nti-Semitism sharply increased during the late 1920's, especially after the founding of the Fascist movement Legiunea Arhanghelui Mihai, later known as the Iron Guard, and the strengthening of the Nazi influence in Romania. Already in June 1940, 52 Jews were killed in Dorohoi by a retreating Romanian army unit, after having been falsely accused of collaborating with USSR. The dictatorship of Ion Antonescu with the help of the Iron Guard further deteriorated the Jews' situation. During the Fascist rebellion of January 1941 many Jews fell victim to pogroms. Romania's alliance with Nazi Germany and its participation in the war against the Soviet Union facilitated the destruction of hundreds of thousands of Romanian Jews in the Holocaust.

The Communist regime that took power in Romania after 1948 brought about the interdiction of the Jewish organizations, especially of the Zionist ones, which were accused, of "anti-Communist subversion". Their leaders were arrested in 1950 and held in harsh conditions for many years while Zionist activities were strictly forbidden for 40 years until the fall of Communism in 1989.