Re: [Cz-L] My Family -- help

In my opinion the city of Czernowitz/Chernivtsi has NOT followed
a path of steady cultural and social decline.
During the Romanian period, between the two world wars, despite
the decline in government services, the bad management of the Romanian
economy and the increase in anti Semitic ordinances, the city
certainly thrived
from the cultural point of view. Hedwig has already mentioned the many
Czernowitzers who got their education at the time and rose to
prominence then,
or shortly after the war.
Socially there also was progress in those years; many of the children
of the very poor managed to get a good education and rise to the
middle class.

Needless to say that the war years were terrible. Even though I know
very little
about the Soviet period, I am sure that life under Communism did not
encourage
creativity or originality, but I think that in Czernowitz there still
was an atmosphere
which encouraged learning and study. There must have still been some
reverence
for good architecture and city planning, because the typical Soviet
style buildings
which were built as the population grew, were built on the outskirts
of the city
and left the old center neglected, but not destroyed.

Currently and for the last ten years there have been many attempts to
restore
the older buildings in the center of town, the schools seem to be
reasonably good
and there are attempts, such as the poetry festival, to recreate the
old atmosphere
of culture and creativity.

When it comes to food, there most certainly is nothing to complain
about.
There are many very good, elegant and pleasant restaurants, whether
one eats a lot
or more modestly.

In my limited contact with the civil authorities, I find people
polite, knowledgeable
and no more arbitrary or officious than civil authorities in the US
or Israel.

Mimi

On Apr 8, 2013, at 8:58 AM, Jacob Greenberg wrote:

> Hi Marsha,
>
> I grew up in Czernovtsy during the Soviet times. The city is
> remarkably beautiful and poetic, a fine example of Austro-Hungarian
> architecture. I visited it in 2006 and felt that it's became
> somewhat dormant and even more provincial since the Jews left and
> its population changed. The city has been following a path of a
> steady cultural and social decline since WWI when Austo-Hungarian
> Empire ceased to exist.
>
> My father was born in Bukovina, my mother was born in Bessarabia
> (that's apparently where your grandfather was from). I was brought
> up by a grandmother who was born in Romania but married a man from
> Bukovina.I also had uncles and aunts from a similar mixed background.
>
> There was a significant cultural difference between the 2 areas.
> People born in Bukovina spoke German and had European upbringing
> and education while Bessarabians where gregarious, loud people who
> spoke Yiddish and Romanian (the older Generation also spoke Russian).
> Bukoviners ate small meals in moderation while Bessarabians were
> more likely to invite people to their Romanian-style feasts. This
> is, of course, a generalisation but I am trying to convey my
> individual impressions. There will be List members who may disagree
> with my opinion.
>
> Both sides of my family were reasonably wealthy and educated
> before the war but the difference was still noticeable well into
> the Soviet times. "Bukoviners" looked down at Bessarabians but,
> eventually, the Bukovina-born people in my family started to speak
> Yiddish too and were somewhat overtaken by the optimism and
> vitalisty of the Bessarabian Jews who became a majority in
> Chernovtsy until the great exodus of 1970-1990s when most Jews left
> the city for good.
>
> Serah Kraft
>

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Received on 2013-04-08 14:19:16