Re: [Cz-L] Jewish roots in Czernowitz

Dear Czernowitzer,
Hereby a few short, additional, comments:
1) Manfred Reifer
Sellective reading of his article, gives of course, a somewhat different
picture. I suggest that reading even the first 3-4 pages of this article
which relate to the subject of Bukowina and Czernowitz ( Cecina- Dr.
Reifer's annotetion) would give a less simplified explanation and hopefully
a broader understanding.
2) Sephardic Jews in Lvov and Poland
This subject has somehow been "forgotten"
That a minority is assimilated by an other minority is nothing unique, with
passing of time memories fade away.
That some have tried to present simplified suggestions about realities of
times past to a silent majority is not unique either. Envy and fear and
ignorance have probably been contributing factors . This happened in many
parts of the world.
3) Kazar kingdom
It is interesting that their existence is remembered by the old "funny"
stories only. I am not entirely surprised. This was also the reason why I
refreined from mentioning the original Kazar family names still in use in
their original spelling.
No comments have appeared as to the fact that the Kingdom of the Kazars
occupied , more than 1000 years ago, an area of 1.5 mill. sq.km, almost
three times the size of today's France (around 551.000 sq.km), was one of
the
larger kingdoms of that time and had a huge impact from the socio-political
as well as from the ethnological point of view on the area and its
surroundings, both under the period before and after the majority of its
population converted to Judaism. No comments have been made about their
extensive contacts with the Sephardic communities in Spain and the Sephardic
admiration for the existence of this Jewish Kingdom.

Remembering and describing the milk shop on the street corner in Czernowitz
of yesterday gives us a picture of our immediate past , a very important
part of our still tangible history. Remembering and learning about the
people who lived in the area many hundreds of years ago gives us all a
deeper understanding of our own lives of today. Without these ancestors we
would not be here and now.
With best wishes of health, joy and a bit more enlightenment in the coming
future ,
Wolf A. Terner

----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Taylor" <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
To: "W.A. Terner" <w.a.t-r_at_athenaeum.se>; <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2010 4:58 AM
Subject: Re: Jewish roots in Czernowitz

> Manfred Reifer writes mostly about the presence of Jews in Moldavia, not
> in
> the Bucovina and not in Czernowitz. Where he mentions that Jews were
> present
> in Czernowitz and vicinity before 1500, it is conjecture and he does not
> mention any documented evidence. Anyhow, even if there were Jews settled
> in
> Czernowitz and vicinity, they would mostly have been killed during the
> Chmielnitzki revolt.
>
> I quote from the article as translated by Silverbush:
>> The oldest source we have available to us and which points to the
>> existence of
>> Jewish settlements in Bukovina originates from the year 1684.
> Manfred Reifer does quote documents which substantiate the presence of
> Jews
> in the southern Bucovina in the first half of the 18th century. About the
> earliest document proving a Jewish presence in Czernowitz, he writes:
>> A document from 1751 concerns the complaint of the Jews of Czernowitz
>> against
>> the Prince Racovita because of the salt tax unjustly imposed on them. The
>> Jews
>> brought into evidence old privileges granted them in princely letters.
> This indicates that there were Jews living in Czernowitz some time earlier
> than 1751, but we do not know since when, where they came from and how
> many
> of them there were.
> Manfred Reifer cites other documents which indicate a Jewish presence in
> Czernowitz, between 1751 and 1775, but concludes:
>> The old Czernowitz Jewish cemetery has wonderfully ornamented grave
>> stones
>> which for the most part originated from the period when Bukovina was
>> occupied
>> by Austria. If one wants to use these stones as a guide to the history of
>> the
>> Jews in Bukovina, one must place the settling of the Jews in Czernowitz
>> in the
>> middle of the 18th century.
>
> Mimi
>

-snip-
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Received on 2010-09-16 05:54:29