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Professor Andrei Corbea, head of the German studies department of the "Al. I. Cuza" University in Iasi, a Herder Prize laureate, is the author of "Cernowitz Histories. About an urban culture in Central-Eastern Europe". The volume was published by Bohlau Publishing House in Vienna, according to the "Adevarul" newspaper.

The author depicts fundamental aspects of the birth and development of the urban culture in Cernowits, a Central-European-like enclave in Eastern Europe. The well-known German studies scholar and historian of culture follows the path of the socio-cultural modernization of this space, but also the social, ethnic, linguistic, religious and territorial contradictions that accompanied and enhanced this process. Prof. Andrei Corbea, says the newspaper, has declared that his latest book is "a homage to Cernowitz, as a place of memory seen within the context of Central Europe's collective memory, and as an effigy of a bourgeois world that had disappeared for ever."

The priorities of the new Israeli ambassador in Bucharest, Rodica Radian Gordon, are the improvement of the bilateral relations (economical, cultural, political etc.), "a better knowledge of the past" and the cooperation between the two states within the international organizations. According to "Ziua" newspaper, this is what the ambassador declared on Radio "Romania Actualitati", in an interview quoted by the RADOR Agency.

"Indeed, the relations between Romania and Israel are good relations, and I (…) am going to do everything within my power in order to maintain them like that and to make them even better", stated the ambassador. "There is a dimension of the past. I believe that we should build on the past, for it is this past that unites us", said Rodica Radian Gordon. "We must understand the past better, and I'm especially thinking of the new generation, who needs to know both what was good and what was bad", added the ambassador. Moreover, "Romania is a future member of the UN Security Council, it will soon be a NATO member and, in a few years, an EU member." "I hope that Romania will also be our friend in these international institutions and that it will offer us its support", concluded the ambassador.

In relation to the situation of the Romanian workers in Israel, the ambassador said that, although this is a period when reducing the number of illegal workers is high on the agenda worldwide, she hopes that "this problem will be solved in a better way". "I don't know what to say exactly right now, and I hope that we will soon have bilateral talks on this issue too…", declared the ambassador.

The "Romania libera" newspaper dedicates an article to Maia Morgenstern, who is now working on Dinu Tanase's film, "Recviem", following a schedule that ressembles the one on the Western movie sets, that is "from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.". When asked by Iulia Blaga, the author of the article, about the controversy aroused by Mel Gibson's film, "The Passions", where Maia Morgenstern plays Virgin Mary, the actress said she would rather not "draw attention away" from the film she is now working on.

Maia Morgenstern - says the article - enjoys working with the new team, the ideas left to "yield" after the evening talks and the fact that working on the film keeps bringing new ideas and switches of direction.

The film's writer, Radu F. Alexandru, told the journalist that Maia Morgenstern was spotted by a foreign producer who was working in Romania. Although she was offered a more than reasonable salary, she declined the offer because the script was lousy. And she favored the Romanian movie "Recviem".