Her father was from Bessarabia. In Romania, she has been nationally known since her 1992 role as Nela in Balanta, a film known in the United States as The Oak, set during the waning days of Communist Romania. She received a star on the Romanian Walk of Fame in Bucuresti on 1 May 2011. Florin Mituof AMOS News as "a symbol of Romanian theater and film". She then played at Teatrul Tineretului (Youth Theater) in Piatra Neamt until 1988, and at the Teatrul Evreies de Stat (State Jewish Theatre) in Bucuresti 1988, 1989, and 1990. From 1990 to 1998 she was a member of the company of the National Theatre in Bucuresti, and since 1998of Teatrul Bulandra, also in Bucuresti; in addition, she continues to act at the Jewish State Theatre and other Bucuresti theaters and elsewhere in Romania. Among her notable stage rolesin recent years, in a Romanian-language production of The Blue Angel at Bucuresti's Odeon Theater, in 2001-2002 she played (to great critical acclaim) Lola Lola, the character made famous by Marlene Dietrich. At the same time, she was also playing the role of Kathleen Hogan in aRomanian-language production of Israel Horovitz's Park Your Car in Harvard Yard at the State Jewish Theater. Morgenstern has appeared in nume- rous films, primarily in Romanian language roles. In The Passion of the Christ, she performs a role in Aramaic, but like the other actors in the cast of that film, she simply memorized her lines phonetically.