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In the Saturday morning meeting of the Haifa Cultural Circle a more peculiar topic was discussed, that had no connection to literature. It was the press release concerning the reunion of the Romanian Government on June 12, in which it was stated that a Holocaust did not take place in Romania. This topic was approached by playwright Dorel Dorian, deputy in the Romanian Parliament, who evoked this document and what happened after its release until the Government reunion on June 17, which brought about a new press release retracting the previous one.

After the meeting we talked to Dorel Dorian, who is also editor-in-chief of "The Jewish Reality" magazine and who gave us an in-sight on what happened. The incident occurred at a time when the issue of the Holocaust had been largely debated over the last year on the Romanian political stage. In a Senate reunion and in an Academy reunion, Academy member Razvan Theodorescu (minister for Culture and Cults) underlined the position of the Government led by Adrian Nastase, showing that Romania admits having participated to the Holocaust (an admission that was either vaguely stated or plainly rejected by the previous governments), even though a Holocaust proper did not exist within the boundaries (crippled at the time) of Romania. Therefore, the responsibility thus taken for the deportation of the Jews in Basarabia and Northern Bucovina to Transnistria did not extend to the deportations from Southern Bucovina (Suceava, Campulung, Radauti, Siret, Dorohoi), to the massacres that took place in the "death trains" in Iasi, or during the legionary rebellion in January 1941 in Bucharest, or to the assassinations committed in other places, that the authorities considered "isolated cases".

The admission of Romania's responsibility regarding the Holocaust was followed by the passing of the Government's Emergency Ordinance no.31, on March 31, 2002, which bans the public denial of the Holocaust, condemns the fascist, Nazi, racist and xenophobe manifestations, and forbids erection of public monuments remembering war criminals (a measure aimed especially at the attempts to rehabilitate Marshal Ion Antonescu).

On June 12, 2003, the Cabinet discussed the agreement with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum concerning the access of the museum's researchers to the Romanian archives. During the reunion, Academy member Razvan Theodorescu reaffirmed the Government's position: Romania takes responsibility for participating to the Holocaust through the deportations to Transnistria, but does not consider the "death trains", the "legionary rebellion" and the other deportations to be a part of the Holocaust. At the end of the reunion the order was given that a press release be issued regarding the closing of the agreement with the Holocaust Museum and that Romania's position be once again formulated. However, the clerk who wrote the press release failed to render the part in which Academy member Theodorescu clearly spoke about Romania's admission to participating to the Holocaust through the deportations to Transnistria, but mentioned only the part in which he stated that a Holocaust did not take place within the boundaries (crippled at the time) of Romania.

The press release was not reviewed by any Government official and was issued as such, triggering a wave of protests among the Jews in Romania, Israel and other countries; many non-Jews rallied to these protests. The Romanian authorities realized the political consequences of this blunder. On June 17, at the end of the following Government reunion, a new document was issued retracting the press release of June 12 and introduced some new and significant elements.

"The current Government takes the share of responsibility held by the Romanian State half a century ago for the victims of the Holocaust", says the new press release, without claiming that the responsibility refers exclusively to what happened in Transnistria. The document reaffirms the fact that the current Government is the one who initiated for the first time in democratic Romania a strong legislative action to condemn the fascist, Nazi, racist and xenophobic extremism and that the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet have stated that, unfortunately, the systematic action of extermination through deportation in concentration camps or through executions encompassed the fate of an important part of the Romanian Jews. "The Romanian Government in power during the period 1940-1944 is guilty of serious war crimes, pogroms, deportations in Transnistria, mass relocation of an important part of the Romanian Jewish population in territories occupied and controlled by the Romanian Army using methods of discrimination and extermination which belong to the sinister mechanism of the Holocaust."

The new press release mentions that commemorative monuments for the victims of the Holocaust have been erected (the recent one in Targu Mures, created with Government support, being a telling example), that the phenomenon of the Holocaust is studied in schools, and that the National Archives provide unconditioned access to the specialists studying the Holocaust in the Romanian space and the neighboring territories, thus showing the way in which Romania understands to contribute to the clarification of dramatic moments of its national history. It is to be noted that the use of the expression "Romanian space" thwarts any attempt to make territorial differentiations with regard to the Romanian Holocaust.

Dorel Dorian also mentioned an idea that the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania has been discussing lately: one should not consider that the Holocaust begins with the killing of the Jews. The Holocaust first begins with racial policies and restrictive measures against the Jewish population which psychologically prepare the Holocaust proper - deportations to labor camps, assassinations.

From "The Truth" newspaper of June 28, 2003:

Although planned long ago, the days of the Romanian culture in Israel serve as a welcome dressing over the wound recently opened by a blunder of the Romanian Government whose representatives found it a good idea to comment on the non-existence of the Holocaust. The offence was considerably lessened by the presence of Romanian artists and writers on the Holy Land, on two different occasions. The International Book Fair in Jerusalem, which ended today, was host to Romania's impressive bookstall (42 m2) and its large variety of books published by Polirom, The Romanian Book, Hasefer, Tritonic, Albatross and, of course, The Romanian Cultural Foundation's Publishing House, represented by Academy member Augustin Buzura and by Angela Martin. Apart from the special book launches, a round table was held in Jerusalem on the last day of the fair, attended by the most important Romanian-born Israeli writers. The topic of the round table was "Multiculturalism-the paradigm of living together among ethnic groups".

But the "coup de théâtre" of the Romanian presence in Israel was the series of performances given in Tel Aviv, in a tour organized by the Romanian Ministry of Culture, with the support of the Romanian Embassy in Israel and the "Radu Stanca" Theater in Sibiu. The impact on the audience - mostly Romanian-born Israeli - was tremendous for several reasons. The first of them was the choice of shows made by Constantin Chiriac, director of the International Theater Festival in Sibiu, a man who is well-acquainted to the Israeli cultural environment. The repertoire that he set included two viewings of G. Tabori's "The Cannibals", directed by Alexander Hausvatter, offering a performance that mercilessly addresses the conscience, and reenacts the terrible experience of the Holocaust which pushed the human being to the edge of animalism. Alexander Hausvatter's vision provides a bridge between the terrifying events that happened back then and today's generations, who must not be allowed to forget, so that history may never repeat itself.

Even though with no words, a performance like Dan Puric's ("Dream") is an opportunity for meditation and wonder, through the permanent transfiguration of the performer, while "The Jove Experiment" directed by Mihai Maniutiu analyzes the relationship between man and God from the viewpoint of a number of necessary doubts. One should not emphasize only the exceptional quality of the Romanian productions, but also the dignifying context in which they are shown in Tel Aviv these very days: the shows are performed at the Cameri Theater, the second largest theater in the city…

The two events represent a "cultural assault" meant to erase the traces of unnecessary tensions between two countries connected in so many ways, a fact that will not exclude an official act of reconciliation: on Sunday, the state secretary Ion Antonescu, on behalf of the Ministry for Culture and Cults, will donate to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem a copy of the statue erected in memory of the Holocaust in Targu Mures. (Cristina Modreanu)

At the International Book Fair in Jerusalem, the French bookstall hosted the launch of the first issue of the "Continuum" Israeli magazine in French. The event (organized with the support of the French Institute in Tel Aviv, represented by deputy manager Olivier Tedd and Roselyne Dery, the Institute's media library's coordinator) was attended by Israeli writers members of the Association of the Israeli Writers in French, as well as by writers and editors from other countries. The magazine was presented by Marlena Braester and Monique Jutrin on behalf of the editorial committee. Marlena Braester, as well as Carmen Oszi and Bluma Finklestein, the other two members of the editorial committee, were all born in Romania.