Edited volumes by Anca Filipovici
Volumul de faţă plasează sub reflector parcursul istoric al minorităţii evre-
ieşti din România, ... more Volumul de faţă plasează sub reflector parcursul istoric al minorităţii evre-
ieşti din România, implicând chei de lectură ce conectează fenomene mai largi – emancipare, naţionalism sau antisemitismul modern. Semnate de specialişti consacraţi, studiile din volum urmăresc mutaţiile ce au loc în jurul unor borne importante, precum Primul Război Mondial şi Unirea de la 1918, Holocaustul şi cel de-al Doilea Război Mondial, regimul comunist şi istoria recentă. Textele care trasează istoria evreilor până la instaurarea regimului comunist sunt structurate defalcat pe provinciile istorice, urmărind – în măsura în care a fost posibil – particularităţile comunităţilor evreieşti din Transilvania, Ţările Române, Bucovina sau Basarabia. Apartenenţa la o provincie sau alta a conferit nu doar o imagine distinctă a comunităţilor, ceea ce a potenţat caracterul eteroclit al minorităţii în România Mare, dar şi destine diferite. Evoluţia minorităţii evreieşti din România este, din această perspectivă, un complex de istorii cu
traiectorii comune şi rupturi, reliefând totodată şi dinamica alertă a secolelor XIX–XX. Conceput de către editori ca ghid istoric, volumul propune astfel o deschidere de perspectivă către o sinteză modernă a istoriei evreilor din România.
Reviews of my work by Anca Filipovici
Apostrof, 2019
C u un rar apetit al dialogurilor, Eugen Uricaru scrie o poezie polemică, cu nedisimulată tentă p... more C u un rar apetit al dialogurilor, Eugen Uricaru scrie o poezie polemică, cu nedisimulată tentă pamfletară, având un "stil colocvial", cum îl recomandă Ioan Holban în Cuvântul însoţitor al volumului Despre ce vorbim? (Iaşi: Junimea, Colecţia Atrium, 2018), abordând o tematică diversă a stărilor emoţionale curente, în faţa provocărilor mai tuturor evenimentelor majore din societatea noastră actuală, totul din perspectiva unui moralizator autentic: "-Vei fi liber!mi-au spus/ Şi ţie ţi-au spus -ca pasărea cerului -/ -Vă dăruim libertatea -ne-au spus./ Şi nimeni nu ştia ce înseamnă asta./ Am fost fericiţi, ne-am îmbătat de/ Câteva ori pe zi. N-am avut somn./ Ne uitam unii la alţii şi nu ne/ Venea să credem. Toţi eram buni,/ Nimeni nu era vinovat/ Nu chiar toţi. Câţiva muriseră. Nu ştiam atunci/ Că doar ei erau liberi, ca păsările cerului./Doar păsările cerului pot fi ucise/ Fără teamă de pedeapsă. Pe ele/ Nu le ocroteşte nimeni şi nimic./ Sunteţi liberi -ne-au spus. Şi ne-au făcut/ Mare plăcere, atunci. Am fost chiar fericiţi./ Liberi sunt doar cei care nu mai sunt./ Altfel nimic nu are sens, acum/ Când totul are un preţ" (Libertatea). Discursul liric e tensionat, dramatic, fiecare poem (aproape toate) debutează cu câte un dialog interogativ, în faţa unui interlocutor nominalizat oarecum generic, dar în răspunsul căruia se regăsesc formulate, în formă alegorică (precum în fabulele clasice), răspunsurile esenţiale pentru atitudinile esenţiale ale indivizilor ("-Fii atent puiule, pe unde calci -/ i-a spus mama, cea mai bună mamă din lume" -Gheaţă subţire; "-Eşti norocos -i-a spus, bătându-l pe umăr,/ -Un general fără armată, asta eşti. Mare baftă!/ Altfel ar fi trebuit/ Să te îngrijeşti de toţi soldaţii tăi" -Un om norocos; "-Cine m-a furat, cine mi-a luat/ Cine mi-a tăiat, cine m-a bătut, cine/ M-a scuipat, cine m-a împuşcat?// -Cum cine, zice vecinul,/ Privind printre gene, -Frate-tău/ Că-i mai mare, şi-i al tău" -În familie, cum s-ar zice etc.). Poemele au verbul crispat; e o tristeţe subsumată fiecărei rostiri, ca într-o evaluare a depresiilor ce apasă intimitatea fiecăruia dintre cei care, sau pentru care, se expun cu cinism sentimentele (atitudinile) la vedere, ei alcătuind "o lume de umbre, fără umbră" (În timp ce tu visai), dar autentică în totul. Astfel, poetul e un rezoner, un observator, un comentator al detaliilor deloc nesemnificative dintr-o viaţă marcată de incertitudinea angajamentelor ca şi a participărilor la cursul evenimenţial: " Ai grijă de tine -i-am spus/ Şi nu ştiam ce spun./ Cine veghează, pe cine?/ Cine, de cine se teme?/ -Te va durea -i-am spus/ Şi nu ştiam ce spun./ Nimeni nu ştie cum doare./ Nimeni nu ştie cât doare" (O întâlnire).
