Early years Streitman was a native of
Piatra Neamț town, which is located in mountainous
Western Moldavia. His exact birthday was given by a writer friend,
Tudor Arghezi, as February 16, 1870; he is known to have had a sister, Ida, who was five years his junior. The Streitmans practiced Judaism, and, like the majority of Romanian Jews living before 1920, were
non-emancipated, and not yet eligible for
Romanian citizenship; later in life, Henric rejected being labeled with the term "
Israelite", which he regarded as a pretentious euphemism. According to his own definitions, his father was "one of our town's leading men of culture". When he was aged five, his family hosted
Velvel Zbarjer, an
itinerant singer, whose presence impressed Henric; shortly after this, Zbarjer was expelled from the
Principality of Romania for having publicized a poem "critical of the country's injustices." Young Streitman was privately tutored, in both German and French, by the Count Jurawski, a
Polish refugee. As he recalled decades later, "the all-knowing, all-forgiving" Jurawski was also an amateur scientist who introduced his pupils, and Moldavians in general, to
Lamarckism and
Darwinism. Enrolled at high school, Streitman also followed politics, and was close to the budding socialist movement of students in the newly-formed
Kingdom of Romania. A 1936 note in
Rampa magazine dates Steitman's debut to 1888, when the young man was published by
Traian Demetrescu's
Revista Olteană. In 1889, he began collaborating with
Garabet Ibrăileanu's journal
Școala Nouă, appearing alongside the young socialists
Izabela Andrei,
Panait Mușoiu,
Raicu Ionescu-Rion. His articles covered a vast category of subjects, introducing the Romanian public to developments in sociology, hard science, and philology. The only speaker of German in that group, Streitman is presumed to be the author of articles signed
I. Chilieanu (others believe this was Ibrăileanu's own pen name). Both the anonymous article and Streitman's signed pieces discuss the differences between
literary naturalism and
realism, and the naturalism vs. "pornography" debate of the 1880s. The young author completed his education abroad, and trained in several fields. He studied physics and chemistry at the universities of
Göttingen,
Zurich,
Berlin, and then at the
Technical College Stuttgart. In July 1889, the illegal newspaper
Sozialdemokrat claimed that Streitman, "a cowardly and totally characterless person", acted as a police informant "in order to save himself from possible expulsion". Allegedly as a result of his reports, the
Kingdom of Württemberg prosecuted a
Marxist organizer,
Eduard Fuchs. Throughout this interval as an expatriate, Streitman continued to send his articles to
Școala Nouă, before it ultimately succumbed in May 1890. In
Germany, Streitman was university colleagues with several prominent Romanian intellectuals of various political hues:
Barbu Brănișteanu,
Gheorghe Gh. Longinescu,
Simion Mehedinți,
Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcaș, etc. He also traveled out of
Central Europe, and heard lectures in philosophy at
Rome University. According to academic Marian Petcu, it remains unclear whether he ever specialized in any particular field. and
Constantin Mille in the foreground. Streitman is in the back row, holding up the
red flag; to his right,
Henric Sanielevici and
Ion Păun-Pincio Streitman's earliest contributions to cultural journalism also include a profile of poet
Mihai Eminescu, published in June 1891 by a
radical-liberal newspaper,
Românul. It stood out for promoting the notion that Eminescu's skeptical conservatism was the result of his being mistreated by society; the theory was reviewed with derision by the
Greek Catholic paper
Unirea, who introduced Streitman as "a Jew, a German, or God knows what else". Reportedly, the young writer made his full debut in journalism in 1894, when he contributed regularly to the same
Românul. Together, they completed and circulated translations of scientific and
scientistic literature. In 1894, Henric and Rachel Streitman published the first volume of
Max Nordau's
Degeneration. A boy (named Max-Radu Streitman) was born to the couple in September 1895; this was announced in
Lupta, which also noted that Henric was at the time a staff journalist at
Țara newspaper. As a traditionalist reviewer,
Ilarie Chendi spoke of the Streitmans' work as part of a "Jewish translation" phenomenon which had taken up cultural space in
fin de siècle Romania; he also noted similar contributions by
Saniel Grossman,
Adolphe Stern, and I. Hussar. Chendi identified Nordau as a main reference for Jews active in
Romanian literature, "a sort of protective father-figure for the Romanian Jews." In their introductory study to
Degeneration, the Streitmans highlighted the connections between Nordau and socialism, but also introduced footnotes claiming to correct the author for his disagreements with Marxism. Streitman's work was soon acknowledged in the literary profession, and discussed by Constantin Stamatin-Nazone in his 1894 essay
Profilurĭ ("Profiles"). As argued by historian of journalism
G. Brătescu, Streitman impressed and influenced the greats of Romanian journalism with his "subtle, malicious, ironic, doubting, often indulgent" writing style. Moreover, Brătescu writes, Streitman was an "erudite" and a competent reader of both secular and religious literature.
