Re: [Cz-L] Curacao

For those seeking connections to Jews from Czernowitz and the surrounding
area, "A Shtetl Under the Sun" may be a worthwhile resource, and perhaps
Jeannette could post a copy of the book's index to help those who are
seeking relatives.

For example, the Sterental Hermanos (brothers) store La Fama was located
between the Wiznitzer Brothers' La Confianza (whose employees over the years
included Jaime (Haim) Kisilevich and Salo Wachtel) and Jose (Joske)
Faerman's The New Store on de Ruyterkade. Also nearby was Casa Brandes.
After her husband's death, an invitation to dine at Mary's home continued to
hold the promise of a great meal, but she supported herself catering baked
goods for the community and helping to manage Louis Metsch's drugstore,
Botica del Pueblo, which was a short ways down the same road, across from
the famous floating market.

Louis' botica was next to Casa Marco, owned by Marco Keis (Cheis). His
ex-wife Janina (nee Katz) de Marchena still owns Casa Janina behind Casa
Marco on the parallel street, Madursostraat. Madurostraat is also the
street on which Willie Weisinger once owned a jewelry store, and diagonally
across the corner from him was Herman Gartner's La Aurora (where Yojne
Zitser worked). About a block away was the toy store of Mozes (Mishka) and
Fanny (Fanja, nee Becher) Gandelman, but this was long before the growth of
their subsequently successful Caribbean chain of Gandelman jewelry stores.
Closer to Casa Janina was Ackerman's textile store and the Curacao retail
outlet of the Panama-based wholesalers, Peicher & Kardonski (run by Saul
Ghitman and Zacarias Lacs). Across the street from Janina are Casa Moderna,
started by Zalman and Manja (nee Faerman) Josub, and Casa Bernardo, started
by Bernardo and Tonja (Janina's cousin, nee Altneu) Metsch. My father first
noticed my mother at Bernardo and Tonja's engagement party; and their son
Louis is the person who later employed Mary Sterental.

I mention all this to highlight the names of some of the many Bukovina,
Galicia and other Jewish immigrants, and their role in the commercial life
in Curacao in the last century. Between these stores I mentioned were many
other businesses owned by Ashkenazi Jews, and they similarly peppered many
other parts of the city'. For example, tourists frequented stores owned by
Groisman, Teitelbaum, Fruchter, and the famous Spritzer and Fuhrman. Across
the harbor channel were businesses owned by the Seibalds, Kisilevich, Linder
and Tauber brothers. The list of course is longer, but this gives you a good
feel what some Czernowitz ancestors did after they left the old world.

On Tue, Sep 6, 2011 at 6:16 AM, E. & G. Weissmann <EGWeissmann_at_gmx.net>
wrote:
>
> Great to read about Curacao, the island I visited three times, where my
aunt, Mary Sterental lived for about 40 years.She had met her husband
> Bernard in Israel where they married and then came to Curacao. Bernard had
emigrated with his brothers from Bessarabia in the 1920s her was already
almost a native and had set up a good "schmatte" business, importing goods
from Japan and China.
> We met almost all the people Mark Wiznitzer lists, the Fuhrmanns, the
Faermans, the Weisingers and many others whose name I don't remember. They
were warm people, very welcoming and friendly. When someone visited Curacao,
my aunt, who was a great cook and who had a big house, always gave a party.
So when we came there she threw a party for about 80 persons. And we were
amazed to hear even children speaking not only Dutch, English and Spanish,
but also perfect Jiddish. And the guests brought lovely presents mostly for
us, not only for the hostess, which was something rather unusual. We got
along very well, it was a society with whom you felt immediately familiar,
being from Bukowina, Galicia, Bessarabia, as Ms. van Ditzhuijzen rightly
recounts. An then, of course, they all invited us back, it was like visiting
Israel...
> Gabriele
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Received on 2011-09-07 05:20:13