Re: [Cz-L] Should Jews live in Czernowitz?

From: Miriam Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:46:36 -0500
To: Charles Polak <charles.polak_at_bbc.co.uk>
Reply-To: Miriam Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>

Like Charles, I have met in Chernivtsi very nice people, some of them
well educated and others, simple folk, who I am sure are not Anti-
Semites
and who would not object to returning property which be longed to Jews,
to the former owners or their descendants.
Currently the Ukraine does not have a law which requires the properties
to be returned. Josif Zissels, the founder of the Jewish museum in
Chernivtsi,
has for a long time fought for such a law to be passed, but so far
has not been successful.

Mimi

On Jan 22, 2013, at 9:44 AM, Charles Polak wrote:

>
> Ilana: I don't know!
>
> I've been to Ukraine only once, for 10 days in Kiev, to install
> computers=
> . I really liked the Ukrainian journalists and engineers I got to
> know ther=
> e, and the people I met seemed to be rather like the Czechs were 20
> years a=
> go, anxious to get democracy established and become a just and open
> society=
> ; one very good thing I noticed was that people of the type I met
> considere=
> d antisemitism a shameful relic of the past.
>
> Assuming that Ukraine has a full-scale law of restitution =96 maybe
> it does=
> not, but I=92d think there=92s a good chance that it does =96
> you=92d have=
> to present your legal evidence to a local court. However, the
> Tymoshenko c=
> ase makes me fear that the judiciary is not very independent, and
> growth of=
> the Svoboda (=91Freedom=92) party, very like Jobbik in Hungary,
> exactly in=
> the West of Ukraine, makes me fear that if a case came to court
> involving =
> a claim by Jews for recovery of property in Chernivtsy in use by
> generation=
> s of non-Jewish Ukrainians, there wouldn=92t be a very good chance
> of its b=
> eing decided in the Jews=92 favour.
>
> Maybe this is pessimistic. You=92d have to talk to an international
> lawyer =
> with experience of Ukrainian legislation and legal procedure, or
> indeed a U=
> krainian lawyer =96 I=92m writing about something I really don=92t
> know eno=
> ugh about. However, I couldn=92t agree more with you and anyone
> else who wa=
> nts to make the attempt at recovery of what should still be theirs.
> If enou=
> gh people make it, perhaps a wider movement towards such recovery
> or restit=
> ution will gain the advantage of =91momentum=92.
>
> Charles Polak
> mailto:charles.polak_at_bbc.co.uk
>
> From: Ilana Gordon [mailto:ilana_at_wordwizardsinc.com]
> Sent: 21 January 2013 20:26
> To: Charles Polak
> Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Should Jews live in Czernowitz?
>

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
 Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
 in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
 the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
 or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
 an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
 searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. As a result,
 Messages sent to the list are available to the general public within days
 of posting.

Please post in "Plain Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).

To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at:

<http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/elist/howto/user/leave.cfm>

To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
<owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2013-01-22 10:06:29

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : 2013-04-01 20:39:56 PDT