Correspondence from Bucharest, from Ioana Nitescu
On Tuesday, May 6th, when Israel celebrated Independence Day, a gala performance took place on the stage of of the great hall of "I. L. Caragiale" National Theatre in Bucharest. The show, presented by the actor Moscu Alcalay, started with "Ose Shalom", interpreted by the choir "Divine Harmony". Then, on the screens bordering the stage, the audience could watch, hear and… read the messages sent at this 55th anniversary by the president and the foreign affairs minister of Israel.
The host of the evening, Mr Sandu Mazor (the ambassador of Israel in Bucharest) addressed a few words to and in honour of those who attended the event. In the official box was present, among others, the president of Romania, Mr Ion Iliescu.
The show also featured the chamber music group of the symphonic band "Ra'anana" (whose soloist was the Israeli artist of Ethiopian origin Mascu Shibru Sivan) and the "Muscat" band, who got the spectators up on their feet… A great surprise for the audience was the excellent interpretation of some songs in Romanian.
The gala performance ended "The Israeli Culture's Week", an event organized in Bucharest by The Foundation for the Promotion of the Israeli Culture in Romania, under the auspices of the Embassy of the State of Israel. The week opened on May 3rd (with a one-day delay caused by the general strike in Israel) with the reading show "The Craft of Life", featuring the actors Lya Konig, Moscu Alcalay and Lupu (Bebe) Bercovici. On Sunday, the public in the Capital could attend the pantomime show "Keeping my right to silence" performed by Hanoh Rozen. On Monday they were offered two television films "Bad Boy Benny" and "Poker Face" by Eitan Anner, as well as the motion picture "Broken Wings" directed by Nir Bergman.
These shows were all brought together in a week in order to make the Romanian public more familiar with the values of the Israeli culture, as culture can be a strong bridge between two nations.

The Cameri Theatre in Tel Aviv will host The Festival of the Romanian Culture next month. A press conference concerning this festival - which will take place under the auspices of the Embassy of Romania in Israel - will be organized at ambassador Valeria Mariana Stoica's residence in Herzlia on Sunday morning. The conference will also be attended by Constantin Chiriac, manager of the National Theatre in Sibiu, Ion Hidegcuti, general secretary in the Romanian Ministry of Culture, Noam Semel, general manager of the Cameri Theatre and Omri Nitzan, artistic manager of the Cameri Theatre.
According to Mihai Armenia, press counselor of the Romanian Embassy, the festival will comprise two theatre plays, two exhibitions and a concert.

The "Ovidius" International Festival of Literature, which will take place on September 18th-24th, 2003, will be attended, among others, by Israeli writers. As a result of the steps taken by "The Israel-Romania Association of Writers", prose-writers Amos Oz and Sami Michael and poet Riri Manor (the president of the association) were invited to the festival.
Amos Oz - recalls "The Day" newspaper's Saturday issue, referring to the Israeli participation to the festival - is the author of the novels "My Michael", "Black Box", "Don't Call It Night", "Panther in the Basement" and "Fima" (some of which were translated into Romanian). The newspaper also notes that Oz was awarded the Israel Prize for literature in 1998 and the rank of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour in 1997.
Sami Michael is the author of some successful short-stories, translated into several languages. He received honorary degrees for literature from four universities.
The festival will take place in Neptun and Mangalia. It is programmed to start with a discussion on the theme "Myself and the other" that will be followed by "Days and nights of literature". "The Day" informs that Mr Eugen Uricaru, president of The Union of the Romanian Writers, announced that the last day of the event would take place in Bucharest and that the festival was endowed with the Festival's Award ($ 5.000) and the International Award ($ 10.000).
"The Day" reports that, up until now, 50 writers from Europe, USA, Canada, China, Brazil and Israel confirmed their participation to the festival. About 30 Romanian writers will add up to this number.