Prezentul and Viitorul Streitman's political stances became the subject of controversy when it came to his ignoring the territorial and cultural conflicts opposing Romania and
Austria-Hungary. In October 1897, as a representative of
Liberalul newspaper, he was invited by the Hungarian literary community to visit
Budapest. He accepted the invitation, as did his colleagues Brănișteanu and
Henric Sanielevici; most Romanian journalists rejected it, noting that their newspapers were in fact banned from even reaching
Transleithania. In June 1900, Streitman and
Petre I. Sturdza attended the Budapest premiere of
Radu D. Rosetti's play,
O lecție, and were fêted there by Hungarian journalists. According to
Gazeta Transilvaniei, this implied that Streitman had "Hungarian sympathies", and had thus befriended Romania's rivals. In May 1899, as the
Conservative Party took control of the administration, it identified Streitman as a publicist for the rival
National Liberal Party. He was reportedly harassed by General Ion Algiu, leader of the
Romanian Police, who asked him to end such activities or be deported as a foreign national. In February 1903, Streitman was ultimately
naturalized Romanian by special vote of the
Senate. Covering this event, the community newspaper
Egalitatea described him as
fost evreŭ (a "former Jew"). Henric now took on the Christian name "Ștefan", This body, created by
N. Petrașcu, officially admitted him in December 1904. Streitman worked at
Secolul ("The Century"), alongside
Dumitru Karnabatt; their employer was M. Ghimpa, who was acting on behalf of a National Liberal politico,
Eugeniu Stătescu. They left
Secolul in October 1902, together with the entire editorial team, being signed up by Vasile Epurescu at another National Liberal sheet,
Observatorul ("The Observer"). Streitman became its editor in chief, seconded by Karnabatt. He took his journalistic career further when he a new daily,
Prezentul ("The Now") and, in 1908, the weekly
Cuvinte Libere ("Free Words"). A "political magazine",
Cuvinte Libere drew praise in
Sămănătorul for the "distinguished urbanity of its polemical tone". Streitman's coworkers and employees were Rudolf Uhrinowsky, ridiculed by
Furnica for his unusual surname, poet
Victor Eftimiu, and (Eftimiu noted)
Adrien Le Corbeau, already famous as a habitual plagiarist. Joining them as literary contributors were three young poets, all of them representing the
Romanian Symbolist movement:
Mihail Cruceanu,
Al. T. Stamatiad, and
Eugeniu Sperantia. Streitman also bonded with a Symbolist author and
Christian socialist,
Gala Galaction, and prayed together with him at an unnamed synagogue in December 1908. In his account of the visit, Galaction proposed a Romanian–Jewish alliance: "a nation who knows how to pray in that way Jews can pray is invincible, impregnable"; Galaction also referred to Streitman as a "highly intelligent and prestigious journalist". Streitman remained a practicing Jew into the 1940s, whereas his wife never reverted back to Judaism. In March 1910, Streitman's entire mobile property was confiscated by court order, and auctioned off to pay off his debt to an R. Goldemberg. The two papers did not survive this, and Streitman returned to regular publishing work. He was soon appointed editor in chief of
Viitorul, a newspaper put out by the National Liberals, with
Ion G. Duca and
Constantin Banu as managers, Still a nominal left-winger, Streitman announced in December 1912 that he would be putting out a new magazine of his own,
Realitatea ("Reality"), its mission being to "strip public life of all ideology, of all phraseology"; during those years, he was being approached by right-wing politicians, becoming friends with Duca, then also with
Constantin Angelescu and
Constantin Argetoianu. In January 1913, Streitman became involved with Romania's first journalists' union, the General Association of the Press. Alongside Karnabatt,
Constantin Bacalbașa,
Constantin Costa-Foru,
Scarlat Lahovary,
Constantin Mille, Barbu Brănișteanu, I. Hussar, he held seat on a steering committee which approved of new entries. In 1910 and 1911, Streitman worked as a translator for Biblioteca Lumen company, publishing
Henri Murger's
Scènes de la vie de bohème, Bebel's
Women and Socialism, and the short stories of
Vladimir Korolenko. One of Streitman's last journalistic ventures for 1913 was a series of interviews on the "
Jewish Question", which was published as a brochure by the
Union of Native Jews. A Romanian rival,
Romulus Cioflec, argued that the set mainly featured known
philosemites such as
Alexandru Ciurcu and
Constantin G. Dissescu. During February 1914, his former associate Sanielevici exposed him as the pseudonymous
Quidam of Cocea's
Facla newspaper. Sanielevici, who opposed Cocea's politics, also attacked Streitman as "blacklisted by the
German social-democratic party. A chemist, a charlatan, a socialist, a police worker, again a socialist, a journalist, a Mosaic believer, a Christian and again a Mosaic, a mystic, a philosopher, and a con man." In March, alongside Brănișteanu, Lahovary, Mille, Uhrinowsky,
Petre Locusteanu and
Alexandru Mavrodi, Streitman was present at the "Franco–Romanian brotherhood" banquet, honoring visitor
Stéphane Lauzanne.
