new subscriber

Dear fellow subscribers,

My name is Miriam Taylor, maiden name Reifer and generally called Mimi.
I was born in Czernowitz on June 7 1937. My father was Salomon Reifer,
he was born in the Czernowitz suburb of Manasteriska and attended the
Jewish
Gymnasium and the University of Czernowitz where he obtained a degree in

Mathematics. My mother Rachel Reifer, formerly Steinmetz, was born in
Czernowitz in the Karolinengasse and attended the Madchen
Handels-Schule.
Her family later moved to the Schmiedgasse (Strada Cronicarul Neculce ),

where they had a factory for processing meat, a store, as well as the
family
residence. After their marriage my parents lived there, and I was born
there
and lived there until the summer of 1940 when we moved to the
Blumengasse
on the southern end of town. My maternal grandparents also owned a store

on the eastern side of the Rings-Platz, which from recent photographs I
can
still identify. Steinmetz Selchwaren were very well known in the whole
Bukowina as well as in neighbouring counties. My maternal grandfather,
Saul Leib Steinmetz was a very active zionist, had been a delegate to
the second
Zionist Congress and in the 1920'ies published a Yiddish weekly paper
and for while
served on the city council. My parents and I survived the war in
Czernowitz itself.
After the war we moved to Oradea Mare in western Romania, two years
later I went
to Holland with the Aliyat Hanoar and in February 1949 I was reunited
with my
parents in Israel. My parents are now both deceased and for the last 35
years,
my husband, Milton Taylor and I have been living in Bloomington IN US.
I speak and read German and Yiddish and despite having left Czernowitz
at age eight,
remember a lot about the city and the events of the war years. I have
documents and
group photographs which may be of interest to some of you. I would
gladly share
these with anyone interested. This summer my husband and I are planing
to go to
Czernowitz, primarily to revisit the places I remember from my
childhood,
also to visit the graves of my grandparents and possibly to visit the
village of
Klivodyn where my maternal grandmother was born. I have heard that
staying in
Czernowitz can be very unpleasant, no water in the hotel, dirty and bad
food.
Therefore I would be very grateful for any advice. Just as important,
have any
of you who visited recently encountered any anti-Semitism?
Please e-mail me care of my husband at <taylor_at_indiana.edu>
Very glad to join the group, Miriam (Mimi) Taylor


Received on 2003-03-24 08:12:47