ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a case of invented ethnic text produced by a cultural association of Rumanian Israelis. It argues that the ethnic textualization is bi-dimensional: at the collective level, its outcome is a historical text, while at the personal level, its outcome is a biographical one. The chapter shows that the two textual dimensions engendered by the association, the interplay between them, are significant to association members within the context of their existential situation as immigrants and elderly people. It addresses the issue by analyzing the personal dimension of an invented ethnic tradition produced by an association of Rumanian Israelis. The chapter examines the following questions: What are the central motifs of the Rumanian identity that is constructed in the association? How do individual members of the association interpret this ethnic tradition? In what ways and to what purposes do they manipulate it? What is the existential significance of this cultural construct from their point of view?