World War I and People's Party Streitman's advocacy came to a halt during the debates and campaigns of World War I. In 1914, when Romania was still neutral territory, he published a monograph on the life and ideas of
Jean Jaurès, the recently assassinated
SFIO leader. His old adversaries at
Furnica alleged that he was in business with his National Liberal contacts, a middleman for "compensation" exports to countries of the
Central Powers. Streitman stayed behind enemy lines after the
occupation of southern Romania. According to several accounts, he was one of eight Jews picked up as hostages by the
German Army, and initially held at Hotel Imperial; the same round-up also included Romanian figures who had supported the Allies: Ciurcu,
Constantin Antoniade,
Alexandrina Cantacuzino,
Constantin Cantacuzino-Pașcanu,
Nicolae Malaxa,
Mina Minovici, and
Constantin Rădulescu-Motru. Despite being described as "very ill", he was one of the prisoners dispatched to a facility in
Săveni. A polemical memoir of these episodes appeared as
Porcii ("The Swine"), and was signed by "Arhibald"—the pen name used by Streitman's fellow exile, Ghiță Rădulescu. In October 1917, Rădulescu and Streitman were picked out for deportation into
Bulgaria; they were selected for a comfortable exile in
Troyan, where Streitman appeared "in a mountaineer's attire". "Arhibald" claims that Streitman's disease was simulated throughout their Bulgarian exile: "when he forgets that he has to faint, he is as talkative as can be". Streitman and the Troyan group were released on December 23, 1917, though some accounts suggest that he was also interned for a while at
Tismana Monastery. He was active in occupied Bucharest following
Romania's armistice (May 1918), an editorial director of
Virgil Arion's
Renașterea newspaper, which promoted reconciliation with the Germans. According to
Alexandru Macedonski of
Literatorul (himself a
Germanophile), Streitman's arrival at
Renașterea was good news, Streitman being "one of the most brilliant Romanian journalists", "a man of great culture and a writer of great talent". The newspaper riled up patriotic sensibilities with pro-German stances, such as when it asked that Romanian civilians who had publicly celebrated
German defeats in France be jailed. "Arhibald" suggests that
Renașterea was secretly owned by the Germanophile leader,
Petre P. Carp, with Jewish publisher
Leon Alcaly as his front man. As he notes, Streitman's tenure there pitted him against his own contributions in the earlier stages of war: Streitman now claimed that nobody had ever supported going to war against the Central Powers. The same author includes Streitman and philosopher
Iosif Brucăr among a largely Jewish, and more generically foreign, category of intellectuals "passing as Romanians at the German gazettes"; he claims to have found both men's signatures on a memorandum asking the German occupiers to provide them with price-controlled cheese, in return for propaganda services. After the
German capitulation, Streitman returned at the center of Romanian cultural life. He became known as the owner of a library and art salon, Hasefer, which occupied a
Venetian-style villa in Bucharest. In tandem, Streitman made sustained efforts to return as a press magnate. In February 1919, he announced that he was going to relaunch
Prezentul, alongside a magazine of his own, called
Calea ("The Way"). A February 1920 note by fellow Jewish writer
I. Peltz informed the general public that Steitman was again preparing his own "entirely original magazine for social and political critique". Streitman also reentered politics, now as a committed
anticommunist. As Brătescu writes, he rejected socialism altogether after the
October Revolution, and supported the National Liberal Party without joining its ranks. Before the
electoral year 1920, Streitman joined the politically diverse
People's Party (PP), where he worked alongside the Romanian nationalist poet,
Octavian Goga. The Jewish journalist sent articles to the PP's own press organ,
Îndreptarea. He was an enthusiastic follower of the party leader, General
Alexandru Averescu. In retrospect, he spoke of Averescu as an "imperturbable and incorruptible" figures, chosen by providence to enact a program of "prosperity and order". Streitman was nominated for an eligible seat in a Jewish circumscription, in the newly attached region of
