Re: Posting Personal Introductions

Abraham Kogan - Personal Introduction

I was born in Czernowitz in 1926, grew up there and left in 1944.
In October 1941, at the beginning of the massive deportations to
Transnistria my late father, who was in the timber business/industry,
received a permit "Autorizatzie" to stay in Cz. The family managed to
survive there in the Ghetto until end of March 1944, in spite of the
additional expulsions to Transnistria that followed from time to time
(1942-1943). In April 1945 and after a series of serious obstacles I managed
to get out of the Soviet Union after obtaining permission for "repatriation"
to Romania as a former Romanian citizen. I was all alone, very far from my
family, crossed the border to (Iashi). A month later, the family was
reunited in northern Romania (my parents, sister and brother) and we
continued our wandering westwards.

Education:
Elementary school: "Safah Ivriah" - Hebrew school (4 years);
Secondary school: L.E.G. (Romanian private high school) (3 years)
1940-1941 Soviet period: Yiddish High School No. 5

In 1945-1946, we got stuck in Transylvania/Romania and could not run away
further to the west. I finished there my high school studies and started
studying civil engineering at the Polytechnical University in Timisoara. In
late 1947 I temporarily interrupted my studies to emigrate to Palestine
(Aliyah Beth via Cyprus - almost 1½ years in British "illegal immigrants"
camps). I came to Israel only at the end of January 1949, resumed my civil
engineering studies at the Technion in Haifa, and graduated in 1952 (B.Sc.).
After passing the subsequent special diploma exams and presentation of my
"project", I obtained the "Dipl.-Ing." degree in 1953.
I became specialized in water resources development, irrigation and water
supply engineering. I was one of the founders of TAHAL Water Planning of
Israel Ltd., the official Israeli Government's agency for developing the
water sector of the country. In 1978 I was invited by the World Bank to join
a team of experts for preparation and appraisal of a large-scale irrigation
project in Peru. After successfully completing that mission I was offered
to join the professional staff of the World Bank, got a senior position at
its Washington DC headquarters, where from I worked for another 17 years
altogether (8½ years with Latin American countries and 8½ years with Central
and Eastern European countries).
Upon return to Israel, in 1996, I still got several special consultancy
assignments for the World Bank, to Latin American countries, but mainly
Eastern Europe. Although I am formally a retiree, I am still professionally
active, but on a part-time basis.

I am almost a "fanatic Czernowitzer patriot", but never intended to go back,
since 1944. It was only in late December 2005, after having "discovered"
Mimi, the daughter of my good old Czernowitzer friends, that I decided to
join the 2006 Reunion group, at the urging of my son David (Dudu). My wife,
Dola, who is from Kraków/Poland, a Bergen-Belsen camp survivor, did not come
to the Reunion. All our children and grandchildren are "Sabras".

I am still emotionally so excited from what I saw, the reminiscences and the
associated experiences that I went through during this visit to my former
hometown that I am unable to describe them in detail. Perhaps some time in
the near future.

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: jerome schatten
  To: Bruce Reisch
  Cc: Abraham Kogan
  Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 5:08 AM
  Subject: Re: Posting Personal Introductions

  Sure, I could do that, no problem. Now I never received Abraham's
  introduction (I'm not sure why), so Bruce, I'll need that again.
  j.

  On Tue, 2006-06-06 at 08:00 -0400, Bruce Reisch wrote:
> Hi Abraham:
>
>
> I'll copy your suggestion to Jerome, the keeper of the web site.
>
>
> J- What do you think? It might be nice to accumulate an alphabetized
> listing of personal intros. But then what do we do about the various
> intros posted over the years as new folks have joined the list? Do we
> fish those out of the archives and copy them to an introductions page?
> There were many intros posted when the list first opened in 2002.
>
>
> Thank you,
>
>
> Bruce
>
>
> At 13:14 +0300 6/6/06, Abraham Kogan wrote:
> > Hi, Bruce,
> > I thought you are going to open a new folder/link under the
> > ehpes.com website where only personal introductions would be posted.
> > I just wanted to see the personal introductions posted by others,
> > now I understand that I am, so far, the only one who responded to
> > your recommendation. Checking all the e-mail archives for finding a
> > specific personal intro is quite a time consuming job. I wonder
> > whether having a separate link for the intro's would not be a more
> > convenient solution.
> > Thanks, AK
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Bruce Reisch
> > To: Abraham Kogan ; romers_at_shaw.ca
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 4:53 AM
> > Subject: Re: Posting Personal Introductions
> >
> > Hi Abraham:
> >
> > Actually what I suggested was that people could write to the
> > group
> > email address with their personal introductions. So far,
> > you're the
> > only one who has stepped forward with a personal
> > introduction. As
> > people write in, you can always check the email archives for
> > the
> > group at our web site: http://czernowitz.ehpes.com
> >
> > and there you will find all the emails ever posted to
> > Czernowitz-L.
> >
> > Hope this helps!
> >
> > Bruce
> >
> > At 23:17 +0300 6/5/06, Abraham Kogan wrote:
> > >Question : Several days ago Bruce Reisch suggested to send
> > him
> > >personal introductions for posting on the website. Where do
> > I find
> > >the various Personal Introductions that have been received
> > so far,
> > >as a result of his e-mail ?
> > >Thanks, A. Kogan
>
>
Received on 2006-06-07 09:21:52