Books by Anca Filipovici
Educaţia publică şi condiţionările sale (secolelele XIX-XX),, 2015
This colective colectiv volume contributes to a better knowledge of the Romanian history of educa... more This colective colectiv volume contributes to a better knowledge of the Romanian history of education during its building as a national system and a modern institution
Institutul European, Iași, 2015
Viaţa cotidiană în Sibiul secolelor XIX-XX, 2015
Volumul prezintă aspecte de viață cotidiană în Transilvania/Sibiu, în secolele XIX-XX.
Papers by Anca Filipovici
Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, 23(3), 35–66, 2024
In 1930s Romania, Zionist youth organizations saw a resurgence amid increasing antisemitism and t... more In 1930s Romania, Zionist youth organizations saw a resurgence amid increasing antisemitism and the global political mobilization of young people. These organizations underwent specific stages, throughout the totalitarian regimes of the Second World War, including a semi-legal period during the beginnings of the oppression, followed by an underground phase from 1942 onwards. This shift occurred when the Jewish Federation was replaced by the Jewish Council (Centrala), a state-controlled entity representing the Jewish community. This paper explores the clandestine Zionist nonarmed resistance efforts carried out by youth organizations in Romania from 1942 to 1944, drawing on archives from the Romanian Secret Police (Siguranța). Focusing on the support received from Jewish networks abroad, the discussion highlights the actions of the Gordonia and Dror youth organizations. Notably, members of these groups faced convictions by the Court Martial in 1944 for aiding refugee Jews in crossing the Romanian border and preparing for emigration to Palestine. The argument posits that these acts of defiance constituted a form of Jewish resistance. The overall research endeavour seeks to provide a comprehensive history of Jewish youth activism during tumultuous times-an 36 often-overlooked aspect in the broader narrative of the Holocaust in Romania.
S:I.M.O.N. – SHOAH: INTERVENTION. METHODS. DOCUMENTATION, 2024
Based on testimonies from the Fortunoff Video Archive and other personal accounts, this article d... more Based on testimonies from the Fortunoff Video Archive and other personal accounts, this article delves into the political options and the mechanisms of political mobilisation among Jewish youngsters in 1930s and 1940s Romania. Primarily involved in two distinct forms of activity-within the Zionist youth movements and the communist movement-their early political engagement represented a defiance of antisemitism and adult authority. Simultaneously, it served as an alternative island of safety and stability. By exploring various personal experiences in specific political contexts, I argue that the political involvement of youngsters should be analysed as a manifestation of juvenile energy and a unique form of agency for victims of antisemitic persecution.
Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 71, 2023/3, 390–421, 2023
Public health was always a difficult task on the modernisation agenda of the Romanian national st... more Public health was always a difficult task on the modernisation agenda of the Romanian national state aiming for a strong healthy nation. Before and after 1918, health regulations and interventions were never able to keep up with the social and medical diseases that affected especially the poor strata of society. In the interwar decades, Romania was still periodically affected by typhus, scarlet fever, diphtheria, pellagra and tuberculosis, touching vulnerable categories of the population in poor rural areas and at the periphery of the cities. In these unfortunate contexts, some ethnic minorities faced the status of double 'victims'. They were impacted by the state's incapacity to provide proper medical health care, but were also marginalised citizens, who did not fit the ideal of an ethnically homogenous nation. The Romanians dominated a national state with a large diversity of ethnic groups, and the issue of public health offers a fruitful perspective on how the nation was defined. This paper provides a generic view on social diseases in Romania before the Second World War, taking ethnic minorities as the starting point for discussing nationalism and the government's responses in relation to minorities. By using social surveys, medical reports and statistics, the text analyses medical discourses and public health as a dimension of state modernisation; the policies of integration/assimilation and rejection of the non-Romanian populations; eugenics and the imaginary of the otherness from a public health perspective.
