Liviu Floda (born Adolf Leibovici; August 16, 1913 – June 3, 1997) was a Romanian-American journalist and commentator.
Biography
Floda was born on August 16, 1913, in Brăila, Romania, into a Jewish family. He began his journalism career in 1932 in Bucharest, writing for newspapers such as Adevărul, Dimineața, Semnalul, and Jurnal. In 1936, he earned a master's degree from the University of Bucharest, and in 1946 he received both a doctorate in economics and a doctorate in political science from the same institution.
From 1940 to 1944, he served as assistant principal at the Cultura B lyceum in Bucharest. Between 1947 and 1948, he lectured at the Commercial Academy and at the college of the Museum of Science. In March 1948, following the rise of the Communist regime in Romania, he was dismissed from his teaching position. After World War II, he worked for Jurnalul de dimineață and Libertatea. Unable to work as a journalist for a period, he co-authored a play titled Flacăra vie ("The Living Flame") with Ștefan Tita, which ran from 1957 to 1958.
In 1964, Floda emigrated to New York City, where he was hired by Radio Free Europe (RFE) and worked under the pseudonym Andrei Brânduș. At RFE, he collaborated with numerous Romanian exiles, including Preda Bunescu, George Ciorănescu, Mircea Carp, and others. Among the notable figures he interviewed for RFE were Eugène Ionesco, George Emil Palade, Jean Negulesco, Isamu Noguchi, Andrei Codrescu, Andrei Serban, Radu Lupu, and Viorica Cortez.
Floda retired from Radio Free Europe in 1972 but continued working as a freelance journalist. After RFE ceased operations in 1993, he worked for the Voice of America and later assembled his archives for the Hoover Institution. He also contributed to the Israeli newspapers Viața Noastră and Facla, as well as MicroMagazin and Mele in North America.
He was a member of the American Newspaper Guild, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American-Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences. He died on June 3, 1997.
Archives
The Liviu Floda papers, covering the period 1935–1996, are held by the Hoover Institution Library and Archives. The collection includes scripts and sound recordings of Radio Free Europe broadcasts to Romania, as well as correspondence, memoranda, and printed matter relating to Romanian politics, society, culture, civil liberties, and the activities of Romanians abroad.