Transylvania. Goga campaigned in his favor, telling Jewish voters that "a Jewish intellectual of the
Old Kingdom" would be best positioned to advance their demands; Streitman failed at convincing them, probably because Transylvanian Jews wished to be considered separate from the Old-Kingdom Jews. More recognition of his public role in Jewish and Romanian life came in early 1921, when the PP government assigned him to welcome back in Romania
Moses Gaster, the expelled Jewish community leader and scholar. Streitman met Gaster at
Curtici, and led him to
Arad, inspiring his subsequent address to the city's Jewish community.
1920s controversy Following the 1920 setback, Streitman focused his political ambitions on another one of Greater Romania's newer regions, campaigning for the Jewish vote in
Bukovina during the
race of 1922. As a PP candidate, he was involved in the provincial conflict opposing two advocates of Jewish rights:
Mayer Ebner, of the
People's Council Party, and
Benno Straucher, of the
Jewish National People's Party. While Straucher became a National Liberal ally, Streitman and
Karl Klüger where signed by Ebner onto a People's Council Party list for the Senate: Streitman for
Storojineț, Klüger for
Cernăuți. Streitman worked as a councilor for the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which probably interrupted his senatorial mandate. Records of the time describe him as "formerly a senator". At that stage, Streitman was being courted by the radical
modernists and the
avant-garde. Resuming his contacts with the socialists, he was taken up by
Facla—reportedly, this was his last-ever steady employment by a publication of any kind. According to literary critic
Geo Șerban, the choice of name still echoed Streitman's commitment to "social emancipation". Streitman's essays were also featured in
Contimporanul, a political and art magazine put out by Cocea's pupil,
Ion Vinea: his name appears
Contimporanul pages from the very first issue, on June 3, 1922. He thus joined the original
Contimporanul crew, which mainly comprised left-wing or politically independent social critics, generally adverse to the National Liberal Party. These included, among others,
Eugen Filotti,
Benjamin Fondane,
Nicolae L. Lupu,
Camil Petrescu, and
Dem. Theodorescu. Streitman was also one of the guest writers for the special issue honoring
Tudor Arghezi's contribution to literary life. As "V. Dănoiu", Fondane celebrated in Streitman a contributor to both Romanian journalism and
Romanian literature: [In Streitman,] the Jews have given us a journalist who could become illustrious in any foreign literature, considering his gracious style, his subtlety and delicious irony. In April 1922, Streitman appeared as a witness in the
Dealul Spirii Trial, which saw militants of the newly formed
Romanian Communist Party indicted for sedition. He defended some members of the group (specifically
Gheorghe Cristescu,
Alexandru Dobrogeanu-Gherea, and
David Fabian), arguing that there was no evidence for their labeling as traitors and terrorists. In June, as a political chronicler for
Contimporanul, he criticized the communist movement as a whole: "Forever meddling and creating havoc, [extremists] 'exaggerate' the teachings, aspirations and goals of the new movements and parties. Worse still: they spoil the leaders' plans". In July 1923, he represented the Jewish Romanians at a congress of
ethnic minority journalists, hosted by Árpád Paál in
Arad. Also that year, he collected a volume of his
Revizuiri ("Revisions"), republishing his 1894 translation from Nordau in 1924; Going over
Revizuiri, Streitman's old friend Ibrăileanu found them to be unusually misanthropic and
intellectualist, suggesting that their critique of social life in the 1920s was perhaps exaggerated. Overall, according to his colleague Fondane, Streitman remained an "isolated" journalist, shunned by his press colleagues, "many of whom are Jews". In August 1925,
Facla published a piece by Streitman which asked Romanians to create an openly antisemitic political party. His text was seen as provocative and tasteless by the National Liberal newspaper,
Mișcarea. Both Streitman and Klüger were reelected to Senate on the Averescu–Ebner platform during the
race of May–June 1926, which returned the PP to government. He took 270 votes, whereas the second-placed Stinodela Scala, a National Liberal, only took 9. The PP's selection was hotly contested in Romania's radical-right circles.
