600th Anniversary of Chernivtsi
News
You can read all the city news in English from the Chernivtsi
official website here
You can read about the city's plans for the
2008 celebration here
Letter from the Chernivtsi City Council to our website
Received 13 July 2006
Dear webmaster,
We kindly ask you to place the following
information on your web-site:
Dear visitors of the site,
We read again and again your touching
reminiscences about the beautiful city of Chernivtsi and its people. As
you probably know the 600-th anniversary of Bukovinian capital will be
celebrated in 2008. We would be very grateful for interesting facts,
old photos dealing with the history of the city, suggestions by the
visitors concerning celebration of this anniversary. You are welcome to
Volodymyr Kylynych, Councilor of Chernivtsi Mayor, e-mail: chernivci_600@rada.cv.ua
or to the official web-site of Chernivtsi city: http://www.city.cv.ua
Thank you in advance!
Best
regards,
Volodymyr Kylynych,
Chernvitsi City Council
Letter
sent to Mr. Kylynych on 23 October 2006 on behalf of the Cz-L
discussion group:
23 October 2006
Organizing Committee
Anniversary Preparation Project Coordinator
Dear Mr. Kylynych,
We are writing on behalf of a group of 250 persons connected to
Chernivtsi through the http://czernowitz.ehpes.com website and
Czernowitz-L listserve in response to your call for suggestions
regarding the 600th anniversary of Chernivtsi.
We have been discussing your invitation for several months now as a
group. Each of us has roots in Jewish
Czernowitz/Cernăuţi/Chernivtsi and many of us have visited the city on
one or more occasions in recent years. The preservation of this
beautiful city and the restoration of its neglected cultural landmarks
is of great personal and collective importance to us all.
Several urgent priorities emerged during our discussions. While
these concern long-term goals of preservation and renovation of Jewish
sites in the city, we believe that the 600th anniversary provides a
wonderful occasion for the city to study, initiate and make a
commitment toward these long-term goals.
We feel that the city needs to do more to memorialize and to recognize
the important Jewish history of Chernivtsi. Recent efforts to
install plaques and build monuments are certainly important ways to
mark this history, but we believe that more needs to be done to give an
accurate sense of the multi-cultural tolerant and cosmopolitan past of
the city.
We therefore have several suggestions for the 600th anniversary. We
believe that these are reasonable and affordable suggestions and our
group is ready to work with the Chernivtsi city council to put them
into practice. We also know that Chernivtsi is applying to Unesco
for World Heritage status and that a successful application will make
funds available. Our suggestions should help Chernivtsi in the
application process.
We are most urgently concerned about the state of disrepair of the
Jewish cemetery and the temple. The Chernivtsi Jewish cemetery
must be renovated and permanently maintained. This cemetery is in
a shameful state that reflects very badly on the city’s relationship to
its Jewish community. There are members of our group who are
particularly interested in this renovation and are willing to raise
funds to help the city with the cost of this effort. We also know
of some volunteer groups who could come to do some of the initial
work. But we would like to ask the city to commit to the
preservation of the cemetery once it is renovated.
We know that Mr. Helmut Kusdat of Vienna is raising funds for the
renovation of the Ceremonial Hall of the cemetery and that the city has
made a commitment to the preservation of the Hall once it is renovated.
The temple was the heart of Jewish life in the city and its current use
as a cinema is certainly inappropriate. The mutilation of this
fine building, one of the city’s most important historic structures, is
a serious blot on the landscape. We realize that the renovation
of the temple is not now a realistic project. But, on the occasion of
the anniversary, the temple building, located in the very center of the
city, could be used to house a temporary exhibition on Jewish
Czernowitz and on the evolution of the city’s Jewish community.
Our website has excellent materials for such an exhibit and so do many
other individuals and groups. Works written by Jewish writers
could be on exhibit, as well as books about the city, as could objects,
images, maps and other memorabilia. Such an exhibit could be a good way
to initiate a project of a museum of pre-world War Two Jewish
Czernowitz/ Cernăuţi.
This museum is our third urgent priority. It is an absolutely essential
part of the application to Unesco which stipulates that any site chosen
must “bear unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural
tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has
disappeared.” Jewish pre-war Czernowitz has indeed disappeared and
needs to be memorialized. This can be done in a variety of
smaller and larger ways and there are people in our group with some
expertise who could consult on the design of such a museum, and the
location of a site for it in the city. We also know of documents,
libraries, and art works that could be housed there, and we could be
helpful in soliciting donations to the museum, once it is conceived.
We hope to continue this conversation with you. Please contact us
at romers@shaw.ca
With many thanks for your attention,
Marianne Hirsch and Jerome Schatten for the Czernowitz-L group.
-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Betreff: To Mr. Kylynych, Councillor to the Mayor of
Czernivtsy
Datum: Sun, 16 Sep 2007 15:41:54 +0200
Von: Gabriele Weissmann <G.Weissmann@gmx.de>
An: chernivci_600@rada.cv.ua
Dear Mr. Kylynych,
Recently I came across your official website regarding the 600th
Anniversary of Czernivtsy. I read with interest about your plans and
projects but was surprised by the omission of a main issue regarding
the history of Czernivtsy. Between 1850 and 1945 the majority of the
population of the town was of Jewish origin. Their contribution to the
economic, social and cultural life in the city and in the region was of
major proportions.
The profile of the city and region was determined by this majority. The
overwhelming contribution of this major ethnic group made Czernivtsy a
place famous in Europe. Jewish writers and poets, artists, musicians,
scientists, businessmen, became world-renowned and spread the name of
their birthplace throughout the world. Unfortunately for Czernivtsy and
the whole world, it suffered a terrible set-back and loss through the
Holocaust. My family and my friends (most of them of Jewish Czernivtsy
Bukowina provenience are making efforts to preserve the spiritual,
social and artistic heritage, as well as dear memories of this time.
Our connection to this heritage is very strong, since it is part of our
identity.
I suppose you know about a lot of books and publications, documentary
films written and produced in the last decade on the subject of
Czernivtsy. Dr. Josif Bursuc, Dr. Gurewitch, Prof. Rychlo, Josif Burg,
Sergij Ossatchuk and Johann Schlamp could be valuable sources of
information. Don't hesistate to contact me as well as www.ehpes.com for
information or assistance.
In order to complete the historic image of Czernivtsy and the Bukowina
one cannot ignore the historic facts I mentioned above. May I suggest
you approach this matter and complete the historic identiy of
Czernivtsy as written by history.
On our next visit to Czernivtsy we would be happy to meet you
personally.
With best wishes,
Eduard Weissmann
--
Eduard Weissmann
Musician
Kaiserdamm 18
D- 14057 Berlin
Tel./Fax: +49.30.321 15 38
E-Mail: G.Weissmann@gmx.de
--
Gabriele Weissmann
Kaiserdamm 18
D- 14057 Berlin
Tel./Fax: +49.30.321 15 38
E-Mail: G.Weissmann@gmx.de