Moise Ronetti-Roman

Born in Jezierzany, Austro-Hungarian Empire (today Ozeryany, Ukraine), Moise Ronetti-Roman was brought up in a Hasidic household. In 1869, he enrolled at the University of Berlin to study medicine, although he did not earn his diploma. While a student, he began writing articles in the Hebrew journal Ha-Magid under a pen name. Around 1874, Ronetti-Roman moved to Bucharest and began contributing to Romanian periodicals. In an essay he published in 1898, he laid out his views on the position of Jews in Romania, views he would later develop in his play Manasse. Centering on tensions between tradition and modernity, the drama resulted in a great deal of controversy for its depiction of antisemitism in contemporary Romanian society. Performances of the play were banned for a time because of the backlash against it, but it remained influential among Romanian Jewish playwrights following World War I. In addition to this play and countless articles, Ronetti-Roman also wrote poems and short stories. Shortly after his home was destroyed in the 1907 Romanian peasants’ revolt, Ronetti-Roman died in Iaşi.