Jüdische Jugend im Übergang – Jewish Youth in Transit, Bergbauer, K., Kissling, N., Lehmann, B., Pilarczyk, U. & Ashkenazi, O. (eds.), Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg., 2024
This article sketches the broad picture of Jewish youth organizations in the provinces of Romania... more This article sketches the broad picture of Jewish youth organizations in the provinces of Romania (the Old Kingdom, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Transylvania), revealing their main regional features. The analysis will
then focus on the Zionist-socialist Hashomer Hatzair organization, discussing its ideology, structure and instruments (1) in connection with the evolution of the state youth organization Straja Țării and (2) as an individual option of the youngsters exploring the Zionist cause.
Revista istorică, tom XXXIII, 2022, nr. 1–3, 2023
This study aims for a critical review of the youth organization Straja Țării
[The Guard of the Co... more This study aims for a critical review of the youth organization Straja Țării
[The Guard of the Country/The Sentinel of the Motherland] created by King
Carol II in the 1930s. The paper takes into account the social development
theories, which discuss the connection between youth vitality and ideological formation. Through its focus on discipline and physical exercise, Straja Ţării represented a mechanism for managing the exuberance of the youth. The energy of the youngsters was ideologically channelled, by implementing a youth policy specific to modern societies. The study aims to analyze the institution of Straja Țării from a double perspective, discussing: 1) the principles and mechanisms of Straja Ţării and 2) the way actors involved related to the organization. The research argues that Straja Țării has served mainly to strengthen the royal power internally and externally. The financial and human resources were directed especially to the formal side, and only in the subsidiary to the formation of healthy faithful bodies.
European Yearbook of Minority Issues (2021), 2023
In 2021, the Romanian Ministry of Education issued Law no. 276 stipulating that the history of th... more In 2021, the Romanian Ministry of Education issued Law no. 276 stipulating that the history of the Jews and the Holocaust will be a compulsory school subject introduced in the curriculum starting in 2023/ 2024. The decision prompted reactions and debates that reinstated the discussion on how Romanian national history integrates the history of one of its most important minorities of the past: the Jews. Framed by this context, this paper performs a content analysis of the secondary school textbooks, framework-programs and curricula in force in 2021/ 2022, investigating how the topic of the Holocaust and the history of the main victims, Jews and Roma, are revealed to the younger generation. The paper aims to integrate Holocaust education in Romania into the wider frame of the international status of education about this topic and the recent historiography of the subject. The analysis will also reflect on cross-cut broader themes, like the aims of education in a democratic society, the role of knowledge in the educational process, and accepting diversity through knowledge and education.
New Europe College Ştefan Odobleja Program Yearbook 2018-2019, 2021
In post-1918 national states, cultural and educational policies were subordinated to the strength... more In post-1918 national states, cultural and educational policies were subordinated to the strengthening of the nations. Romania also implemented thorough cultural and educational reforms by extending the school network and by unifying the education systems in the new provinces. Youth became an important link in the state actions designed to transform the profile of Greater Romania from a heterogeneous multi-ethnic state to a consolidated national entity. High school youth was assigned with strategic roles, as it represented the recruitment pool of the middle class, contributing to the formation of the bureaucracy, and even of the intellectual, political and economic elite. Thus, starting from the idea that the adolescent society was the future adult society, the state strived to prepare the youth in the spirit of discipline and nationalism. This study analyzes high school youth and educational policies in interwar Romania, from the perspective of the power relation between school authorities and adolescents. By using a great amount of laws, regulations, and archives, the aim of this demarche is to show how discipline worked as an instrument connecting nation building process in a multiethnic state, educational policies and youth.
