RE: [Cz-L] Jewish roots in Czernowitz

A propos Sephardic Jews.
I happen to have a "Sephardic" wife, born in Krakow. My wife's maiden family
name was Horowitz.
After many years of research done by Horowitz'es and Gorowitz'es as well as
Hurwitz'es and Gurwitz, Gurevitcz, it turned out that the ancestors of all
of then, including "Ish Halevy Horowitz", came to Czechoslovakia from Girona
(Gerona, not far away from Barcelona). While on their way eastwards after
the 1497 expulsion from Spain they decided to stop at a village called
Horwice. They were very rich people and decided to buy the whole place and
to settle there. Later on, when at the order of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, everybody was supposed to adopt a "Family name" the decision was
taken to register as Horowitz, Hurwitz, etc.
Some eight or ten years ago, an international conference was organized at
the Tel Aviv University by members of the Horowitz clan dispersed since then
all over the world and researchers. A series of documents and research
papers were presented and it was accepted that all of them are of Sephardic
origin. I think there is also a website of the International Association of
thye Horowitz and Ish Halevy Horowitz descendants. I hope I'll find it and
provided it those interested.
Regards, Abraham K.

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-6298769-3499314_at_list.cornell.edu
[mailto:bounce-6298769-3499314_at_list.cornell.edu] On Behalf Of alexander
rosner
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 12:24 PM
To: W.A. Terner; Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu
Subject: AW: [Cz-L] Jewish roots in Czernowitz

[This email is a corrected copy of one just sent. Moderator Bruce]

Dear Wolf,

I can conform the existence of Sephardic Jews in the Bukowina,
however as a tiny minority. This I learned from my Father.
On the other side some Ashkenazi Jews have also Sephardic ancestors.
I know a family which was living in Russia and Kazakhstan a few decades,
before
it in the Ukraine.

They told be that they can trace back their ancestors trough Poland to a
certain

town

in Germany and that one of their ancestors came to this town from Spain.

As for the Chazars: there are records of Jewish families in Eastern Europe
which

were speaking a Turkish language.I read once the history of Jews in the
Lithuanian village of Eyshishok, which is well documented.
They believe that the first Jewish settlers in the village came from
Babylonia
through Crimea in the 11th century. Later Jews from the West start flocking
into
the village.
While the main language was Yiddish (in the centuries after) there have been
few families which spoke Turkish.A part of the Jewish population were
Karaites.
Most of the Turkish speaking people were Karaites (as far as I remember, as
I
read it about 10 years ago).
I suppose the use of a Turkish language (well into the XIX century) is a
sign of
either Jewish
presence in Turkish speaking countries in centuries before or it is a sign
of
Chazar origin.

I didn't know about it from Bukowina, although Jews from pre-Austrian period
who
lived in small numbers in
the Bukowina most probably were able to speak Turkish (Principality of
Moldova
under Turkish rule).

Whether it was their native language I don't know. They most probably were
Sephardic Jews

who came fom the Ottoman Empire to the Bukowina, I suppose, and therefore
spoke
Ladino.

I believe that the overwhelming majority of Ashkenazim originated in Germany
and
moved east

in the late Middle Ages, and maybe got some Sephardic and Chazar admixture.

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Received on 2010-09-14 09:45:39