Romania keeps coin featuring anti-Semite in circulation

The National Bank of Romania said on Thursday that a coin featuring Miron Cristea, an anti-Semite religious leader and former Prime Minister, would remain in circulation despite pressure from Jewish communities.

A central bank commission concluded that the coins did not convey xenophobic, racist or anti-Semite messages. The central bank reiterated that the sole purpose of the coins was to observe the values of humanity, democracy and multiculturalism, and said that they were in no way intended to hurt the feelings of any community, or prejudice the interests of specific groups. A spokesperson at the central bank said that Miron Cristea's featuring in the coin "may not and should not" be seen as related to his short activity as Romania's Prime Minister, during which time he stripped 225,000 Romanian Jews of their citizenship, but rather as part of his role in the development of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Cristea was the first patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The coin was part of a series of five silver coins to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The coins are 37 millimeters in diameter and have a face value of Lei10 ($3.14).

On 9 August, the National Bank said it would review the release of a coin on 19 July depicting Miron Cristea, the first patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church and an anti-Semite Romanian leader, after it was accused of racism by the Jewish community. The central bank had said it would scrap the coins if they were deemed anti Semitic by the commission.

His inclusion in the coin series stirred protests from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, which both demanded the coin be withdrawn from circulation.