Conferences
Andrei Oisteanu: Jews of Romania in a European context: similarities and differences
16 lei
On Sunday, April 7th, 2019, at 11.00 at the NTB Small Hall TNB, Andrei Oisteanu shall hold the conference on the Jews of Romania in a European context: similarities and differences.
About the Conference
The history of the Jews in Romania is less well known in the world. Other Jewish communities in Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland and even Hungary) were more vocal and more visible. I am trying to colour this stain, if not white, at least gray. Especially because it was a large and important community. In 1939, the Great Romanian Jews counted about a million souls, being the third community in Europe and the fourth largest in the world, after Poland, the Soviet Union, and the USA. A quasi-heterogeneous, but unitary community with a special contribution to Romania's political, economic and cultural history. One third of them died in the Holocaust, others fled from communism.
The fundamental event that marked the difference between the Jews in Romania and those in Europe was the failure to grant Romanian-Jewish citizenship with the adoption of the "liberal" Constitution of 1866. Romania missed the synchronization with Europe, a fact with major socio-political-cultural consequences: the emergence of economic antisemitism (in addition to the racial and religious one); the strengthening of their own community institutions; the premature emergence of the Zionist movement in the Romanian space, etc. The Jews in Romania are different because (and to the extent that) Romania is different. Andrei Oisteanu
About Andrei Oisteanu
Andrei Oisteanu is an anthropologist, historian of religions and mentalities, being a member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Religious History (Romanian Academy). He is associate professor at the Hebrew Studies Center (Bucharest University). He is a member of the Social Dialogue Group. In recent years he published the following books at the Polirom Publishing House: The Image of the Jew in Romanian Culture (2012), a book translated into English, German, French, Hungarian and Italian (several awards in Romania, Italy, Belgium, Israel, , B'nai B'rith Europe Award, Writers Union Award - Bucharest Association); The Garden of the World Beyond (2012); The Box with Old People (2012); Order and Chaos. Myth and Magic in Traditional Romanian Culture (2013), translated into English and Italian; Religion, Politics and Myth. Texts about Mircea Eliade and IP Culianu (2014); Narcotics in Romanian Culture (2014), translated into German (Special Prize of the Writers’ Union); Sexuality and Society. History, Religion and Literature (2016, 2018), English translation (The Writers of the Year 2016 Award). Andrei Oisteanu was awarded by the Romanian President the Order of the Star of Romania (2006) and by the Italian President the Order of Stella della Solidarietà Italiana (2005).
Translated by Simona Nichiteanu
