[Cz-L] Bessere Menschen

Not so!
Only two layers?
Czernowitzer Jews came in as many layers as the Blätterteig in a good
Cremeschnitt. And these layers were just as fragile, but together made a
wonderful cake.
Class distinction in Czernowitz was not set in stone. In the same family
there were likely to be people who belonged to different classes and it was
possible to move from one class to another. The father may have been
a pauper, who could barely sign his name in German, but one son
became a physician, the other a successful businessman and the nephew
earned a PhD. And was elected to the Romanian parliament.

The distinction between German speakers and Yiddish speakers, was not very
sharp. Old people and those from the villages spoke Yiddish and younger
people who had grown up in Czernowitz, spoke German, but the old and
the young did speak to each other and they did so mostly in Yiddish.
Reading Yiddish literature became just as much a matter of pride as reading
German literature.

We were snobs, but at the same time we made fun of ourselves.

Mimi

>>
  The "Bessere Menschen "the better people , so called sarcastically by the
rest.
  The rest - the Schleppers. Not so well- to- do.
   The Bessere Menschen were rich, well educated , assimilated , conceited.
    Speaking good German, avoiding Yiddish, avoiding Schleppers.
      Well dressed , well fed, the cream of society.
      Uptown people.
     English lessons , piano lessons, beauty parlors , Schmettentorte,
magnificent
marble headstones .
      They despised the Schleppers , avoided them if possible.
      They were the top.
    The Schleppers were poor.

       All the Bessere Menschen were Schleppers initially.
     But this was time ago and better not mentioned.
Hardy

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Received on 2011-05-30 17:27:20