Czernowiters....
On the home page (http://czernowitz.ehpes.com) right now, is a real
example of what was... a 1929 picture from Paul Pessach Heger of a
family seder. This and two other photos have bee inserted in the Album
of Pre 1945 Czernowitz Photos -> Photos from List Members (not 'of', but
'from'). They are photos 36/37/38. in the Album.
It is from these photos and stories from list members that I have
manufactured my Czernowitz. I think of myself as a second generation
Czernowitzer -- my GF was married there in 1901; my father was born
there in 1903. By 1908 most of the family was in NYC. My father knew and
remembered nothing of, and thus transmitted nothing to me about
Czernowitz. His father lived and worked in Czernowitz for probably 20
years and also transmitted nothing of that life to me. My GGF is safely
under the brush in the cemetery. He was a rope maker (a Seiler). His
stone says his father was a Rabbi. Of these things I am reasonably
certain.
But, as Hardy pointed out, many of us construct a mental Czernowitz, an
alternate reality, appropriating those stories and events which seem
likely to have occurred, or that we wish had happened, without much care
as to whether it did or did not unfold quite that way.
I am happy with my Czernowitz -- it has Jewish shop keepers, lawyers,
doctors, professors, tradesmen, students, bankers, labourers, merchants,
thieves, writers, painters, poets, musicians and prostitutes in it.
There are still horse drawn vehicles plying the streets; The Temple is
full every Shabbos. I can hear the sounds of children playing and old
men praying. I can smell the latkes cooking and Yiddish is everywhere --
so vivid have been the histories, stories and photos that you have
presented on the List and on the Website. And for all this, I thank
you!
For me it is not a longing to return to the days of childhood, but
rather to construct for the first time, the stories that no-one bothered
to tell me.
We trundle on...
jerome
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Received on 2011-01-06 16:25:06
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : 2011-05-06 20:08:10 PDT