Issue: 1/2023
Pages: 49-79
Language: English
Author: Lucian LEUȘTEAN
Abstract:
The present article aims at introducing into the scholarly circuit new pieces of information, from lesser-known British sources, about the Jewish question in Romania and its discussion at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, but also on the development of the system of protection of minorities “of race, language and religion”. It does so by focusing on a text held in the Mocatta Library, Special Collections at University College Library in London, namely the 661-page unpublished diary of Lucien Wolf, who, albeit its secondary status at the Conference, was one of the leaders of the British Jewry. The text shows that, although an anti-Zionist, Lucein Wolf was instrumental in the design of the treaties for the protection of racial, linguistic and religious minorities in Central and Eastern European states, but also a figure which devoted around a decade to consolidating the works of the League of Nations’ Minority Section (1920-1930).
Keywords: Lucien Wolf, The Paris Peace Conference, (Co)Joint Foreign Committee (JFC), Minority treaties, Zionism