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A year after the First Zionist World Congress in Basel 1897, at the 4th National Conference of ”Hovevei Zion” (Lovers of Zion, organization established to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine) in Galați, in April 1898 a unanimous decision was made to approve the platform presented in Basel. This decision led to a revival of the Zionist movement, and by 1899 there were 136 Zionist organizations operating in Romania.
A severe economic crisis in Romania in 1900 and continuing discrimination led to another wave of emigration from Romania known as the "fusgeyers"; (in Yiddish: emigrants on foot). The initiators of this idea were craftsmen from Bârlad, who organized and decided to emigrate to the United States and to make their way as far as Hamburg by foot. The movement spread rapidly throughout the country, and similar groups organized in Văslui, Iași, Focșani, and other cities.
The Romanian press took note of the emigration of Jewish workers and the damage caused to the country's economy by their departure, and the government had to cope with the problem. As usual, government officials tried to enlist the help of Jewish leaders. They were invited by the police chief in Bucharest and were asked to sign a declaration that the Jews in Romania were not leaving because they were being persecuted.
The leaders refused to sign, and historian Moses Schwarzfeld handed Prime Minister Petre Carp a memorandum in which he lists the actual causes for the emigration, noting that apart from the economic crisis, it was the anti-Jewish laws and the constant persecution that led to the Jews wanting so desperately to leave their own homeland.
At the Fourth Zionist Congress held in London that same year, the problem of emigration from Romania was at the center of Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau's speeches; Herzl warned of emigration without a plan, and blamed Jewish Philanthropies for bankruptcy.
However, despite the concern of the Zionist leaders, the Jews of Romania received no immediate support or assistance, and emigration continued. By the end of the year 1900, 17,000 Jews had left Romania; about 6,000 of them had emigrated to the United States and the rest to Canada, England, and France. The emigration of Jews from Romania continued, and by 1914, about 100,000 people had emigrated, of which 75,000 to the United States.
