[Cz-L] Czernowitz Jewish diversity

On September 28, 1839 a mission of inquiry to the Jews from the Church
of Scotland arrived to Czernowitz. The ultimate goal of the mission
was, of course, to share certain very important truths with the Jews,
but on the way the missionaries recorded their observations and a
couple of years later published a very interesting travelogue. Here is
their snapshot of the Jewish life in Czernowitz 170 years ago:

=========
Czernowitz is a pleasant town, with streets wide, well aired, and
clean. The houses are generally two or three stories high, and there
are barracks and other public buildings. Most of the names over the
shops were Polish. The market-place is a wide square, having one side
lined with stalls or movable shops, like sentry-boxes; and, in the
middle, a large cross, with a statue of the Virgin sitting at the foot
of it, holding in her arms the dead body of the Saviour, her head
adorned with twelve stars, and two angels at her side. A broad street
leads from the market-place, down a steep descent, from the top of
which is seen the river Pruth winding through the plain below, with a
village on the opposite side of the bank, called Satagora, in which
many Jews reside. In this street again there is a figure of the
Saviour on the Cross, and the Virgin standing beneath it, with a sword
piercing her heart, in reference to Luke ii. 35. The situation of the
town is fine and salubrious, on the top of a considerable elevation,
looking down on the neighbouring river, and surrounded with fertile
plains on all sides.

There are 3000 Jews here, with eight synagogues, only three of which
are large. These three we visited, being all under the roof of one
large edifice. The congregation were engaged in worship when we
entered, but “seemed to have little feeling of devotion, for a group
soon gathered round each of us at different parts of the synagogue. On
saying to those around us, “We have been at Jerusalem,” they were
immediately interested, and asked, “Are the Jews there like the Jews
here?” We said, “They were, but all could speak Hebrew. “

They said, “None here can speak Hebrew except the rabbi.” “Do you
expect ever to return to your own land”?” “We hope for that every
day.” We said, “We Christians are looking for the second coming of the
Messiah every day.” They replied, “What Messiah? Is it Messiah
Ben-Joseph? This led us to tell of the only Saviour, “who is exalted
to give repentance unto Israel, and remission of sins.” We told them
how Christians in our land loved the Jews. Their reply was, “Here they
do not love the Jews.” This took place in the largest synagogue. In
the other two, which belonged to the Chasidim, the worshippers were
much more intent upon their prayers, and more loud and vehement in
their cries. When we were leaving, one of them came after us to ask,
“How much of the temple-wall at Jerusalem was still standing, how high
and how broad it was?” The same Jew asked, if we had seen Hebron, and
if the cave of Machpelah was known?

The Jews here are very ignorant. Their young people are not taught to
understand the Hebrew, but only to read it; though many send their
children to the public academies where Latin and German are taught.
Some have given up their belief in the Talmud; and many are so
careless that they come to the synagogue only on the Day of Atonement.
The Jew who acted as our guide through the town (for we purposely
employed a Jew on all such occasions), said, that he believed the Old
Testament Scriptures, but did not believe in a Messiah at all. The
truth is, that many of them are so entirely ignorant of Scripture,
that they fancy the doctrine of a Messiah to be one of the traditions
of their rabbis, and not a promise of Moses and the prophets. The
sight of Israel in this region cannot fail to sadden the heart of
those that love them. “Behold, they say. Our bones are dried, our hope
is lost.”
=========

The last paragraph can be reprinted with only minor changes on the
op-ed pages of virtually any today's Jewish newspaper. Czernowitz, as
usually, was well ahead of the curve.

Scan of the pages:
http://oldczernowitz.blogspot.com/2012/12/czernowitz-jews-1839.html

Iosif

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Received on 2012-12-11 17:38:16