By the end of World War I, Zissu also emerged as a theorist of Religious Zionism, preferring communitarianism and self-segregation to the assimilationist option, while also promoting literary modernism in his activity as novelist, dramatist, and cultural sponsor.

The creation of a monopolistic Jewish Democratic Committee, led by Maxy and favored by Benvenisti, resulted in Zissu's near-complete marginalization in political life; friends quarreled with him when he publicized his anticlericalism, which specifically targeted Chief Rabbi Alexandru Șafran.

[10] Zissu held the belief that his birthplace was intimately connected with Hasidic history, proposing that parts of Ceahlău Massif, known as Valea Jidovului ("Jew's Valley"), were named for Baal Shem Tov.

[18] Together with Petre Constantinescu-Iași, Zissu published the weekly literary magazine Floare Albastră ("Blue Flower"), which ran for six editions at Iași in 1912[6][19] and had the young poet Benjamin Fondane (of the Schwarzfeld family) among its noted contributors.

As recounted by editorial secretary Mihail Sevastos, they only did so upon being urged by staff member Dimitrie D. Pătrășcanu, in hopes that the "filthy rich" Zissu, "that guy with the sugar", would then sponsor the struggling magazine (he never did).

[35] Mântuirea was closed through a government order in December 1922, following Zissu's open letter to Cuza's National-Christian Defense League, which resulted in the editorial offices being stormed by angered far-right students.

[40] A deeply devout individual (he wrote in 1947 that: "my childhood and adolescence were consumed by the incandescent flame of a religious frenzy"),[2][6] Zissu is described by historian Hildrun Glass as "the best-known propagandist of the Jewish national movement in the Romanian Old Kingdom.

[45] University of Haifa scholar Béla Vágó describes Zissu as the "authoritarian" and "rightist" exponent of Romanian Zionism,[46] while historian Yehuda Bauer indicates that, though he never joined the Revisionists, his political views "gradually veered" into that territory.

[50] During the early years of Greater Romania, he rejected offers made by Take Ionescu and his Nationalist Conservatives, who wanted the Jews fully integrated as Romanians of the Judaic faith.

"[79] Critic Mihai Mîndra discusses Samson și noul Dragon (with a Hasidic protagonist) as a sample of Gothic fiction, but also a "huge allegorical representation of the drama of non-acculturation of the Romanian Jew", producing "spiritual solitude".

From November 1941, he was directly involved in obtaining safe passage for the MV Struma, but may have done so for an exorbitant profit: as reported by Jewish passengers who lodged complaints with the Romanian authorities, he charged as much as 600 thousand lei per person, and avoided paying taxes.

[85] During mid 1943,[118] the Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency appointed Zissu as its Romanian liaison and leader of the local Palestine Office, which sparked controversy throughout the community, who supported another Zionist, Mișu Benvenisti.

[129] According to Zissu's own claims, he and Benvenisti were directing 1 million lei a month toward the underground communists, represented by Maxy and Alexandru Lăzăreanu; half of these went to the International Red Aid.

[149] Cohen recounts that Zissu was persuaded by Chaim Weizmann of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) to adopt a more generic strategy, which implied assisting with the survival of Jews from various other areas of German-occupied Europe.

As reported by Hirsch, Zissu played upon the dictator's patriotism, suggesting that returning formerly Romanian Jews to the Kingdom of Hungary would have implicitly meant recognizing the loss of Northern Transylvania.

[155] The Hungarian rescue effort was ultimately tolerated by Ion Antonescu, on condition that no refugees would be allowed to linger in Romania-proper;[137] also on Zissu's behalf, Șeicaru contacted Bukovina's Governor, Corneliu Dragalina, who promised to protect Holocaust survivors in Cernăuți.

Ion Antonescu, who faced the prospect of a full Soviet occupation upon his surrender, asked Zissu to contact the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and, through it, the Western Allies, urging for some Anglo–American guarantees.

Foreign Minister Grigore Niculescu-Buzești supported the effort, and, on October 25, publicized a statement demanding the release of all such Jewish deportees; Zissu and Marton asked for additional guarantees, proposing that the Germans and Hungarians of Romania be treated as hostages, and subjected to a population exchange.

[177] Adamantly anti-communist while the country experienced gradual communization (after Rădescu's ouster), he mapped out a two-stage plan for his community: obtaining recognition for the Jews as a distinct ethnic minority; in the long run, mass emigration to Palestine.

[181] While coordinating a CDE meeting in October 1945, the Communist Party's Vasile Luca identified both Zissu and Filderman as "very dangerous" enemies, who "never tire of besmirching Romanian democracy like it's some kind of fascist dictatorship.

"[182] The clash also brought Zissu into another conflict with Filderman, who supported the CDE as a pragmatic measure, fearing that "otherwise the government will view the [Jewish] community as a reactionary element", resulting in "thousands of Jews [being] sent to Siberia".

[189] On July 7, 1946, the PER voted itself a new leadership committee: Ebercohn, Wilhelm Fischer, Doctor Harschfeld, Cornel Iancu, Itzacar, Sami Iakerkaner, Edgar Kanner, M. Rapaport, Rohrlich, Leon Rozenberg, Tully Rosenthal, and Isaia Tumarkin.

[212] Late that year, on the initiative of Iancu Mendelovici, he and Cohen sketched out a plan to collect funds for victims of the postwar pogroms—the project also drew support from two former PNȚ-ists, namely Gheorghe Zane and Emil Hațieganu, prompting the regime to investigate.

[218] As part of the ruse, Niculescu arranged contacts between Zissu and some lesser officials, including Minister of Labor Lothar Rădăceanu, who offered to traffic in Jews, but only in exchange for "strategic supplies".

[234] Zissu then followed up with displays of radical defiance: he made a public mockery of the Stockholm Peace Appeal, which was being circulated in the Romanian intellectual community, refusing to sign it because he "wanted war".

Bercu reminded his readers that: "One of the most rabid Zionist propagandists was the industrialist A. L. Zissu, owner of a sugar factory, who, in 1933–1934, for all the Hitlerist takeover in Germany, casually lived in Berlin, where he ran some very lucrative deals.

[266] The writer and activist was further honored by having a Haifa street and an Acre school named after him later in the 1950s; Mella Revici-Iancu also founded a Zissu Library,[267] inaugurated in September 1960 as part of the Israeli Romanian Association (Hitachdut Olei Romania).

[7] He was also honored in the anti-communist Romanian diaspora, including by those he secretly despised: in 1957, Pamfil Șeicaru published an overview of Zissu's work, referring in particular to his role in rescuing Bukovina's Jews from extermination.

[271] Until the fall of communism in December 1989, extant copies of Nu există cult mozaic and other Zionist books were withdrawn from private use in Romania, and placed alongside fascist works in the most inaccessible fund of public libraries.

[7] Upon the 2019 reissue of Manuel sin Marcu (curated by Emil Nicolae), Voncu observed that: "[Zissu's] close rapport with men on the right, including some who were outspoken antisemites, from Nae Ionescu to Mihai Antonescu, has established his rather poor reputation in democratic circles, hence his merits in rescuing thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, as well as in organizing emigration to what would then become the State of Israel, are still not afforded the recognition they deserve.