Sephardic Jews have played an important historical role in Romania, although their numbers in the country have dwindled to a few hundred, with most living in the capital, Bucharest. Antisemitic pogroms and economic strife lead to mass emigration out of the country in the 20th century.

Mișu Benvenisti, also known as Mishu or Moshe Benvenisti, was a Romanian lawyer, Zionist militant, and leader of the Romanian Jewish community. Born into a family of printers and publishers, he was one of the few Sephardi Jews to reach prominence in political life during the Romanian Kingdom era. His association with Zionism began in his teenage years, and saw him emerging as leader of the Zionist Youth Organization in the early 1920s. Benvenisti was then primarily affiliated with the Renașterea Noastră group in Bucharest, joining the small Jewish National Party by 1930; through these, he participated in the formation of a nation-wide Jewish Party (PER), wherein he was youth organizer and general secretary. After 1936, he was also a member of the Romanian office of the World Jewish Congress (WJC), serving as its lawyer and as a rapporteur on the growth of local antisemitism.