Re: [Cz-L] Account of the celebrations for the unveiling the Popovici memorial plaque.

Thank you Mimi for the tale.
  What more can I say than :" Ich bin gelb vor Neid." or in English :
 " I am yellow with envy ". for not being there.
    And knowing ,with all modesty, that you did it all . Almost all.
   " As sturdy as Gibraltar ,not a second did you falter".
     I dont have your adress at the ceremony , but here is what
     I would have said, if I was there:
       " As I stand here today before you , I stand am not alone.
      With me stand 20,000 Jews this man Popovici saved.
    Many of these are no longer with us but I know they are here ,all of
them.
     Very few still live here ,most left for other places where being a Jew
    was not considered a crime.
      They multiplied and grew into a mighty host, 4 generations of Popovici
      survivors populate the globe today, their numbers equals the
population
       of the current city of Czernowitz.
          All of them are here today.
         To thank this man for having he courage to do what he did.
           A lone candle in the darkness of October 1941.
          Hardy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Taylor" <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
To: <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 2:22 AM
Subject: [Cz-L] Account of the celebrations for the unveiling the Popovici
memorial plaque.


> Please excuse the incompleteness of what I remember, but this is it:
>
> Sasha Wolloch and I arrived in Czernowitz on April 17th, late in the
> afternoon. That same day, after dinner, we went for a walk, during which I
> wanted to show Sasha where the plaque would be attached. We walked down
> the
> former Karolinengasse, from near the Tempel and to my amazement, there the
> plaque was, already attached to what is now #6 Zankovet'ka.
>
> Some days later, when we met with Dr. Bursuk, he told us that he had
> arranged to have the plaque attached, well ahead of the unveiling
> ceremony,
> so that there would be no risk of anything going wrong at the last minute.
>
> At that time Dr. Bursuk also informed us of the schedule of events planned
> in conjunction with the memorial plaque unveiling for Tuesday April 21st.
>
> Here let me say, that I had wanted the unveiling to be on the 21st,
> because
> this was Yom Ha-Shoah and because this was a convenient date after
> Passover
> and Easter as well as after Orthodox Easter. What I had not known and not
> planned for, was that Monday after Orthodox Easter is also a holyday and
> that early May, until May 10th is a period of holydays in the Ukraine.
>
> Beside participating in the unveiling ceremonies for the Popovici plaque,
> I had also hoped to be able to speak to either the mayor Mr. Fedoruk, or
> Mr. Kylynych, about possible plans for the restoration of the Jewish
> cemetery. In the event, neither Mr. Fedoruk, nor Mr. Kylynych were in
> town,
> during the time I was there.
>
> On Tuesday, April 21st the ceremonies for the unveiling of the plaque
> started at 10:00 AM in the morning in the council chamber of city hall
> presided over by the vice-mayor of the city. About 15 - 20 people were
> present. The vice mayor, some council members, including Lev Kleyman, the
> former chairperson of the Jewish community. Dr. Bursuk, Sasha and I,
> Florentin Lehaci, his wife and daughter, the Romanian consul to
> Chernivtsi,
> the head of the Romanian cultural association in Chernivtsi,
> Prof. G. Jernovei, who teaches Romanian at the university and possibly
> others whom I do not remember. The vice-mayor of the city spoke about the
> long multi=ethnic history of the city and the fact that it is still
> multi-ethnic today. The Romanian consul thanked the city, the Jewish
> community and me for putting up the plaque to Train Popovivi. I thanked
> the
> city council for allowing me to have the plaque put up and said that I was
> glad that the courageous, generous and decent deeds of Traian Popovivi
> would
> now be remembered in the city in which he performed these deeds. I also
> said
> that I was particularly honored and glad to be sitting in the council
> chamber of the city, because about 80 years earlier, my maternal
> grandfather
> had been a member of the city council and had sat in the same chamber.
>
> The speeches were given variously in Ukrainian, Romanian and English and
> then translated by either Dr. Bursuk or Prof. Jernovei into the other two
> languages.
>
> We were then invited to the Romanian cultural association center for a
> lavish reception and an exhibition of paintings by Teodora Liscu, a
> painter
> from Sibiu Romania. I had a chance to speak to Florentin Lehaci and convey
> to him my appreciation for what he is doing in Fundu Moldovei. Many
> members
> of the Association Traian Popovici, came to Chernivtsi for this occasion.
> I was also interviewed for Romanian television in Iasi.
>
> Then there was a reception at Hesed Shushana, Jewish dishes were served,
> we
> had a tour of the building and the guests were told about all the
> endeavors
> of Hesed Shushana.
>
> At 3:00 PM the actual unveiling took place at #6 Zankovet'ka.
> The ceremony was filmed by Ukrainian television, Romanian television from
> Iasi, Stuart, the nephew of Ilana Gordon and possibly others .
> A reasonable large number of people were present. Of course my friends in
> Chernivtsi, Zoya Danilovich, Luda Alleyeva, Segei Kulipanov, Natasha
> Sevchenko and members of this list; Ilana Gordon, her husband, her sister
> and nephew and of course Sasha. Daphna Yizrael from Journey into Jewish
> Heritage together with two architects from Israel, who will be
> participating
> in the study group planned for this summer were also there.
> I am sorry, I do not remember the content of the speeches given by others.
> I was concentrating hard on what I should say, so as not to repeat what
> had
> been said by those who spoke before me. I said that in 1941 I was 4 years
> old, but that even then I knew who Traian Popovici was and realized how
> grateful my parents and their friends were to this extraordinary man.
>
> Later that afternoon, Prof. Jernovei and his wife took us on a tour of the
> university - the former residence of the Metropolitan and then to their
> house in the country for Schmettentorte and coffee.
>
> The day was a beautiful day, perfectly blue sky, just the right
> temperature
> and CZERNOWITZ IS BEAUTIFUL. It is now all painted in pastel colors, not
> solemn and sedate beige/grey as I remember it from my childhood. It
> reminds
> me of pictures from a children's fairy tale book. Actually of one, I had
> in my childhood in Czernowitz and I like it. On most buildings, the
> architectural details have been restored and I looked and marveled at the
> variety of architectural styles and how harmoniously they blended with
> each
> other.
>
> It was a good day and a good visit, I wish many more of you had been
> there.
>
> Mimi

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Received on 2009-05-07 05:01:09