On the occasion of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (2008), the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv organized the second edition of the Romanian Nights Festival, on Thursday, September 11th and on Saturday, September 13th, in Old Jaffa. Part of the festival has also been presented in Haifa, on Sunday, September 14th, 2008. This year's event hosted popular traditional craftsmen operating creative interactive workshops for children and, within a popular arts & crafts fair, displaying for trade a variety of handcrafted goods, as well as various musical ensembles - the Iza Group from Maramures, Taraful Arginţilor from Pârâu de Pripor–Gorj and the Nightlosers band. As part of the event, emphasizing Romania as a space of intercultural dialogue, the festival featured Teodor Raileanu's exhibition of documentary photography entitled Colors of Time. Synagogue Art in Moldova. This exhibition is based on a research initiated by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Tel Aviv and the Department of Jewish Art from Bar Ilan University.
The event in Tel Aviv was organized in partnership with the Romanian Peasant's Museum in Bucharest, Tarom Tel Aviv, The Old Jaffa Museum of Antiquities, The Old Jaffa Development Company, and the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo, and in Haifa, in partnership with H.O.R. Haifa (the Organization of Romanian Jews in Israel, the Haifa branch), Auditorium Haifa (ETHOS) and the Municipality of Haifa.
PROGRAM
Old Jaffa: Thursday, September 11th
• 17:00 - Romanian popular arts & crafts stands in the piazza in front of St. Peter's Church;
• 18:00 - interactive creative workshops for children at Kedumim Square;
• 19:30 - official opening festivity on the central stage at Kedumim Square;
• 20:00 - live concerts featuring: the Iza Group from Maramures, Nightlosers band, and Taraful Arginţilor from Parau de Pripor–Gorj, on the central stage at Kedumim Square.
Old Jaffa: Saturday, September 13th
• 17:00 - Romanian popular arts & crafts stands in the piazza in front of St. Peter's Church;
• 19:00 - opening of the exhibition Colors of Time. Synagogue Art in Moldova at the Old Jaffa Museum of Antiquities (10, Mifratz Shlomo St.);
• 20:00 - live concerts featuring: the Iza Group from Maramures, Nightlosers band, and Taraful Arginţilor from Parau de Pripor–Gorj, on the central stage at Kedumim Square.
Haifa: Sunday, September 14th
• 19:30 - live concerts featuring: the Iza Group from Maramures, and Nightlosers band, at the Haifa Auditorium (7 Mahanayim St., Haifa).
