Re: [Cz-L] Czernowitz Jewish diversity - 2

I was shocked when I read Sacheverell Sitwell's book "Travels in Romania"
back in 1990, among other books I was reading in preparation for my first
trip to Cz - he goes on to tell of the alarming rate at which the Jewish
population was multiplying, and that a "drastic solution" would have to be
found to keep this this swarm at bay (I'm paraphrasing) - - aside from the
Jews he loved everything about Romania

On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 8:14 PM, iosif vaisman <iosif.vaisman_at_gmail.com>wro=
te:

> To pour a little bit of oil on the fire of conflicting narratives of
> Czernowitz's Jewish past, I'll use another extended quotation. 100
> years after the Church of Scotland mission, in 1937, another Brit paid
> a visit to Czernowitz. Sir Sacheverell Sitwell was a poet, an esthete,
> and a rabid anti-semite (in his obituary New York Times decided that
> only the first two of these three characteristics were fit to print -
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/03/obituaries/sir-sacheverell-sitwell-dies=
-at-90-last-of-trio-of-literary-eccentrics.html
> ).
> Sitwell's writings on the "Jewish question" and its solutions would
> make many Nazis pale in comparison. Here is what he saw in Czernowitz:
>
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> Czernowitz has improved, at least, by becoming Cern=C4=83u=C5=A3i. It sou=
nds
> more euphonious. But what an unlikely town it is, with its inevitable
> one hundred thousand inhabitants! There is not a shop that has not a
> Jewish name painted above its windows. The entire commerce of the
> place is in the hands of the Jews. Yiddish is spoken, here, more than
> German; as for Roumanian, it is almost a foreign language. Cern=C4=83u=C5=
=A3i
> has all the contradictions that this state of affairs might
> presuppose. During the week days, business is carried on at the pace
> of the New York Stock Exchange at the height of one of its more
> dangerous booms. The market square, meanwhile, is thronged with
> peasants in picturesque costumes. A sudden lull falls on Saturday
> which is the Jewish Sabbath; on Sunday, the noise of commerce is more
> loud than ever, while the peasants, in their Sunday clothes, look on
> passively at the spectacle of the Jewish Monday morning. The benefit
> of this Jewish hegemony is a noticeable quickness of brains. Shopping
> takes up a tenth of the time that it consumes in other towns. And any
> foreigner who has the good fortune to be mistaken for an American can
> depend upon a rapturous welcome, for the U.S.A. is the land of
> opportunity where everybody has a brother or cousin who has made
> money.
>
> It is not possible to say that Cern=C4=83u=C5=A3i is a beautiful town. It=
 has an
> Armenian church, and synagogues in the style of those off Bayswater
> Road. The Jewish almshouses are not a pretty sight and the hospital
> wards, male and female, present the appearance of a Walpurgisnacht. In
> particular, the olfactory nerves are subjected to a strain from which
> it takes some considerable time to recover. The refectory, also, is a
> scene, or experience, that is painful in the memory. Unfortunately
> there is nothing, in Cern=C4=83u=C5=A3i, to take one's mind off the horro=
rs of
> these adventures in the macabre. And yet, all the same, Cern=C4=83u=C5=A3=
i has
> its qualities. The women are so well dressed. Often, the small
> children are beautiful. It is essential, in thinking of Cern=C4=83u=C5=A3=
i, to
> stress that anachronism between these sophisticated richer Jews and
> those peasants, of the age of Brueghel, who elbow them upon the same
> pavement. The effect is as though a portion of the Mile End Road had
> been taken up and transferred, with its inhabitants, to the Bucovina.
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>
> Actually, in the next paragraph Sitwell did find the only redeeming
> feature of Czernowitz Jews - their theater talents, according to him,
> the best in Europe. But that's another story.
>
> Source: Sacheverell Sitwell, Roumanian journey (London: B. T. Batsford,
> 1938).
>
> Iosif
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Received on 2012-12-13 09:19:37