Universul newspaper ran a press campaign claiming to expose Goga as a hypocrite or an opportunist: Goga's "national fanaticism",
Universul claimed, had been proven as a hoax by his political association with the "erstwhile Jewish" Streitman and the
Hungarian Béla Barabás. As a newspaper of the opposition
Peasants' Party,
Dreptatea similarly noted that PP candidate
Ioan Lupaș was assuring his constituents that Averescu had "kept no company with the Hungarians, nor with the Jews", conveniently "forget[ting] Mr H. St. Streitman". Other nationalist venues accused Streitman of harboring
anti-Romanian sentiments, and implied that his patron, Goga, was politically incompetent. A rumor circulated that, at the height of the preceding world war, Streitman had called the Romanians "a gang of thieves, consumed with alcoholism and syphilis". The antisemitic attack on Streitman was taken up in
Parliament by the opposition
National-Christian Defense League (or LANC), through the voice of Transylvanian
Valeriu Pop. Pop, who noted that the supposed quote could be traced back to
Die Weltkampf paper (of the
Militant League for German Culture), accused the PP of having betrayed the cause of "nationalist activity". Streitman himself denied having made any such statements, and suggested that they were fabricated by "a former German policeman." He was publicly defended by another parliamentarian, Mișu Papp-Craiova, who called himself a man of "antisemitic principles". Papp-Craiova argued: Streitman was the only Jew to have exhibited a dignified attitude during the war. [...] this particular Jew has never described himself as a Jew, but has always said he was a Romanian. By 1927, he had been made a Commander in the
Order of St. Sava and a Knight of
Polonia Restituta. Of his planned volumes, only
Între da și nu came out, in late 1928, at
Editura Cultura Națională, earning attention as a "paradoxical and savory" work. Streitman announced at the time that he was writing a "major book" of
Biblical criticism, which focused on
Paul the Apostle and Jewish Christianity. One anecdote suggests that Streitman unwittingly uncovered Titulescu's superficiality while traveling with him through the
Kingdom of Italy. The Romanian diplomat asked Streitman to explain
Italian fascism, and was informed about its precursor,
Georges Sorel; Titulescu "went deep into his thoughts for a moment", persuaded that he had once met Sorel. It consequently emerged that he was thinking of historian
Albert Sorel, whose classes Titulescu had once attended. By 1928, Streitman had returned to his career in the national press, managing the newspapers
Dimineața and
Adevărul. This period coincided with the rise of a
National Peasants' Party, which threatened with revolution. Its messages, including alarmist announcements by Ionel Țăranu, were given exposure by Streitman; during October, Streitman was called in to testify at Țăranu's trial, which lasted into 1929. Meanwhile, the People's Party made Streitman its
Lower Chamber candidate in the
December election, moving him from Storojineț to Cernăuți. Although no longer holding a seat in Parliament, Streitman was one of Romania's delegates to the 25th
Inter-Parliamentary Union Conference, while also representing Romania within a journalists' version of the
Little Entente, alongside Filotti and
Emil Fagure. He also remained active as an adviser of the Romanian far-right. In his own pamphlet,
Mustul care fierbe ("The Frothing Must"), Octavian Goga paid homage to Streitman as the "fine analyst". Goga cited his admiration for Streitman against those who reproached him his antisemitism: "I have never professed that stupid kind of intolerance." At the time, Streitman also advised and financed his friend Șeicaru to set up the nationalist daily,
Curentul. In its original edition, this political tribune employed other Jewish men of letters, among them
F. Brunea-Fox and
Moses Rosen. The periodical is noted by historian Simion Costea for its advocacy of a
Federal Europe and its popularization of
Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi's ideas on the subject—including Kalergi's belief that "modern Judaism" was a natural ally in constructing the European ethos. In August 1929, Streitman led a Romanian journalists' delegation to Poland, also speaking in front of the Polish Commission in the
Free City of Danzig. He signed up for the
1931 electoral campaign as a PP candidate, again in Bukovina. During the interval, he continued to support Titulescu, who was representing Romania at the
League of Nations, against those who wanted him sacked. In a 1931 piece, the artist and commentator
Ion Sava suggested that Streitman had become too wordy in defending Titulescu, and was failing to draw the general public toward his cause.
