ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the incongruous policies of the Communist Party concerning Jewish property between 1945 and 1989. It also focuses on the reconstruction of Jewish property in post-socialist Romania, by looking first at the legislative framework, and subsequently at the political debates and controversies underlying the issuing of these laws. The chapter analysis the process of re-privatization intersected 'ethno-national' political discourses and projects. The hypothesis is that the legal redefinition of private property and the public debate around these laws could tell us something about how the political elite 'ethnified' restitution policies. The property rights of the Jewish community were dramatically curtailed by the 1980s as the 'systematization' process was accelerated by Ceausescu. The communist regime tried to reshape cities by means of an aesthetic political plan. For instance, Dudesti-Vacaresti was demolished almost completely, because of the architectural ambitions of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
