Mihai Eminescu was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul, the official newspaper of the Conservative Party (1880–1918). His poetry was first published when he was 16 and he went to Vienna, Austria to study when he was 19. The poet's manuscripts, containing 46 volumes and approximately 14,000 pages, were offered by Titu Maiorescu as a gift to the Romanian Academy during the meeting that was held on 25 January 1902. Notable works include Luceafărul, Odă în metru antic, and the five Letters (Epistles/Satires). In his poems, he frequently used metaphysical, mythological and historical subjects.
Iași, also referred to mostly historically as Jassy, is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1564 to 1859, then of the United Principalities from 1859 to 1862, and the capital of Romania from 1916 to 1918.
Teatrul Evreiesc de Stat in Bucharest, Romania is a theater specializing in Jewish-related plays. It is the oldest Yiddish-language theater with uninterrupted activity in the world. Its contemporary repertoire includes plays by Jewish authors, plays on Jewish topics, and plays in Yiddish. Many of the plays also feature Jewish actors.
Abraham Goldfaden, also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in the languages Yiddish and Hebrew, author of some 40 plays. Goldfaden is considered the father of modern Jewish theatre.
Costache Caragiale was a Romanian actor and theatre manager who had an important role in the development of the Romanian theatre.
Israel (Yisrol) Grodner was one of the founding performers in Yiddish theater. A Lithuanian Jew who moved at the age of 16 to Berdichev, Ukraine, Russian Empire, the Broder singer and actor was in Iaşi, Romania in 1876 when Abraham Goldfaden recruited him as the first actor for what became the first professional Yiddish theater troupe. Jacob Adler remarks that as the only Lithuanian Jew in the early years of Yiddish theater, he deliberately spoke a different dialect of Yiddish on stage so that it would blend better with the other actors.
Joseph Lateiner was a playwright in the early years of Yiddish theater, first in Bucharest, Romania and later in New York City, where he was a co-founder in 1903 with Sophia Karp of the Grand Theater, New York's first purpose-built Yiddish language theater building.
Mihai Trăistariu, also known as simply Mihai, is a Romanian singer and songwriter. He is best known for representing Romania at the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 held in Athens, Greece, where he placed 4th with his song, "Tornerò". The track gained commercial success, selling over one million units worldwide and influencing the trajectory of Trăistariu's career.
Flavius Vladimir Stoican is a Romanian professional football manager and former player.
Andrei Cristea is a Romanian professional footballer who plays as a forward. Although deployed as a forward, Cristea is better known for his pace and his range of passing instead of his goalscoring abilities, and represented the Romania national team from 2003 to 2010.
Marius Constantin Niculae, nicknamed Săgeată is a Romanian retired footballer who played as a centre forward.
Iorgu Iordan was a Romanian linguist, philologist, diplomat, journalist, and left-wing agrarian, later communist, politician. The author of works on a large variety of topics, most of them dealing with issues of the Romanian language and Romance languages in general, he was elected a full member of the Romanian Academy in 1945. He was head of its Institute of Linguistics between 1949 and his retirement in 1962.
Gheorghe Constantin was a Romanian former footballer and coach. Known as The Professor, he was a symbol of Steaua București.
Maria Filotti was a Romanian actress. She was described as one of the "prestigious actors of the great realistic school" and the "directress" of a theater "that made an important contribution to transmitting the experience from one generation to the next."
The Iași National Theatre in Iași, Romania, is the oldest national theatre and one of the most prestigious theatrical institutions in Romania. In 1956, it was given the name of the renowned Romanian playwright and poet Vasile Alecsandri. The building also hosts the Iași Romanian National Opera.
Ștefan Ciubotărașu was a Romanian actor. He appeared in more than thirty films from 1954 to 1970.
Ludic Student Theatre is a theatre company in Iași, Romania, specializing in plays for young audiences. The company is hosted by the Iași Student Cultural House.
Vasile Simionaș is a former Romanian professional football manager and football player. He usually played as a midfielder.
Zeydl Shmuel-Yehuda Helman, who often published under the pen name Hazman (הזמ״ן), was a Romanian Jewish actor, songwriter, journalist, and educator. In addition to working as an actor in the Yiddish theatre in Romania and in the United States, he wrote and published a large number of Yiddish theatre songs which were widely performed in the late nineteenth century, making him one of the earliest popular songwriters in the genre.
The history of the Jews in Iași dates back to the late 16th century, when Sephardi Jews first arrived in the city. Iași has been the center of Jewish life in Moldavia for centuries. Once home to a thriving Yiddish culture, the first Yiddish theater in the world was founded in the city. The city's Jewish community was devastated by the Iași pogrom of 1941; one of the worst massacres of World War II, over 13,000 Jewish people were murdered during the pogrom. Today, the community has dwindled and has between 300 and 600 members and two operating synagogues.