PLURAL. Journal of the History and Geography Department, “Ion Creanga” Pedagogical State University, 2021
This text discusses Straja Țării, the Romanian youth organization patronized by King Carol II, an... more This text discusses Straja Țării, the Romanian youth organization patronized by King Carol II, and created in the tense social and political atmosphere of the 1930s. While reinforcing the loyalty to the king, Străjeria aimed for an integral education based on moral values, religious and patriotic feelings, and physical training. Although active for a short time, Straja was one of the main social intervention institutions, with high autonomy during the royal dictatorship, mobilizing considerable human and financial resources. It developed specific
mechanisms and tools for youth control, including discipline through physical education leading to the strengthening of the young bodies. The paper analyzes the multiple functions of these mechanisms using archival documents, legislation and health surveys carried out in that epoch. The research builds on three levels of analysis: the regulation of physical education and public health in interwar Romania (1); the social control of young bodies through Straja Țării (2); the health deficiencies of the young generation (3). The main argument of this article is that Straja has built an overrated national prototype of the vitality of youth, without properly addressing the deficiencies and cleavages of a relatively healthy nation.
National Identities, 2021
This study investigates the youth organization Straja Țării, created by King Carol II of Romania ... more This study investigates the youth organization Straja Țării, created by King Carol II of Romania in the second interwar decade. The research will consider two levels of analyses: the organizational and ideological dimensions of Straja Țării within the national project of unification (1); the relation of the Jewish youth to Straja Țării (2). Although Straja included youngsters from ages 7 to 18, I will focus mainly on adolescents (above the age of 14), because they were a distinct instrumental group for radical political movements. The paper's main argument is that by being packed in the formula of nation-building and strengthening, Straja Țării was rather an ineffective organization which served as a tool to consolidate the king's power at both the internal and external level. In relation to ethnic minorities, Straja oscillated between recklessness, assimilation, and rejection, lacking any mechanism for integrating non-Romanians.
Apostrof nr. 7 (326), 2017
După ce a animat Clujul mai bine de o săptămână, TIFF 2017 s-a încheiat, se pare, cu noi recordur... more După ce a animat Clujul mai bine de o săptămână, TIFF 2017 s-a încheiat, se pare, cu noi recorduri de audiență și, în linii generale, cu satisfacția unei ediții reușite. Locații multe, unele inedite, competiții,
The Holocaust in the Borderlands. nterethnic Relations and the Dynamics of Violence in Occupied Eastern Europe, Gaëlle Fisher, Caroline Mezger (eds.), Wallstein Verlag, 2019
REVISTA DE ISTORIE A EVREILOR DIN ROMÂNIA, nr. 3 (19), 2018
Holocaust. Studii și cercetări, vol. VIII, nr. 1(9), 2016
Apostrof. Revistă a Uniunii Scriitorilor, 2016
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Edited volumes by Anca Filipovici
ieşti din România, implicând chei de lectură ce conectează fenomene mai largi – emancipare, naţionalism sau antisemitismul modern. Semnate de specialişti consacraţi, studiile din volum urmăresc mutaţiile ce au loc în jurul unor borne importante, precum Primul Război Mondial şi Unirea de la 1918, Holocaustul şi cel de-al Doilea Război Mondial, regimul comunist şi istoria recentă. Textele care trasează istoria evreilor până la instaurarea regimului comunist sunt structurate defalcat pe provinciile istorice, urmărind – în măsura în care a fost posibil – particularităţile comunităţilor evreieşti din Transilvania, Ţările Române, Bucovina sau Basarabia. Apartenenţa la o provincie sau alta a conferit nu doar o imagine distinctă a comunităţilor, ceea ce a potenţat caracterul eteroclit al minorităţii în România Mare, dar şi destine diferite. Evoluţia minorităţii evreieşti din România este, din această perspectivă, un complex de istorii cu
traiectorii comune şi rupturi, reliefând totodată şi dinamica alertă a secolelor XIX–XX. Conceput de către editori ca ghid istoric, volumul propune astfel o deschidere de perspectivă către o sinteză modernă a istoriei evreilor din România.
Reviews of my work by Anca Filipovici
Books by Anca Filipovici
Papers by Anca Filipovici
then focus on the Zionist-socialist Hashomer Hatzair organization, discussing its ideology, structure and instruments (1) in connection with the evolution of the state youth organization Straja Țării and (2) as an individual option of the youngsters exploring the Zionist cause.
