Re: [Cz-L] Tolerated Jewish Farmers

I was aware of this list which includes Marcus and Napthali KULLA in
Rarancze. Later, the family name dropped one of the L's and became just
KULA. Having two separate landholdings for brothers in 1808 suggests a
significant family - that possibly may have been there before during the
Ottoman times. My great-grandfather Noa Lehr had a major soap factory in
Cz., and my mother told me that her father Max/Meir Kula had estates in
Rarancze that would take him the entire day to travel. She said that the
peasants dressed their hair in butter, and when it went rancid, you coukd
not go near them for the smell. Many took the Kula name - I suppose it was a
custom, and I have had calls here in Toronto from Kulas looking for long
lost relatives, who, after a few questions, onviously weren't related to me.
Between the Kulas and the Lehrs there was also a tanning business - I
suppose the by-products of what I guess was an animal operation produced
hides and lard.

Interestingly, I have a line on the Lehrs, but really nothing on the Kulas -
I know there was a Norbert Kula who was a pharmacist, but little else. If
anyone can help me fill in the missing 130 years, I'd be obliged.

Incidentally, Austria took over after conquering the Ottomans in 1744, and
the Kaiser issued an Edict of Toleration in 1761. Whether it was then or
later, Jews were required to take Germanic names. Meir Kula was known as
Max, His wife, Rachel, is listed as Regina. And so forth.
The Ottomans were tolerant to Jews, and there were significant Jewish
population centers. Kula is a common Turkish family name, and Kula is a
Turkish town that is renowned for rugs. There are suggestions that the
Turkish Jews were originally Spanish and French, who took the southern,
water route (the Mediterranean) to escape the expulsions. It is also, I
suppose, possible, that the Turkish Jews are descended from the original
Jews that never left - just like we often read about this Caliph's Jewish
this, or another's that. Incidentally, we tend to credit the European
exclusion from trades and landowning for the disproprtionate numbers of
Jewish doctors, writers, lawyers, bankers and intellectuals, yet the Jews
played these same roles in the Ottoman and other Arab empires. I really do
not know the story, but it seems noteworthy.

What has always fascinated me is the sociology - why and how peoples moved
and migrated, what they brought with them, what they contributed to the land
in which they were strangers, how - sometimes - they became a part of the
us, or a very special and valued they. How they prospered, how they
faltered, how they stayed, how and why they moved yet again. If there are
good history books about this, I would love to be directed to them.

I know it's hard to be a Jew (especially today), but it's fascinating too.

Bob
Robert Burton
Burton-Lesbury Holdings Limited/
  Cobob Holdings Limited
307 Sheppard Avenue East
Toronto, ON M2N 3B3
416 226 6895 Ext 29, Fax 416 223 0321

----- Original Message -----
From: <AJS1PRES_at_aol.com>
To: <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 4:22 PM
Subject: [Cz-L] Tolerated Jewish Farmers

> Dear List,
>
>>From a website called <www.bukowina.info/Farmer.html>, I located a list
> called:
>
> Tolerated Jewish Farmers in the Bukowina (1808) (Manfred Reifer,
> Historische
> Schriften, Czernowitz 1938)
>
> On the list are two names which might be related to me:
> 1) Juda DORF from Wassileu
> 2) Abraham DORF from Zastawna
>
> I know that my maternal grandfather, Chiam DORF grew up on a farm before
> coming to live in Czernowitz. I also have heard the name Vasilev
> (Wassileu) from
> one of my older relatives who is now deceased.
> Does anyone have any idea where I could look for vital records on either
> of
> these two people?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Bruce Wexler
> Jackson, NJ
>
Received on 2006-07-27 09:16:36