Bruce Reisch

Dear Friends:

Though I will not be able to join you this coming May, let me introduce myself anyway.

I was born in New York City in 1955, and live now in upstate New York with my wife, Kim (an attorney and professional volunteer), and three wonderful children (ages 18, 16 and 10). My parents were also born in New York City, but 3 of my four grandparents were born in Europe. I am a professor at Cornell University working on grapevine genetics.

My father's family ties me to Bukovina. My paternal grandmother and her brothers and sisters all came from Radautz and told many tales about Bukovina, some captured on audiotape. There were bakers, carpenters and tailors in the family. My father's father was from Sadagora, where there were quite a few Reisch's. After my grandfather lost the first of his grandchildren in childbirth or soon after, he went to the Sadagorer Rebbe in the 1950s, then on a visit to New York City, to ask him for a prayer for the health of his next grandchild. Though our family was not Hasidic, there was still a strong belief in the abilities of the Rebbe. I learned about this from the present day Sadagorer Rebbe when I visited with him in B'nei Brak in 1999.

My grandparents and some great grandparents emigrated to New York City between 1909 and 1920. Through my genealogical research, I learned about family that still remained in Europe during the holocaust; some survived and many perished in Transnistria. My cousin Mendel Halpern wrote about his Transnistria experiences, which are now found posted on the JewishGen Yizkor Book web site. Some of my Sadagora family lived for a time in Czernowitz, especially post WWI and prior to emigration.

I visited Radauti, Sadagora, and Czernowitz (also Gura Humora and the painted monasteries of Bukovina) in 1998. Dr. Gaby Rinzler of Florida helped greatly in planning my trip to Czernowitz. During this trip, I found houses where my family had lived, tombstones of my great grandparents, and also found many archival records in both Czernowitz and Radauti. I wrote up my experiences and,at the urging of the Sadagoran's United" discussion group, created ShtetLinks web sites for each of my two shtetls. See web sites listed below.

I've enjoyed the "Personal Introductions" series, and I'm going to suggest we do the same on the Mother Group, Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu.

Warmest wishes,

Bruce Reisch
Geneva, New York

--
RADAUTZ:  http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/radauti/radautz.html
SADGURA:  http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/sadgura/sadgura.html
Researching: REISCH, SCHECHTER, FEUERSTEIN, ENGLER, BENDIT, KORNER -
Sadagora, Bukowina, Ukraine
SCHACHTER, BRUCKER/BRUKER, HALPERN, HELLMANN - Radauti and Solca,
Bukowina, Romania
WEISSMAN - Brody, Galicia, Ukraine  SCHACHTER, HELLMANN - Okup, Ukraine
WEINTRAUB - Lublin & Zamosc, Poland