Romanian coin called insensitive to Jews

BUCHAREST, Romania — The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum says the refusal of Romania’s central bank to withdraw a coin bearing the image of a prime minister who stripped Jews of their citizenship before World War II is “insensitive’’ to the memory of Holocaust victims.

The Anti-Defamation League also condemned the decision and urged President Traian Basescu yesterday to ensure that information about the anti-Semitic actions of Miron Cristea is included with each coin.

The museum in Washington, D.C., said Cristea’s 1938-1939 tenure “marked the opening of a systematic campaign of anti-Semitic persecution by successive governments that resulted in the devastation of the Romanian Jewish community during the Holocaust.’’ Only about 6,000 Jews live in Romania today.