The Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv is honoured to invite you on Monday, June 14, 2010, starting 6:30 pm, to a discussion on the book „Răscumpărarea evreilor: istoria acordurilor secrete dintre România şi Israel" (The Ransom of the Jews: The Story of Extraordinary Secret Bargain Between Romania and Israel), by Radu Ioanid. Participants and speakers: dr. Radu Ioanid, historian, Washington D.C., dr. Şlomo Leibovici Laiş, president of ACMEOR (The World Cultural Association of the Romanian Jews) and dr. Meir Rosenne, international law expert and Israeli diplomat.
Initially published in the USA by Ivan R. Dee Publisher, the Romanian version of historian Radu Ioanid's book (Polirom Publishing House) has enjoyed great public success, going out of stock soon after its release.
Translated into Romanian by Ciprian Dumea and Mirela Mircea, with a Foreword by Elie Wiesel and an Introduction by Shlomo Leibovici-Laiş, the book is an objective and troubling document, revealing many a hidden truths about the secret arrangements between the two countries.
Drawing on interviews and on highly classified Romanian documents, only recently available, Ioanid relates how Romania in the 1950s and '60s demanded payments in cash and goods from Israel in exchange for the emigration of Romanian Jews to the Jewish state. A historian at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Ioanid carefully follows all the ups and downs - including the inherent moral dilemmas - in negotiations and relations between Israel and Romania, that allowed for some 200,000 Jews to manage to escape from the Communist regime.
"A concise chronicle.... This book tells an exciting story of daring, steadfast commitment to the rescue of entrapped Jews..." - Jewish Book World
"A fascinating story, written by the energetic and knowledgeable Radu Ioanid." - Baruch Cohen, ynetnews.com
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