 Popa identified Iași with extreme nationalism, and, in a 1925 article for the student review "Viața Universitară", accused the far-right National-Christian Defense League of hypocrisy.As he noted, its "hatred and brutality" were not just aimed at Jews, but also at Romanians coming in from Bessarabia, since the latter were ostensibly socialists.With Rainer's help, Popa received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship in 1925.