Re:
<One thing I'd enjoy sometime is to hear from people soon how they ended
up where they are - from Israel and France to <England, Australia, etc.
All from that little shetl Czernowitz.
<Nina
-------------
As I wrote to Nina,-
We are not all directly from Czernowitz,- mainly descendants of someone
from there or somewhere-else in Bukowina. The war made sure that we
became dispersed all over the world.
In trying to explain why I am interested in Bukowina rather than
Romania where I was born just over the border in Moldova and lived to
age 10 with my Romanian father and Bukowiner mother, it is because
obviously my mother's influence was great. While my father always spoke
Yiddish to me,- for him the universal language of the Jews,- he insisted
that my mother should speak German to me,- later also English (before we
came to Ausralia). Once I started to speak and read,- Rumanian was added
naturally to my list of languages,- only to be discarded after the war
when we left for Italy. After all, my father said,- who speaks Rumanian
in the world? So I almost forgot my Rumanian language, but although my
mother died more than 25 years ago, I can still speak a fair German! And
I do remember her recipes, her stories and I am in touch with former
Viennese members of the family in Israel and the USA!
The highlight of my mother's youth was the time she spent with her
family in Vienna.
Some of my parents' friends and distant relatives are still alive also
here and I do get more information from them and other Bukowiners about
Czernowitz and surroundings.One day I may even visit there. But all the
foods mentioned are still very familiar to me although I am not sure
that I would bother to make them nowadays,- far too rich!
Malvina Malinek
Melbourne, Australia.
Received on 2005-06-17 20:26:15
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : 2006-01-08 17:00:17 PST