Between Facla and the far-right , published under the
swastika logo, describing its hostility toward "the kikes" and "the Judaized Romanians" When, in 1932, Goga left the PP to found his own
National Agrarian Party (PNA), Streitman followed suit, thereafter serving on that group's executive committee and writing for Goga's
Țara Noastră. He also endured as a confidant of Duca, who had since become chairman of the National Liberal Party. Their closeness perplexed Arghezi, who viewed Duca as a dishonorable figure, writing in July 1930: "Two opinions on who Mr I. G. Duca are now circulating around Bucharest. One is that of all people who got to know him, and the other one is only held by Mr H. St. Streitmann". When Duca ultimately became prime minister in late 1933, Streitman recorded his friend's premonition that he would end up being assassinated by the Iron Guard: "Now begins the I. G. Duca tragedy..." In September 1932, a nationalist doctrinaire,
Nichifor Crainic, spoke of Streitman as both a "distinguished intellectual" and an "
Ahasuerus" unable to find his place in society, noting that had "switched quite a few religions without settling for any single one". As noted in 1934 by Argetoianu, Streitman was again a politically confused person, since he wrote for "all sorts of publications"—driven mainly by material needs, he was "always meaningful" and "intelligent", a "superior
Semite". Argetoianu's notebook records a joke about "Streitman's salute", which was neither the
fascist salute nor the
communist raised fist, but "arm extended, palm turned up, to pick up something or other". He also recorded how Streitman and Clarnet colluded to obtain larger gifts from their political patron Titulescu. Streitman's own wealth, consisting of "an oak desk and other unspecified items", was confiscated by another court order from his home on Calea Plevnei 72. It was auctioned off in April 1932, this time to repay sums borrowed from Banca Centrală a Țării Românești. Following up on
Între da și nu, Streitman returned in late 1933 with the volume
Mi se pare că... ("Signs Point to..."), at
Alcaly Publishers. A praise of
agnosticism and
relativism, it appeared on
Pompiliu Păltânea's list of notable prose works for 1934. According to Păltânea: "Mr. Henri Streitman reveals his very own manner [...] of searching for the truth through the most distant detours, those that run into surprises and open up grand perspectives." Robot was critical of Streitman's relativistic approach, describing him as a "puppy [...] urinating on some tree." Weeks later, the PNA merged with Streitman's old adversaries, the LANC. As noted by Brătescu, the Jewish Streitman became an election agent for the resulting
National Christian Party (PNC), a notoriously antisemitic force;
Új Kelet contrarily claimed that Streitman had "cut off all contact" with Goga following the unification. Although befriending the fascists, Streitman still assisted with leftist causes. Also in 1932, he joined the staff of
Facla, where he was colleagues with several leftist and rightist political commentators: Carandino,
Sergiu Dan,
Ion Călugăru,
N. Davidescu,
Sandu Eliad. By August 1933, Max-Radu, a practicing attorney, was handling legal defense for participants in the
Grivița strike of February. A while after the Duca assassination, Streitman Sr was a correspondent for N. D. Cocea's extreme-left magazine,
Reporter, which published his essays (signed
Quidam and
Alcest); In January 1933,
Libertateas debate club also included Streitman as a guest speaker, introducing a lecture by Argetoianu. In a 1934 review, the young writer
Geo Bogza referred to Streitman as one of Romania's five model-journalists, and the prime analyst of his day; the list also included Arghezi, Brunea-Fox, Vinea, and
Tudor Teodorescu-Braniște. At the time, Streitman was completing an edition of works by
Ion Heliade Rădulescu, which was to feature his comparative essay on the links between Rădulescu's poetry and the Bible. On May 21, 1937, he was one of several journalists awarded
Czechoslovakia's
Order of the White Lion—other recipients for that day include Brănișteanu, Fagure,
Demostene Botez,
Ion Clopoțel,
Romulus Dianu, and
Constantin Gongopol. An occasional contributor to the
Zionist review
Renașterea Noastră, During February 1934, he was a guest lecturer at a conference on this topic, organized Hasmonaea club and Rădulescu-Motru; he debated the religious aspect, while
Mihai Ralea spoke on sociological issues, and Sami Singer discussed Zionism.
