Valerian D. Trifa
Romanian American Heritage Center
Romanian American Heritage Center
WHY WE EXIST...
by V. Rev. Fr. Laurence Lazar
The Valerian D. Trifa Romanian American Heritage Center was the brainchild of the late Archbishop Valerian. His intention was to encourage cooperation between the numerous institutions, parishes, diocesan centers, and individuals of Romanian origin. The Center would be an independent corporate institution, a safe place where the official records, publications (newspapers, pamphlets, etc.), personal papers (documents and correspondence, etc.), and life stories of the Romanian immigrants and their descendants could be stored and documented. It would be a place where researchers, authors, an historians could study the life of those who came here from across the ocean for over a hundred years. So many other nationalities had similar institutions, but not the Romanians, so he established this unique institution for us.
This wonderful short feature about the emigration of Romanians to America in the early 20th century, produced by the Romanian television network TVR, includes interviews with our Romanian American Heritage Center chairman Archbishop Nathaniel, as well as board members V. Rev. Frs. Laurence Lazar & Remus Grama.
Mia și drumul – episod din seria „Românii şi lumea" (@TVR3)
OUR HERITAGE, OUR COMMON RESPONSIBILITY
by V. Rev. Dr. Remus Grama
In his book “Peasants and Strangers” (Harvard University Press, 1975), Joseph J. Barton offers a monumental study of Italians, Romanians, and Slovaks in an American City, 1890-1950. In the introduction, he focuses on the personality of the Transylvanian Romanian Ilie Martin Selisteanul, who, in 1900, came from Saliste to Martin’s Ferry, Ohio. He established the Union of Romanian Societies in America, a printing press, and wrote a history of the United States in the Romanian language. He was animated by the underlying credo that: “Nothing is more valuable to a man than to study the history of his own country." ...
Read the complete article here