The attitude of the Romanian journalist Stelian Popescu and of the newspaper “Universul” towards the “Jewish problem” between 1936 and 1944

The present study intends to analyze the implication of the Romanian journalist and the paper he led in the public debate of the ’30s focused on the “Jewish problem”, the analysis of the newspaper discourse and articles being an eloquent manner of understanding the interwar mechanism of thinking and public debate. This article approaches the subject concentrating both on the attitude expressed by Stelian Popescu toward the evolution of the anti-Semitic prejudices and the contribution of ?Universul” to the dissemination of these false ideas. The first part of the article analyses the contribution of the discourse of “Universul” to the development of the nationalistic culture and political mysticism that creates the premises of ethnic and religious discrimination. The second part would concentrate on the historical demonization of the Hebrew people focusing also on the contribution of Stelian Popescu to the maintaining of demographic and economical anti-Semitism. Another important point of this study will be the relation, the rivalry and the real battle between “Universul” and the left wing papers “Adevărul” and “Dimineaţa”. The Hebrew identity of some socialist pressmen became an argument for the radicalization of the anti-Semitic articles. From this point I would have brought into discussion the main obsession of the interwar anti-Semitism ? the concept of judeo-bolshevism. I have tried to present the ideological development of this idea in the Romanian society’s thinking and writings. “Universul” articles are one of the most suggestive regarding this ideological aspect. The last part of the study presents the impact of these articles, ideas and prejudices. The brutalities against the Hebrew community following the retreat from Bessarabia, the Jassy Pogrom, the anti-Semitic legislation, and the genocide from the east front would be also the effect of all that years’ aggressive speech.