Yefim,
You left Czernowitz more than 30 years ago.
65 years ago, I too was called by a child living close to where I lived,
"Parsheve Zjid". I beat her up, even though I was younger than she. I have
a crying fit whenever I am reminded of the Yellow star we had to wear.
If you talk to most Europeans, you will find that everyone harbors
resentment against their neighbours. The Norwegians think that they were
taken advantage of by the Swedes. The English mistrust the French. The
Romanians resent the Hungarians and discriminate against the Poles.
The Scottish have not forgiven the English for killing Mary queen of Scotts.
In view of the Jewish recent history, I understand and share our general
fear and mistrust, but I also react to people as I find them. I do not look
at facts through rosy glasses, but also not through grey - yellow green
ones.
I can only judge people by my experiences with them.
Both in Czernowitz as well as in a number of surrounding villages,
Ukrainians have invited me into their homes, when they knew that I was
Jewish, had come to visit the houses in which I, or my ancestors once lived
in, and treated me very decently. Not once have I experienced anything
hinting even vaguely at anti-Semitism.
I will be away from home for the next few days, therefore I ask that you
please do not send me any more mail about this topic, so that my mailbox
does not become overfilled.
Shabbat Shalom u-menucha,
Mimi
On 10/7/10 8:58 AM, "yefim.rabinovich_at_thomsonreuters.com"
<yefim.rabinovich_at_thomsonreuters.com> wrote:
> Miriam,
> You are very nice person, but your views are very mistaken and may be
> dangerous for Jewish people.
> I do not know what happened 65 years ago( I am only 62 years old), but I know
> what was going on from
> 1955 (went to school on Turkish street - not a Jewish school) till 1979 when
> we left Chernovtsy for
> America. There was no day when I had no a fight with Ukrainians, because they
> call me or my friends -
> Stinging Jew. I was tall and strong to fight back but most of Jewish boys and
> girls -could not.
> 100,000 of us would not leave the city, that we all loved, if not for
> Anti-Semitism in the everyday life.
> My wife was working in preventive dentistry in the school and small children
> refused to be servered by her
> because of her nationality and openly stated that. The principal of the school
> agreed with 12 year old boys.
> Manager of HR refused to accept my job application because I am one of the
> Moshe Dayan (Israel general)people,
> as he stated it straight in my face. One of the top manager(Ukrainian)
> expressed openly to the group of people,
> some of them Jewish that over his dead body he will hire Sharfsteins kind.
> Many years later when Soviet Union
> is gone and people in Chernovtsi had nothing to eat because of no jobs, this
> person emigrated to Israel.
> You were leaving in US, we were there.
> With all respect.
>
> Yefim Rabinovich
> NYC
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Received on 2010-10-07 15:31:13
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