Nazi collaboration , May 1942 In the years leading up to World War II, Romania made antisemitism an official policy. Goga took over as prime minister and, on the first day of 1938, withdrew the free travel permits on
Romania's railway network for all Jewish journalists, specifically including Streitman. Max-Radu was arrested the following month, being tried as an alleged confidence man. Under
successive fascist regimes, Romania sealed its alliance with
Nazi Germany and the
Axis powers, and returned with more policies of that nature. On July 13, 1940, Streitman found himself included on lists of "Judaic writers" or "Hebrew thistles", who had "nothing in common with the spiritual structure of the Romanian peasant". Two days later, the ban on his entire work was made official. The Guardists were eventually thrown out by
Conducător Ion Antonescu during the
clashes of January 1941. In March, I. P. Prundeni wrote in the official newspaper,
Porunca Vremii, that there could be no return to the democratic regime as embodied by Titulescu and his followers. Prundeni referred to Streitman as one of Titulescu's Jewish backers, and claimed that he had once served time in prison.
Radu Lecca, appointed as Jewish Affairs Commissioner, initially considered relaxing some of the
antisemitic decrees, and consulted Zissu on the issue. As recalled by Zissu, they also discussed Streitman: I drew up a little portrait of him, depicting him as a first-rate newspaperman, willing to do just about anything for cash, as one who was never active in Jewish political life, and as a liar. Antonescu's takeover generally increased pressures on the Jewish community. As reported by diarist
Emil Dorian, in December 1941 Streitman was one of the pro-government Jews who took over as leaders of the revamped Jewish Community: The Jews are amazed, almost horrified. [...] they are confused by the role of Streitman, and they don't know the government official policies and the reasons for this situation, for which one cannot find enough people. Lecca soon began organizing a system of coercion, which was to be supervised in his name by the so-called
Central Jewish Office (CE). It was seen by the German envoys as the Romanian answer to a
Judenrat, capable of assisting in the enforcement of the "
Final Solution". Streitman was selected by Lecca to preside over this body, taking over as such on February 7, 1942. He probably owed his appointment to his good rapport with all sides of the political spectrum, and especially to his friendship with Antonescu's friend,
Veturia Goga. According to
University of Haifa scholar Béla Vágó, he may also have been favored by a
special German envoy,
Gustav Richter, who also approved of Lazar Halberthal (Streitman's proposal for the Bucharest Jewish Community Presidency, and formerly a
Macabi București sportsman). The CE was also afforded some recognition by the underground
Union of Romanian Jews (UER), whose leader, Filderman, allowed colleague David "Dadu" Rosenkranz to head the CE's Section of Professional Reeducation. Scholar Carol Iancu views Streitman, as well as others in the CE, as "traitors and collaborators"—by contrast with the informal Jewish leaders, who stood in opposition to Antonescu. The former journalist remained a figurehead, publishing appeals to calm and obedience, and leaving most administrative work to his second-in-command,
Nandor Gingold, M. D. Ethnically Jewish, but a
lapsed Catholic by religion, Gingold justified his own compliance by noting that obvious resistance to Nazi demands would bring immediate destruction upon the Romanian Jews. Similarly, in the Jewish weekly
Gazeta Evreiască, Streitman informed his fellow Jews that the moment required a special kind of reasoning: "with our heads, and not with our nerves, and not with our backbone." Although conflicted due to the religious prohibitions, the CE had to comply with an official order to relocate the
Jewish cemetery on Sevastopol Street. Its eviction in May 1942 was overseen by Streitman, Gingold, Halberthal, and a
Sephardi delegate,
Marco Prezente. This attitude made Streitman an adversary of the dissident Jews, who still refused to take Lecca's orders. A memoir by the then-
Chief Rabbi,
Alexandru Șafran, defines him as "a well-liked journalist, but a perfidious character"; while Gingold "never lost an opportunity to show his contempt", Streitman attended synagogue services regularly, and (though still depicted as a convert to Christianity) burst into tears upon hearing one of Șafran's sermons. The cleric also notes that he attended CE meetings chaired by Streitman, who used his speaking time to insult Zissu. Dorian, who spoke with him in July 1942, reports being stunned by his apparent indifference to news about the
Holocaust in surrounding countries: a "salon moralist", he was recommending that "the Jewish people change its outlook on death". Streitman "cannot find justification for the Jewish people's immense zest for life, for living in any conditions and at whatever price." In early August, Streitman found himself opposed by Zissu, who called him a traitor and a renegade. According to historian Hildrun Glass, Zissu was making himself known as the "intransigent" community leader, and, as result of his conflict with Streitman, was interned at the
Târgu Jiu camp for political prisoners. Zissu himself explained that the internment came as a result of a provocation, after being told that Jews would be forced to contribute 4 billion
lei in "special taxes". He recalls having insulted not just Streitman, but also Rabbi Șafran; he was only arrested because a Romanian inspector general, present at that meeting, deduced that he had also insulted Antonescu.
