(JTA) When secret police opened fire on protesters near her home, Maia Morgenstern headed for the Jewish State Theater. It was 1989 and Morgenstern, then 27, and a few of her friends took refuge in the theater as protesters outside clashed with forces loyal to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Hundreds died in two weeks of…
Israel has successfully negotiated with Germany’s Ministry for Employment and Social Affairs to improve pension payments to Jews who were forced to work in Nazi ghettos. A formal announcement is expected later this month, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Cabinet visit Israel for their annual joint meeting and talks, initiated in 2008. The…
Heavy snows caused the partial collapse of the roof of the State Jewish Theater, paralyzing one of Romanian Jewry’s foremost cultural institutions. A snowstorm on Jan. 25 devastated about a third of the roof of the 19th century building that houses the theater, the institution’s director, Maia Morgenstern, told JTA. “Unfortunately, the part of the…
(JTA) — Touring the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2005, Romanian President Traian Basescu was unprepared to confront some painful truths. Facing a photograph showing pro-Nazi Romanian troops offloading their Jewish countrymen from cargo trains, Basescu was shocked and saddened. For decades, his country’s educational system had obscured the truth of Romanian complicity in the deaths…
(JTA) — In December 1989, a childhood friend and neighbor from Haifa posed a riddle to me that she had heard from her Bucharest-born mother. “What’s the fastest way to get a nine-foot crocodile?” Alegra asked me that year, when we were both 8 years old. I suggested raiding a crocodile farm, but Alegra said…
An admirer of Romania’s pro-Nazi leader during World War II withdrew his candidacy for a slot on the country’s constitutional court amid protests by Jewish groups. Lucian Bolcas, a former leader within the nationalist Greater Romania Party, announced his withdrawal on Monday shortly after meeting with Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta. “I do not wish…
The U.S. embassy in Romania on Thursday condemned the broadcast of an anti-Semitic Christmas carol by state television, joining a long list of critics. Jewish groups, Romanian media and politicians, the Israeli embassy and other diplomatic missions have attacked the decision by channel TVR3 to air the song, which uses a pejorative word for Jews…
Romania’s foreign minister has called on his country’s judiciary to prosecute the parties responsible for the airing of a Christmas carol about burning Jews. Titus Corlatean made the statement Thursday following international uproar over the public broadcasters TVR3’s television transmission last week of a song by the Dor Transilvan ensemble, which celebrated the Holocaust. “I…
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