Criticism
Paulescu has been criticized for expressing antisemitic and anti-Masonic views in articles such as The Judeo-Masonic plot against the Romanian nation (expressed in his book, Philosophic Physiology: The Hospital, the Koran, the Talmud, the Kahal and Freemasonry). He was an associate of A. C. Cuza, and wrote extensively for the latter's newspaper Apărarea Națională.
In "Degenerarea rasei jidănești" (1928) (transl. Degeneration of the Jewish Race") Paulescu states that Jews are degenerate because their brains weigh much less than "Arian" brains. He singles out for their low brain weight the Nobel Prize laureates Anatole France, Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson.
Following protests from several Jewish organizations, the inauguration of Professor Paulescu's bust at the Hôtel-Dieu State Hospital in Paris, scheduled for August 27, 2003, had to be cancelled.
"If the Nobel Committee in 1923 judged the entire persona of its laureate, then Hôtel Dieu in 2003 must do no less and conclude that Paulescu's brutal inhumanity nullifies any scientific merit" (Simon Wiesenthal Center letter to the French Minister of Health, Jean-François Mattéi, and the Romanian Ambassador in Paris).
Nicolae Cajal, a Romanian Jewish member of the Romanian Academy of Sciences and the President of the Jewish Communities' Federation of Romania from 1994 to 2004, defended recognition of Paulescu's scientific work, saying there is a need to distinguish between individuals' private views and their scientific merit and that his father, a student of Paulescu, had admired Paulescu for his scientific skills though he disagreed (as a Jew) with Paulescu's anti-Semitic views.
Read more about this topic: Nicolae Paulescu
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