Sacking, postwar obscurity, and death According to a 1945 editorial by Arghezi, Streitman was a "more nominal than real" head of the CE, using his influence generally for the good (such as when, on Arghezi's own request, he protected "a young architect" by having him employed as a CE cadre). Although they countersigned Lecca's extortion measures, no CE official was ever directly involved in the main criminal
actions against the Jews, including the deportations to
Transnistria. While providing Jewish labor for Antonescu's regime, Rosenkranz also directed relief efforts for survivors of the
Iași pogrom and
Vapniarka. Designated by the Zionist Executive to that same position,
Theodor Loewenstein-Lavi used it as a platform for Jewish nationalism. This again infuriated Zissu, who argued that the Executive was acting immorally. In September 1942, Lavi's appointment was also reviewed by Richter, who was enraged by Lavi's history as an anti-Nazi; he was dismissed, and the Zionist Executive was outlawed. In the aftermath of the incident, Zionist leader
Mișu Benvenisti was advised by Streitman to embark for
British Palestine, and thus save himself from Richter's vengeance. Streitman himself only served in the CE between February and December 30, 1942, being succeeded by Gingold. Arghezi recounts that the CE's new leadership body was entirely Nazified; he claims that Gingold was Richter's brother-in-law, a proven spy, and, additionally, the leader over a "heap of Jews" who actively
undermined their own community. The new CE executive subsequently put Streitman and Brucăr, alongside banker
Aristide Blank, on a list of Jewish hostages; according to Brucăr, this list showed Gingold's priorities: "he was not there to protect the Jews, but to persecute and remove them". Streitman's supervision was assigned to the 31st
Police Precinct, which still recorded his address as Calea Plevnei 72.
Porunca Vremii revisited his case in an August 1943 piece. It described him as a "tiny old man [of] silent and smiling melancholy", admirably poor, and overall still undecided between "Jewry's moral ghetto" and "our world". The article congratulated him for his peacefulness, which clashed with the rhetorical violence of other Jewish journalist; it also argued that his decency was the reason behind his replacement with "a certain Gingold." However,
Porunca Vremii also chided him for his reported attempts to pass himself off as a Romanian, arguing that he was more likable as "a Jew who's not like all the others." Streitman's last years brought his return to activism, this time as a
Revisionist Zionist, working for a massive Jewish resettlement in Palestine. He later moved to the left, joining the
Jewish Democratic Committee, which also accepted Loewenstein-Lavi. In March 1945, public prosecutor Mihail de Mayo interrogated Șafran and Streitman regarding their history with the CE. Streitman was also placed under investigation by a "purification committee" assigned to the
Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania (FCER). A year later, his colleagues at the CE leadership were brought in front of the
Romanian People's Tribunals, whereupon Gingold and
Vasile Isăceanu were given life sentences. Streitman and all other former CE leaders were stripped of their voting rights, by government order, in July 1946—ahead of the
November election. Streitman survived the 1947 establishment of a
communist regime, which, although
anti-Zionist, preferred to ignore him and his political stances. Max-Radu was allowed to perform as a pianist, and, by mid-1947, was managing a "
Tudor Vladimirescu people's atheneum" in Bucharest. In May 1948, he was giving concerts at another such institution, named after communist leader
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Writer
Enric Furtună noted in 1951 that he knew "nothing about Henric, not even if he's still alive", and asked if he may have made his way to Israel. While some files kept by the FCER report that Streitman died in Israel in 1949, Rachel and Max-Radu published a notice of Henric's death in
Adevărul on March 31, 1950, which was a day after his burial at the Jewish Cemetery on Giurgiului Highway, Bucharest. They asked the public not to follow up with sympathy visits. ==Legacy==