B’nai B’rith CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin, along with two other American Jewish leaders, was honored with the National Order “For Merit” by Ambassador Andrei Muraru, on behalf of the Romanian government. This recognition highlights their longtime work in building Romania’s democracy, memorializing its Holocaust history, preserving its Jewish heritage and combating anti-Semitism.

Read more about the honor and the ceremony at JNS.org.

Watch the accompanying i24News segment, where Senior U.S. Correspondent Mike Wagenheim discusses the significance of this prestigious honor awarded to Mariaschin and interviews him (starting at 2:25) about Romania’s strides since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It comes in the backdrop of a Holocaust denier who is projected to win the country’s premiership in a matter of days.

A trio of American Jewish leaders were honored on Tuesday by the Romanian government for decades of work in building the Eastern European country’s democracy, its incorporation into NATO and its reckoning with its antisemitic past.

This Sunday, all those efforts could be rolled back as Călin Georgescu—a little-known antisemitic, Holocaust-denying, pro-Russia candidate—is projected to win a runoff election for prime minister amid allegations of Russian meddling.

Facing an uncertain future back in Bucharest, Andrei Muraru—Romania’s ambassador to the United States—tied medals around the necks of Rabbi Andrew Baker, director of international Jewish affairs for the American Jewish Committee; Daniel S. Mariaschin, CEO of B’nai B’rith International; and Mark Levin, executive vice chairman and CEO of the National Coalition for Supporting Eurasian Jewry (NCSEJ).

Presenting them with the National Order of Merit in the rank of grand officer—the second-rarest civilian award—Muraru said the achievement was extraordinary. It was “not just regular achievement, but persistent, enduring, impactful and time tested leadership and achievement, the kind that deserves our highest recognition and praise,” he emphasized.

According to a declaration read at the ceremony, the awards were given “as a sign of high appreciation for their commitment to combating antisemitism and Holocaust denial, for their long-standing role in advancing Romania’s bilateral relations with the United States of America and with the State of Israel” and for their efforts to support Romania’s entry into the Schengen Area, allowing checkpoint-free travel for citizens of 29 European countries.

Baker was a member of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, known as the Wiesel Commission, led by Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. It was established by former President Ion Iliescu, now 90, in 2003 to examine the history of the Holocaust in Romania and to make concrete recommendations on educating Romanians on the topic, following the uproar that Illiescu generated with his own Holocaust minimization.

Baker had previously served on historical commissions in the Baltic states. He had known then-Romanian foreign minister Mircea Geoană from Geoană’s previous time as ambassador to the United States, and the two agreed that something needed to be done urgently in the wake of Iliescu’s comments.

Joined by Romanian Holocaust scholar Radu Ioanid, formerly of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and now Bucharest’s ambassador to Israel, Geoană thought a commission “would be good, and it would give it immediate credibility, and we recognized with Elie as chair, it would be very hard to discount any of the recommendations that would come out of this commission,” Baker told JNS.

“In the space of about 18 months, we had a clear and critical history prepared, agreed to, and other recommendations that I could promote together,” Baker recounted, including calling for the creation of a research center, a public memorial and an official commemoration day.

‘It became a kind of litmus test’

Looking back over the last 20 years, Baker said that the work since then in Romania has gone “mostly forward, some steps back.”

Just this October, Baker was in Bucharest, helping the government to host a Holocaust conference focused on distortion and the education needed to address it, in conjunction with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), on which Baker sits as a special envoy for combating antisemitism.

“We’re not really dealing with outright denial these days, but with the idea that, well, we don’t want to acknowledge the role of local collaborators from the Holocaust era and because they were also anti-Soviet fighters, they deserve to be honored, and we’ll ignore that they might have been murdering Jews anyway,” said Baker of a common issue that Romania faces.

The Wiesel Commission was also linked to Romania’s 2004 acceptance into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Romania has served as a key NATO ballistic-missile defense site.

Baker was part of a U.S. committee for NATO, addressing matters like Holocaust restitution and confronting Holocaust history.

“In a way, it became a kind of litmus test, because the argument for bringing these countries into NATO was not one that was sufficient to focus only on the military piece,” Levin told JNS, citing the relative insignificance of the strength of militaries like Romania and Lithuania.

With the end of the Cold War, questions were asked about the overall role of NATO and whether it “should be a community of values, and how are these countries dealing with issues of ethnic intolerance and so on,” said Baker.

He told JNS that every country might have had different issues with different ethnic minorities or neighbors, but they all had the same legacy in terms of having had Jewish community problems under communism and honestly confronting Holocaust history.

‘Taken a lead in the fight of antisemitism’

Mariaschin was also involved in Romania’s ascension to NATO after the country was rejected during the first round of post-Soviet additions in 1999.

He told JNS that B’nai B’rith, together with Baker’s AJC, became leading voices in the Jewish community in advocating for membership for Romania “and saying the window would not always be open.”

“This was an opportunity to ensure that the eastern flank of NATO and Eastern Europe would stay in the Democratic camp,” said Mariaschin, taking to Capitol Hill to push for the Senate’s ratification of Romania’s membership.

Levin’s ties to Romania go back even further before it shed communism during its 1989 revolution.

Under the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, a country’s immigration practices are linked to the granting of the economically valuable category of permanent normal trade relations. Levin helped to take part in Romania’s annual review concerning their acceptance of Jewish immigrants, ensuring that they were provided with dignified living conditions.

“To see what’s happened and to see how the Jewish community has grown and developed and has been integrated into Romanian society by successive governments—it’s remarkable to see how Romania has taken a lead in the fight of antisemitism,” Levin told JNS. “I’d like to think again that our organizations help build that bridge.”

But those bridges are showing signs of cracks. The rapid ascension of Georgescu, who has loudly glorified a pair of fiercely antisemitic Romanian fascists, has sent shockwaves through Europe and in Jewish communities in Romania.

‘It sends an awful message’

A sense of trepidation could be felt in the air during the awards ceremony on Dec. 3, amid the celebration of the accomplishments of the past 30 years.

“We celebrate democracy, integrity and humanity, and strongly reject hate, fear and deception,” Muraru told those gathered. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is our sacred responsibility today, tomorrow and always. And we say that with a literal sense of urgency, as we are approaching perhaps the most consequential elections of our time in Romania this coming weekend when democracy and integrity must win—they will win—and fear and deception must and will be defeated.”

Mariaschin told JNS that a win on Sunday by Georgescu would be “a regression.”

“There’s a comfort level, there are visits back and forth, all kinds of programs,” he said of the known climate in U.S.-Romanian relations.

“To have someone who venerates the Iron Guard, an abject antisemite,” said Mariaschin, pausing, seemingly processing what it could all mean for the work he and his partners were being honored for.

Baker, who wrote an open letter to Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on the subject, told JNS that everyone voting for Georgescu is not necessarily an antisemite or Holocaust denier.

“But he is those things,” Baker said of Georgescu. “If you elect someone who has those views, it sends an awful message, and I think it undermines the very basis for the good and warm relationships that we have had, that we see in the bilateral relation between Romania and the United States, but also the relationship between Romania and Israel.

Levin took a measured tone, telling JNS that even if Georgescu is elected, he will be working with a parliament that is unlikely to bend to his will.

“I wish I could give you a definitive answer,” said Levin. “The level of concern is higher, certainly.”

Baker, meanwhile, told those gathered on Tuesday of something Ioanid once imparted to him.

“If you’re offered an award like this, you should take it. You never know when the time might come that you’ll need to give it back in protest,” he said, half in jest. “Well, I very much hope, even as fraught as these times are, that won’t happen.”