[Cz-L] A Bukovina update from the Genealogy meeting in New York City

From: Bruce Reisch <bir1_at_nysaes.cornell.edu>
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 10:05:29 -0400
To: Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu
Reply-to: Bruce Reisch <bir1_at_nysaes.cornell.edu>

Dear Friends:

Last week, several of us attended the International Conference on
Jewish Genealogy in New York City. As I mentioned to our group
earlier, Merle Kastner and I coordinated the Rom-Sig (Romanian Jewish
Genealogy - Special Interest Group) meeting last Tuesday. We hoped
there might be 50 people in attendance, and we counted 65!

There were about a dozen of us from the Czernowitz list in
attendance. It was great to see some of my old friends and to meet
some of our list members, like Lea Haber Gedalia, Bernie Levy, and
Vlad Sinayuk, for the first time. Following the Rom-Sig meeting,
Merle and I joined Renee Steinig, Vlad, Rae Barent, Bernie, and
Merle's friend Judi Ghert for a great kosher deli dinner.

There was pretty good interest in Bukovina at the Rom-Sig meeting. I
met some new people interested in Czernowitz and recruited them for
the list (Welcome Arthur Friedman!). During the program, Merle
presented an update on Jewish genealogy projects for Romania and
Moldova. I gave an update on the latest in resources for Bukovina
genealogy. Simon Kreindler and Renee Steinig presented their
impressions of the Czernowitz Reunion 2006 held in May, and how they
prepared for it. I really enjoyed seeing list members and friends at
the meeting like Ignacio Sternberg from Caracas, Sandra Greenberg,
Eden Joachim, Toby Mendlowitz, Ruth Gavis, Joyce Field, Mel
Niederhoffer, Steve Lasky, Simon and Rub Kreindler, Renee Steinig,
and Phyllis Simon (interested in Wiznitz).

(Even if I missed listing your name, I enjoyed seeing you, too!)

Bruce Wexler was there on Sunday and Monday, but couldn't stay for
the Tuesday meeting. Even though he roots for the wrong baseball
team, it was great to meet him anyway (;-)

Sam Gruber, Research Director of the US Commission for the
Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, presented an excellent
talk about cemetery preservation. Sam is a cousin of Rae Barent, and
he has roots in the Gruber family of Radauti, Bukovina. I spoke with
Sam and another commission member privately for about 20 minutes
about ongoing efforts to restore the cemetery in Radauti, and to
raise funds for maintenance of the Great Temple of Radauti and
creation of a Museum of Jewish History within the Temple. With a
community numbering perhaps fewer than 20 Jews, an alternative use
must be found for this historic structure so it won't just rely on
the cash strapped Jewish community of Romania for upkeep. A museum
would promote tolerance and be a memorial to the events of the
holocaust.

I didn't have a chance to talk further with Sam about the status of
the Jewish cemetery and Temple in Czernowitz. His time was very
limited, and right after his session, our Rom-Sig session started.
Sam came to the Rom-Sig meeting, but had to leave a bit early to meet
some others for dinner.

Hymie Reichstein (Pres. JGS Ottawa) and I discussed how to
"jump-start" the Czernowitz cemetery project. I'll be contacting my
transcribers shortly to give them deadlines, and I'll make an effort
to recruit new transcribers. If you can read at least two languages
from this list (Hebrew, German {minimal German needed - enough to
pick up age and name}, Russian), know how to enter data into Excel
spreadsheets, and can handle CD's full of tombstone images, please
volunteer for the project by contacting me directly. (Thank you Lea;
I'll be in touch shortly.)

One more item of important news from New York: During a session
discussing the holdings of archives in the Ukraine, Khalile Mehr of
the Family History Library (LDS) in Salt Lake City, Utah, announced
that the Jewish records in Chernivtsi were currently being
microfilmed. As soon as these are received in Salt Lake City, they
will be indexed and placed in their online catalog from which they
will be accessible at Family History Libraries around the world.
Vital records for Czernowitz are fairly complete from the 1850s
through 1940. Mr. Mehr could not say whether records for other towns
might be found among the Jewish holdings in the Chernivetskaya
Oblast. But whatever is there is being microfilmed.

This particular microfilming project began in 2001 and up until now,
they have been filming records of other faiths. Microfilming project
are not known for speediness, but I never imagined it would take five
years before they would get to the Jewish records.

OK, that's enough for what I thought was to be a brief update!
Clearly, much happened in NYC last week, and there's much more work
to do. I've updated my Jewish Bukovina Research web site to include
new materials I presented at the Rom -Sig meeting. Visit:

http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/sadgura/ReischToronto.html

Thanks go to all the conference organizers (including our own Renee
Steinig and Eden Joachim) for providing us with this great venue to
meet, network, and learn together.

Warmest wishes,

Bruce
Received on 2006-08-22 08:15:01

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