Re: [Cz-L] Letter to Josef Zissels

Miriam (Mimi) Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jerome,
Florence, Simon and Bruce Wexler, all for writing excellent
letters to Mr. Zissels. I hope that other members of the list
will write to him as well and that he will reconsider
his decision, or at least respond and explain his motives.

Mimi
(Miriam Reifer Taylor)
 

> 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

Received on 2008-04-01 12:58:06