This is the decoration that Maer Simovici received for serving in the Romanian Army during World War I. The certificate has a governmental crest at the top and a medal hanging from a ribbon is attached to the top left-hand corner. The ribbon has green and blue vertical stripes, and the medal is in the shape of a cross. The printed text has spaces that are filled in with ink providing the name of the recipient and the date. The certificate states that the Ministry of War, by order of King Ferdinand I, conferred the commemorative Cross of War to Simon J. Maer for his service in the war from 1916–1918. The certificate is dated August 4, 1926. There is a line across the middle of the certificate which is where it was torn in half, as described by Maer’s daughter, Mira Tudor. According to Mira, her father was extremely proud of his military honour and kept it displayed in their home. She relates the following story which took place during World War II in Romania:
"He kept his decoration on a piece of cardboard in a frame. In 1940, a group of Legionaries came to our place; they were wearing green shirts with baldrics. I was 14 at the time. The group was led by a Legionary district attorney named Stoenescu. They rang the bell and entered. They started to search the house. They were infuriated by the sight of my father’s decoration. They threw it on the floor and broke it in half. As soon as they left, my father picked it up and hid it. It survived to this day – I have it – although it went through so many things. It was his pride."
Maer came from a Romanian Ashkenazi family. His wife, Anicuta, was from a Sephardi family who spoke Ladino and were very proud of their Sephardi heritage. The family did not have enough money for a large dowry for Anicuta, as was required in order to marry a Sephardi man; she therefore married Maer, an Ashkenazi, thus necessitating a smaller dowry Maer had a very limited education and came from a poor family. At the age of nine, his father and stepmother had sent him to another town to work in a Jewish family’s store and home. After getting married, he fought in the Balkan War and later in World War I as a paramedic. Maer was decorated for his service on the battlefield and received the certificate that he cherished until he died. After the war, Maer opened a shop in the city of Ramnicu Valcea and became a successful businessman. The family lived in a city with a small Jewish community and kept many of the Jewish traditions. There was a synagogue in the city and the rabbi made many efforts to preserve the Jewish traditions in the community. In 1940, the family moved to Bucharest because their shop and home were confiscated. Although the family did not have to wear a yellow star, Maer was sent to do forced labour. After the war, they were able to return their original home, since the person who had taken it from them had died in battle. Life under the communist regime was difficult, and Maer and Anicuta did not receive a pension, subsisting thanks to the support of their daughters and parcels from a relative who had immigrated to the United States. Maer died in 1972.
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Jewish Community of Romania – The Jewish history of Romania began in Roman times when a small number of Jews settled there. Jews began arriving in Romania in large numbers at the end of the fourteenth century after they had been expelled from Hungary. The community grew after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and then, later, after the Chmielnicki massacres in Poland in 1648–1649. The Jews of Romania suffered anti-Semitism and were denied citizenship and faced many restrictions. In the 1800s, Romania fought for independence, first against the Ottomans and then against Russia. Romania gained independence in 1878 but, despite pressure from the world community, they continued to deny citizenship to Jews. Many Jews left Romania due to the anti-Semitic atmosphere in the country. In the years before World War II, there were over 750,000 Jews living in Romania. Although there was a Sephardi, Ladino-speaking community in Romania, most Romanian Jews were of Polish or Russian descent, spoke Yiddish, and followed Ashkenazi customs. When Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, the Romanian government enacted additional exclusionary laws against Jews. Romania became a satellite of Germany in 1940, and by the end of the Holocaust over half of the Jewish population had been killed. After World War II, Romania came under Soviet rule but was allowed to have a level of religious freedom that was unavailable to others living in the Soviet Union. Large numbers of Romania’s surviving Jews moved to Israel and other countries. Today the community consists of approximately 15,000 people.
