Paper long abstract:

My paper aims to focus on the ways in which a Transylvanian Jewish community (specifically, of Cluj, where I carry out fieldwork) have adopted specific strategies of ethnic, identity survival in the totalitarian period. Then, I intend to analyze to which extents these strategies have been continued or are reshaped in the post 90 period. Thus, the main goal of my paper is to reconstruct the Romanian totalitarian period (focusing on the local, Cluj atmosphere) through the voices and eyes of this particular Jewish community members and to point out how they conceptualize the post 90 period. I do intend to stress on the main recurrent issues of their statements, on how they attempt to relate the past and the present, imagining the future.

Personal life histories are the main method of investigation.