Imaginea evreilor în Calendarele populare româneşti. Sfârşitul secolului al XIX-lea – începutul secolului al XX-lea
The Jews as They Were Seen in Calendarele populare româneşti. The End of the 19th Century – the Beginning of the 20th Century

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Summary/Abstract: There are some various prototypes of characters in Calendarele Populare Româneşti kept at Mureş County Library: the drunkard, the gipsy and the Jew.They are all considered as “marginal cathegories of people.” The drunkard is never appreciated; the gipsy is considered to be lazy and thief; the Jew is both disregard for his inward nature and appreciated for his capacity of being a good merchant.The most important criteria in defining the Jews is the ethnical one; it is followed by the religious one and finally the social one, the Jews being considered a “cathegory of merchants from birth.” There are some typical features of character that define Jews and they can be observed almost every time.Depending on their occupation, there are some typical images of Jews that are known in Romanian society: the publican Jew, who makes people drink; the money lender Jew, who became rich by unfair ways. The Jews also appear in some stories that sanction the avarice.The alcoholism is considered to be one of the worst deseases of Romanian society at the end of the 19th century and the begining of 20th century. The culpable one is the publican Jew, because he offers falsificated drinks to Romanian drunkards and became rich. The first document that accuses Jews of making false drinks and using poisoned ingredients dates from 1872; it is about a text written by Bartolomeu Baiulescu from Braşov. A very curious aspect is that he did not accuse Romanian of being drunkards, but the publican Jew for serving it.A typical element that distinguish the publican Jew is the red moustache which is considered in Romanian mentality as a sign of Evil, a characteristic of a bad man. But we also have to mention that there is always a young Romanian peasant, cultivated, that will finally manage to convince people to give up drinking.There are also some articles that speak highly of Jews because of their capacity of making money, because of their interest for culture and education.Is is said that they are sending their children to school to be able to manage the familly affair, while Romanian drunkards prefer to keep theirs at home and put them to work.Sometimes Jews became victims and they are punished because of drunkards financial problems. An article written in 1904 refers to the stabing of a publican Jew.In spite of these problems that Jews created in Romanian society, the indisputable fact is that the two nations – Romanians and Jews – have lived together and worked together on this earth.

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