Fw: [Cz-L] austrian or romanian

Apropo Austrian Jews or JewishAustrian

I remember my father Mendel Weisinger telling about his time where he served as a ranking man in the Austrian Army during the I st world war on the Italian front. In the areas of Fucino, Mezzolombardi and in the Dolomite Mountaines. I was fascinated listening to his stories in the Austrian army. He also had some medals.
He never mentioned any persecution or bad treatment because he was a Jew.

Even though Austria was a staunch Catholic country with it s share of anti semitism. It had also been more enlightened than other countries in Europe. Josef II son of Maria Teresa was one of the few emancipist of the Jews in the Austrian empire. Under his reign Jews were free to conduct their affairs, own land participate in education and many other matters. Carinthia, Burgeland in Austria as well as in the Bukovina Jews could own or lease and work landholdings up to the Roumanian period when when changes and attitudes begun.My grandparents owned land in Pohorlauti and some family in Ocna. They were also active in the Municipal matters in Zastawna. On my mothers side the Brenders of Sadagura were well known for dealing in agricultural products. Jews felt free from the usual opressivenes of the sourounding countries. These were the underlaying factors that allowed Bukoviner Jews to flourish as traders, businessman and professionals it also allowed
 the development of a unique cultural diversity that spread out into the rest of the world. There was no small feat to be known as the Pettit Vienne. Look at the buildings and the set up. Kobylianski Theatre loks like a copy of the opera theatre in Zurich. The language was predominantely German in the Austrian direction yet Yidish flourished alongside in literature, theatre, and ordinary speach in a complimentary form. I do also consider that the rest of the population participated in this uplifting state. I know of Ukrainean, Ruthenians, Poles and others who did also aquire the mutlticultural, multilingual and general social intercourse and benefit by the fact they lived in the Bukovina. Alas,a catastrophe came up on the horison to wipe it all out.

                                Fred Weisinger   

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: cornel fleming <cornel.fleming_at_virgin.net>
To: Paul Heger <pheger_at_gmail.com>; Czernowitz-L <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Fri, 12 March, 2010 3:50:43 AM
Subject: RE: [Cz-L] austrian or romanian

Hi Paul....I can only speak for my extended family and friends,but they
certainly regarded themselves as Austrian. And unlike Jews in the Russian
lands who dreaded having to be in the military,in Czernowitz there were
large numbers of Jewish volunteers in the 41st Infantry based there, well
before WW1...see pics of my family on our site. I also have a book on the
history of the regiment from 1888 to 1905 and the names of many of the
officers etc are very Jewish...and there are photos of nationalities in the
regt. And one shows a very large group of Jews! Very different to the later
Romanian time. As one of our list members called it..it was a benevolent
Empire as far as the Czernowitz Jews were concerned.  Cornel

-----

-snip-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
 Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
 in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
 the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
 or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
 an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
 searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Please post in "Plain
 Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).

To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/elist/lyris/leave.html

To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2010-03-12 07:45:47