STERN, ADOLPHE

STERN, ADOLPHE (1848–1931), Romanian lawyer and political leader. Born in Bucharest, Stern studied law, and in 1891 became the secretary of Benjamin peixotto , the first consul of the United States in romania . In 1873 he was elected secretary of the Zion Brotherhood in Bucharest. In 1886 Stern became president of the B'nai B'rith lodge in Romania and in 1889 he headed the central board of all the lodges in Romania. Stern took the initiative in creating the first political representation for Romanian Jews, the Union of Native Jews, in 1909, and served as its president until 1923. During World War I he made contact with G. Clemenceau and other political personalities informing them of the situation of Romanian Jews and asking for intervention in recognizing their rights of Romanian citizenship. From 1922 to 1926 he was a member of the Romanian parliament and chairman of the Jewish Club where he urged the inclusion in the constitution of provisions in the Paris peace treaty concerning naturalization for Jews in Romania. He published a series of judicial works, and translated into Romanian several plays of Shakespeare. The three volumes of his memoirs, Insemnári din viaţa mea (vol. 1, 1915; vol. 2, 1921; and vol. 3 fragmentarily in the paper Renaşterea Noastră ("Our Revival"), are an important source for the political history of Romanian Jews of his time. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sinai, 2 (Bucharest, 1929). (Theodor Lavi)