[Cz-L] Personal Introductions

Dear Czernowitzers:

Over on the Yahoo reunion group, Mimi Taylor suggested back in
February that reunion participants "write a short biographical note
about themselves, so we can get to know each other. This would
include 1) Name, 2) Connection to Czernowitz, and 3) Current country
of residence, and possibly some other details" that you might care to
share.

Her suggestion was very successful as it seemed to reunite old
friends, and as people realized that they shared some mutual family
surnames, and were quite possibly cousins.

Here on the Cz-L, we have our "Czernowitz/Sadagora Family" finder on
Jerome Schatten's Czernowitz web site, http://czernowitz.ehpes.com.
We can find out who is interested in what surnames from Czernowitz
there and on the JewishGen family finder (www.jewishgen.org). But it
would sure be nice if we could learn more about each other and our
shared Czernowitz (and Sadagora!) history by repeating Mimi's
suggestion here on the Cz-L. So I invite each of you to send in a
short biographical note!

We have about 268 group members - and I hope to receive 268 biographical notes!

Here's a copy of the one I sent to <czernowitz2006_at_yahoogroups.com>:

Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 08:55:54 -0500
Subject: [czernowitz2006] Personal Introduction

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