„DUPĂ MOARTEA LUI MANASSE”. ADRIAN VEREA, IMAGINARUL ANTISEMIT ŞI O PIESĂ UITATĂ
THE ANTI-SEMITIC IMAGERY AND A FORGOTTEN PLAY: “DUPĂ MOARTEA LUI MANASSE” [“AFTER MANASSE’S DEATH”], BY ADRIAN VEREA

Author(s): Dragoș Silviu Păduraru
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: anti-Semitism; extremism; stereotypes; The Other;
Summary/Abstract: Published in 1915 in Bucharest under the pen name I. Pârvu (Ciuin), the drama After the Death of Manasse – written by the Romanian-Jewish playwright Adrian Verea (Adolf Wechsler) – is a continuation of the – rather famous in its time – play Manasse by Ronetti-Roman. It is true that it had been 15 years since Manasse, but anti-Semitic speech was persisting in the Romanian public arena. It was once again criticized The Jew and accused of the many issues the Romanian society faced. The anti-Semitic activists were growing in number. In this landscape in which The Foreigner is, in the minds of the traditionalists, an enemy, Adrian Verea’s play is published, and it follows the mechanism of attack against The Other. It is of course targeted The (imaginary) Jew. The playwright resumes the characters of Ronetti-Roman and brings on the stage Tănase, a zealot of Romanianism. Violent anti-Semitic, Tănase remains a character without personality. He is just the exponent of extremist ideas. In other words, the playwright replaces The Jew devoted to his Law, the conservative Manasse, with an intolerant Romanian man, capable of dirty political games. To what extent are The Others – representatives of a minority culture – tolerated in a society dominated by prejudice? How do stereotypes about Jews work? Which are the resources of political demagoguery, which requires the “enemies” to be fought against just because they represent a different ethnicity? These are a series of issues that Verea’s play raises, in spite of its shortcomings, and that our review aims to highlight.

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