Romanian cultural life paced out of a scarring WWI with vigor and determination. The unification of all Romanian provinces in 1918 unleashed tremendous societal energies and led to an increased international interest in the newly created state. Literature, art, social life thrived in the interwar years, which ushered an unparalleled internationalization and revamping of Romanian culture. In 1919, Romanian painter and academic Costin Petrescu (1872-1954) was sent on an officia

140 years ago today, Romania and The United States established diplomatic relations, marking the beginning of a long, complex and fruitful association in all respects. While the Romanian-American relations are much older, going beyond diplomacy and political relations, we celebrate this day as the inaugural moment of a common journey that grew to become a crucial strategic partnership as a most solid anchor of security, stability, and development. Join us in exploring this lo

Exactly 56 years ago, on June 1 1964, Romania and the United States decided to elevate their diplomatic relations to embassy level. The landmark decision came after years of sinuous political rapprochement in the complicated context of the Cold War and almost a century of proper diplomatic relations. Diplomatic relations between Romania and the United States were established on June 14, 1880 when U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Eugene Schuyler as Diplomatic Agent

Leon Feraru, who gives the name to our popular series of conversations, may be considered the founder of Romanian professional cultural diplomacy in the United States. Born Otto Enselberg/Inselberg in Brăila (a multicultural port on the Danube, at the time with a significant Jewish population) in 1887, Feraru was a poet, activist and professor of Romanian and French Studies at Columbia University and later at Long Island University, as well as a tireless promoter of Romanian

For a long time, the international fairs, an invention of the industrial age, granted countries the most visible stages to showcase their identity, economic power, and cultural achievements. Until late in the 20th century, they offered the context for Romania’s biggest and most impactful programs of national promotion. Among these participations, few compared with the grandiose and memorable Romanian program at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, which opened exactly 81 years ago

Another medical hero in our series is the Romania-born American cell biologist George Emil Palade, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1974. Palade was born in Iași, one of the oldest Romanian cities and an effervescent cultural and academic center, in 1912, as the second son of a university philosophy professor and a schoolteacher. He studied at the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Medicine, where he showed a keen interest in the anatomy courses of Professor