[Cz-L] Letter to Josef Zissels

Dear Mr.Zissels:

My name is Jerome Schatten. I am a member of the Czernowitz-L
discussion group and the webmaster for their website. The group's 350
members all have ancestral connections to the Czernowitz area of
Bukovina. Since we do genealogical and historical research, many of
our members have an taken an abiding interest in the soon to be
'Museum of Bucovina Jewry'. That said, I am speaking below only as a
concerned individual whose Czernowitz roots go back some four
generations, not as a spokesperson for the group.

I understand that you are the driving force behind the establishment
of the 'Museum of Bucovina Jewry', and for this I would like to thank
you and applaud such an undertaking! It was with great joy that I
greeted such good news. Finally, I thought, the history and culture of
Jewish Bukovina would be on public display for all to see.

But now I have heard from several reliable sources that the initial
content of the Museum will exclude entirely the war years and the
holocaust. And this is a cause of great personal sadness to me, as it
seems that the Museum will tell only half a story to those attending
this anniversary year.

I'm sure you have your reasons for leaving out such untidy things as
the holocaust, but to me and to others, it looks like yet another
attempt to sanitize history. I ask you Mr.Zissels, how could a Museum
of Bucovina Jewry deal with the golden years of Jews in Bukovina and
yet ignore the historical fate of that very same culture? A museum
that, for whatever reason, tells but half the story will not be worthy
of being called a museum.

Thus I ask you to reconsider your position. As a Jew and as a human
being who has endured the unspeakable suffering of our people, I ask
you to reconsider. I ask you, as my brother, to reconsider.

Make a museum that tells the whole story the first time around. Then I
am with you -- I will support your efforts. I opine that others in our
group of first and second generation Czernowitzers will as well.

I am not asking that you focus on the holocaust, only that the Museum
give history its due.

With respect,
Jerome Schatten - Webmaster for Czernowitz-L
Vancouver, Canada
http://czernowitz.ehpes.com
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Received on 2008-04-01 04:58:11