Bucharest -- World of Yiddish Festival

 Entering Bucharest's Choral synagogue. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Bucharest will be the scene of a World of Yiddish Festival next week. It starts Sept. 2 and culminates on Sept. 5, the European Day of Jewish Culture.

The program includes performances, lectures, exhibits, concerts, guided tours, conferences and more:

Thursday, September 2 

10.30 - The State Jewish Theater

Official opening of the Festival - Press conference

12.00 - The State Jewish Theater

From the ”Green Tree” to Broadway - Conference – Moderator: Director Harry Eliad
The Yiddish Theater in Romania (Director Harry Eliad)  Jewish Music in Theater productions (Eng. Adrian Cuperman)  Why do we need a Yiddish theater? Director Andrei Munteanu)  From Iași to New York (Director Radu Gabrea)

16.30 - The “Union” Cinema

“And they faded out like the wind…” – the story of the Barasheum Theater
Documentary - Presented by Director Radu Gabrea

19.30 - The State Jewish Theater

The Fools of Helem by Moishe Gershenzon
The State Jewish Theater

Friday, September 3

10.00 – Jewish Community Center

The Shtetl and its world - Conference – Moderator: Director Erwin Șimșensohn
The Shtetl culture in Romania (Prof. Dr. Liviu Rotman)  The Jewish Bukovina (Dr. Emil Rennert – Austria  Rediscovering Yiddishland in Romania (Dr. Simon Geissbühler, Switzerland) Chassidism and Hesychasm: landmarks, origins, connections (Dr. Madeea Axinciuc) The mural painting of Moldavian synagogues (Dr. Măriuca Stanciu)

16.30 - The “Union” Cinema

Itzic Manger
Documentary – Presented by Director Radu Gabrea

19.00 - The Great Synagogue

Kabbalat Shabbat

Saturday, September 4

10.00 – Jewish Community Center
Yiddishland - Conference – Moderator: Dr. Aurel Vainer
Yiddish language – past and present – from mammelushn to art (Dr. Harry Kuller)  Yiddishland: culture and political identity in the Yiddish media at the end of the 19th century in Romania (Drd. Augusta Radosav – Cluj) The Yiddish language – a source of moral support during the Holocaust (Dr. Lya Benjamin)  Memories about Yiddish, from a Shtetl (Dr. Aurel Vainer)

16.00 – Jewish Community Center

Mammelushn - Conference – Moderator: Dr. Jose Blum
Translations into Romanian from the Yiddish classic literature (Dr. Camelia Crăciun)  Peretz- a great Yiddish writer (Ghidu Brukmaier )  From La Fontaine to Eliezer Shteinberg (Writer Carol Feldman)

19.00 - The State Jewish Theater

One Man Show "Alein ist die Neshume rein" - “Alone, the heart is pure”
Yaakov Bodo & Misha Blecharovitz - Yiddishpiel Theater - Israel

21.00 - Green Hours 22 Club Jazz Café

Vienna Klezmer Band (Austria)

Sunday, September 5 – ““The European Day of Jewish Culture” 

11.00 - The Romanian Peasant Museum

Hakeshet Klezmer Band (Romania)  The Hora dance group (Romania)  Mames Babegenush Klezmer Band (Denmark)

17.30 - The Romanian Peasant Museum

Mazel Tov Klezmer Band (Romania)  Preβburger Klezmer Band (Slovakia)

20.30 - Jewish Community Center

One Woman Show
Yiddish Experience
Maia Morgenstern & Radu Captari

Visiting the Great Synagogue from Bucharest – September 2,3,5, from 10.00 to 17.00 h.
Visiting the History Museum of the Jews from Romania – September 2-5, from 10.00 to 18.00 h
Contact: www.festival-idis.ro * contact@festival-idis.ro