[The Guard of the Country/The Sentinel of the Motherland] created by King
Carol II in the 1930s. The paper takes into account the social development
theories, which discuss the connection between youth vitality and ideological formation. Through its focus on discipline and physical exercise, Straja Ţării represented a mechanism for managing the exuberance of the youth. The energy of the youngsters was ideologically channelled, by implementing a youth policy specific to modern societies. The study aims to analyze the institution of Straja Țării from a double perspective, discussing: 1) the principles and mechanisms of Straja Ţării and 2) the way actors involved related to the organization. The research argues that Straja Țării has served mainly to strengthen the royal power internally and externally. The financial and human resources were directed especially to the formal side, and only in the subsidiary to the formation of healthy faithful bodies.
mechanisms and tools for youth control, including discipline through physical education leading to the strengthening of the young bodies. The paper analyzes the multiple functions of these mechanisms using archival documents, legislation and health surveys carried out in that epoch. The research builds on three levels of analysis: the regulation of physical education and public health in interwar Romania (1); the social control of young bodies through Straja Țării (2); the health deficiencies of the young generation (3). The main argument of this article is that Straja has built an overrated national prototype of the vitality of youth, without properly addressing the deficiencies and cleavages of a relatively healthy nation.
ieşti din România, implicând chei de lectură ce conectează fenomene mai largi – emancipare, naţionalism sau antisemitismul modern. Semnate de specialişti consacraţi, studiile din volum urmăresc mutaţiile ce au loc în jurul unor borne importante, precum Primul Război Mondial şi Unirea de la 1918, Holocaustul şi cel de-al Doilea Război Mondial, regimul comunist şi istoria recentă. Textele care trasează istoria evreilor până la instaurarea regimului comunist sunt structurate defalcat pe provinciile istorice, urmărind – în măsura în care a fost posibil – particularităţile comunităţilor evreieşti din Transilvania, Ţările Române, Bucovina sau Basarabia. Apartenenţa la o provincie sau alta a conferit nu doar o imagine distinctă a comunităţilor, ceea ce a potenţat caracterul eteroclit al minorităţii în România Mare, dar şi destine diferite. Evoluţia minorităţii evreieşti din România este, din această perspectivă, un complex de istorii cu
traiectorii comune şi rupturi, reliefând totodată şi dinamica alertă a secolelor XIX–XX. Conceput de către editori ca ghid istoric, volumul propune astfel o deschidere de perspectivă către o sinteză modernă a istoriei evreilor din România.
then focus on the Zionist-socialist Hashomer Hatzair organization, discussing its ideology, structure and instruments (1) in connection with the evolution of the state youth organization Straja Țării and (2) as an individual option of the youngsters exploring the Zionist cause.
[The Guard of the Country/The Sentinel of the Motherland] created by King
Carol II in the 1930s. The paper takes into account the social development
theories, which discuss the connection between youth vitality and ideological formation. Through its focus on discipline and physical exercise, Straja Ţării represented a mechanism for managing the exuberance of the youth. The energy of the youngsters was ideologically channelled, by implementing a youth policy specific to modern societies. The study aims to analyze the institution of Straja Țării from a double perspective, discussing: 1) the principles and mechanisms of Straja Ţării and 2) the way actors involved related to the organization. The research argues that Straja Țării has served mainly to strengthen the royal power internally and externally. The financial and human resources were directed especially to the formal side, and only in the subsidiary to the formation of healthy faithful bodies.
mechanisms and tools for youth control, including discipline through physical education leading to the strengthening of the young bodies. The paper analyzes the multiple functions of these mechanisms using archival documents, legislation and health surveys carried out in that epoch. The research builds on three levels of analysis: the regulation of physical education and public health in interwar Romania (1); the social control of young bodies through Straja Țării (2); the health deficiencies of the young generation (3). The main argument of this article is that Straja has built an overrated national prototype of the vitality of youth, without properly addressing the deficiencies and cleavages of a relatively healthy nation.
In this episode, Andrei Cușco, a researcher at the “A.D. Xenopol” Institute of History in Iași, Romania, is in conversation with Anca Filipovici (Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities), on the complex history of Bessarabia as a "contested borderland" between the Russian Empire and the emerging nation-state of Romania.
https://soundcloud.com/user-267970745/episode-15-andrei-cusco-besarabia-a-contested-borderland-and-its-peoples?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing&fbclid=IwAR3kNOb5w9Wie2HatEw0xN_LlzneB3qjUC0_1LetKsqWcKo8KOZkIo5DhVM