son of a Jewish tailor’s family from the town of Dorohoi, who moves with his family to Brăila in an attempt to improve their economic situation. Baruch faces antisemitism, poverty, and social barriers—discrimination in education and employment, and more. He is drawn to socialist ideas, attempts to publish a Yiddish newspaper, and aspires to promote Jewish culture. Baruch is inquisitive, eager to learn, to progress, and to integrate into Romanian society. Yet despite his talents and determination, he is repeatedly blocked: denied access to education—because he is Jewish. He struggles to find employment—due to discrimination. He grows frustrated with a society that preaches equality but rejects him in practice. The novel presents the struggle of Romanian Jews to preserve their identity while seeking to improve their social and economic status. Throughout the book, it becomes clear that the “ghetto” of the 20th century is not merely a physical place—it is a social, psychological, and political condition of marginalization, alienation, and non-belonging in a modern state that claims to offer equality. The protagonist, Baruch Landau, embodies the generation of Jews striving to rise from poverty and tradition into a world of progress and education, only to discover that Romanian society does not truly accept them. The novel seeks to demonstrate that even in a modern era, when society appears to be opening up and offering opportunities, the Jew in Romania continues to encounter invisible barriers—covert antisemitism, systemic discrimination, and efforts to erase cultural identity. Baruch Landau is not merely a character—he is a symbol of interwar Romanian Jewry: intelligent, struggling, yet trapped in an invisible ghetto of prejudice and rigid social structures.
Striking cover design: At the center of the illustration appear five Orthodox Jewish men, dressed in long coats and fur hats, with thick beards characteristic of the Romanian “ghetto” of the time. Their facial expressions are solemn as they march in a somber procession. In the background, a stark contrast: buildings of a modern, bourgeois city—likely Bucharest—with tall, European-style structures from the 1930s. The bustling city with its modern architecture sharply contrasts with the foreground figures, who represent the traditional Jewish world. At the bottom are additional small figures—perhaps passersby or local residents—absorbed into the urban landscape, contributing to a sense of alienation and distance between the traditional Jews and their surrounding urban environment.
The author, Uri Ben-Dor (Shimon Moise Grinberg) [1895–1971], was a Jewish-Romanian writer, playwright, and journalist who worked to promote Jewish culture in Romania. Ben-Dor was active in the socialist movement and edited journals in both Yiddish and Romanian. Initially, he published his works under the pen name Simon Schmidt, after his mother’s surname, but later adopted a Hebrew-inspired pseudonym: Uri Ben-Dor. During the Legionnaires’ Rebellion and the Bucharest pogrom in January 1941, the author hid with his three children in a basement. Later, he served in the “Jewish Center” (Centrala evreiască) established by the regime of Marshal Ion Antonescu and wrote for its publication, Gazeta Evreească. After the war, he served as literary secretary of the State Jewish Theater in Bucharest from 1947 to 1954.
Rare. Only two copies listed in the WorldCat global library catalog.
284 [4] pp. Good – very good condition.
