Re: [Cz-L] Generalizing about the Cz Jewish Experience

New winds are blowing on the Cz-L.
More and more I like what I read.
Hardy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Edgar Hauster" <bconcept_at_hotmail.com>
To: <czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu>
Cc: "Jessica Falikmann Attiyeh" <rea_at_ucsd.edu>; <grs_software_at_bigpond.com>;
"Iris June Steinhauser Vinegar" <irisjune11_at_aol.com>; "Miriam Taylor"
<mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>; "Paul Heger" <pheger_at_gmail.com>; "Yosef Eshet"
<eshet1_at_netvision.net.il>; "Hardy Breier" <hardy3_at_bezeqint.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2012 5:02 PM
Subject: RE: [Cz-L] Generalizing about the Cz Jewish Experience

Dear all...

I'd like to add my two cents to this still very interesting thread by
sharing with you an excerpt from my father's memories, edited by him on
20.08.1986, one day before his 74th birthday (sorry for the perhaps a bit
bumpy translation from German to English):

"During my adolescent years in the "golden" Twenties in Czernowitz, the
approaching Second World War loomed ahead, but almost nobody took it
seriously, at least not within our so called higher class. Czernowitz, a
city with a population of about 120,000 at that time, distinctly presented
the leftover of the lost Habsburg Empire. Since 1918 Czernowitz was part of
Romania, the population being a conglomerate of Jews, Germans, Ukrainians,
Poles and Romanians, who learned to rub along together. The Jewish community
was divided. Our poorer but perhaps more numerous fellow believers lived in
the Jewish qaurter. Jüdische Gasse streamed out the picturesque but
unhygienic atmosphere of a Polish or Russian "Shtetl". Many Orthodox Jews
lived there, wearing "Pejes" (sidelocks) and "Stramel" (Shtrayml, caps edged
with fur), black caftans and boot like shoes, as captured by Roman
Vishniac's wonderful photos and as one can view in the Antwerp central
station area even today. Their language was Yiddish, a kind of Bessarabian
rather than a Polish Yiddish. Czernowitz is a city, erected on a hill, the
Pruth passes through the valley, the so called orthodox, religious and poor
Jews lived mostly in the lower neighbouhoods, where the suburbs were located
too. We, i. e. "the emancipated" and wealthier Jews resided in the upper
districts...."

Does this sound snobbish? No, I don't think so; for me it's rather
down-to-earth. However, my father made no secret of an virulent snobbism
typical for Czernowitz. Is that really a Czernowitzer specialty? I'm not
sure about that, although I'm afraid that in every rumour there is a little
bit of truth.

Warmest - and egalitarian - wishes from the Netherlands!

Edgar Hauster
Lent - The Netherlands

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Received on 2012-12-12 09:34:53