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