The Romanian Intellectual, Christian Orthodoxy, and Identity in connection to Iron Guardism

As the  second part of a two part series, this article explores the confluence of Romanian intellectual culture and the rise of fascism  in the interwar period, with a distinct concentration on the particularity of Romanian identity and its transformation amid the changing rhetoric of pluri nationality. Ultimately the process by which a concrete Romanian identity was formed within the rhetoric of intellectuals was the result of elements of differing views of nationality, the Romanian peasantry, and Christian Orthodoxy all of which were salient elements of Romanian society during the rise of extremists groups such as the Iron Guard. In this second part I explore the way that the Jewish population, and Jewish identity in Romania was used by intellectuals to define Romanian identity by positing that in fact it was the complete opposite of ‘Romanianism’ as it was defined by the rhetoric of the intelligentsia, which manifested itself in the rise of Iron Guard. The ideals of ‘race,’ and ‘ethnicity’ were therefore paradoxes for many Romanian thinkers and writers