Note:
When I was in grade 6 in 1982, we were assigned to do a “History and Geography”
research project on one of our grandparents. I chose to do mine about Romania,
based on what I knew about Zaida. When I brought my notes and books to his house
in Oakville during one visit, and told him all about my project and what I’d
learned about Romania, much to all of our shock, he began to tell his story. I
clearly remember him sitting in his big chair and starting to talk (maybe after
a few drinks), and then seeing my mom walk behind the doorway leading to the
kitchen and start quickly writing down some notes. After about five minutes,
Thelma walked into the living room from the front foyer, holding a small tape
recorder in her hand, and leaned up against the wall. Within a few seconds,
Zaida looked up and saw what she was doing and immediately stopped speaking.
That was only the second, and last time he ever told his (partial) story. Before
this, any information about Zaida had come from one conversation he had with
Adela back in the 1960s. Once again, his story was cut short when Thelma came
home, and he stopped talking. He later refused to elaborate on anything he had
mentioned, and didn’t speak of it again for almost twenty years. Unfortunately,
both sets of notes were misplaced, and the information on them became somewhat
legendary. Recently, my mom found the original notes, and I decided to type them
up to give each of the children a copy.
As it was my original project which brought this all about, I decided to do a
little more work. Based on the sketchy notes, I have done a lot of research and
added a few corrections, revisions and comments to my mom’s original notes to
give a better idea of what he was talking about. Most significantly, I found the
name and location of his town, which is important for putting his story into a
geographical and cultural context. For the sake of simplicity, I’ve called Zaida
“Max” throughout. This part of the story ends with his arrival in Oakville in
1912. This is the only authenticated story about Zaida. I hope everyone can add
any new material, so we can bring the entire story from 1912-1983 together for
posterity.
Warren Brown
March 2004
The story of Max Brown is mysterious and contradictory from the very start. His
date of birth was always known to be January 1, 1895, and this is also the date
written down in the 1982 notes. We can be sure that January 1 is simply a made
up date for someone who doesn’t know their date of birth. However, Adela insists
Max said he was born in 1893. If Max and Becky were married in 1922, and she was
sixteen at the time, and there was a thirteen year difference between them as
Max also claimed, then in fact he was most likely born in 1893.
What we do now know for sure, is that Max was born in the town of Oprischeny (as
it is written in German, or Oprişeni, in Romanian, and Опришени or Opryseny in
Ukrainian), in the region of Sereth (Siret), in the province of Bukovina, in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire (see map). Today, Bukovina is divided between Ukraine
and Romania, and the town of Oprischeny sits exactly on the modern border.
Although we have always been told he came from Romania, the town actually sits
today on the Ukrainian side of the border. However, at the time Max lived there,
the town was made up almost entirely of ethnic Romanians. Max, in fact never
lived in Romania. Bukovina was not taken over by Romania until WWI, a few years
after Max left. Amazingly, the town sat on the extreme eastern portion of the
Austrian Empire, only about 4 kilometers from the border (at that time) with
Romania. The Jews who lived on the other side of the border, in Romania or
Russia, were in a completely different world.
The name Oprischeny probably derives from opryszki, which means bandits, or in
Ukranian, fortified military bastion. Oprischeny is first mentioned in 1428 as
present from Bojer Brill to the Moldovita monastery. In 1774, 22 families lived
there. In 1869 243 houses with 1,300 people were registered. In 1890 1,602
people, mainly Romanian farmers, lived there. According to a 1930 census, the
town of Oprischeny is listed as having 1,801 people. Max recalled it as being a
town of about 2,000 people when he left in 1910. This further helped to verify
this was the right village. According to Max there were only five Jewish
families living in the town.
Alternate spellings of the village are: Opriszeny, Opriszeni, Oprischenj,
Opresan, Opreschen, Opreschany, Oprischany. In Ruthenian it is called Pancir.
Interestingly, the “Opr” in Oprischeny means oak tree according to one source,
but I have not be able to confirm this claim. There was an old story which now
may hold water, that Max moved to Oakville because that was the name of his
birthplace.
The nearest village to them, less than a mile away, was an entirely German
speaking one, probably a former Tartar colony, called Tereblecea. It too had a
few Jewish families. The closest town with any significant Jewish population was
the town of Terescheni (Taraseni), which was about 5 kilometers away. The town
probably had a few hundred Jews living there out of a population of 1,200. The
nearest town of any significance was Sereth (Siret), the regional market town,
which had a population of 7,800, of which 3,200 were Jews. The town of Sereth
was about 10 kilometers away. The capital, and only city in Bukovina, was
Czernowitz. The city had a population in 1910 of 85,000, of which about a third
were Jews. The town was only about 25 kilometers (16 miles) away. It is
interesting because although he lived in a tiny village (not even a shtetl),
with almost no Jews, the city of Czernowitz was only a few hours ride by horse
and buggy or train, and he we can only imagine the family went there on
occasion. At the time, Czernowitz was a very modern, progressive city, very
“Austrian” in its culture, architecture and fashion. Locals referred to it as
“Little Vienna” (see pictures). While Oprischeny and Czernowitz are today in the
Ukraine, Sereth is located in Romania.
Until 1775, what became Bukovina was part of the Ottoman Empire. From 1775 to
1918, Bukovina was the easternmost crown land of the Austrian Empire. Bukovina,
which means “Land of Beech Trees” was known for its forests, rivers and hills,
was bounded to the east by Moldavia (Romania) and Bessarabia (Russia), to the
south by Romania, to the west by Transylvania and Hungary, and to the north by
Galicia. It covered an area of around 10,000 km², which is about twice the size
of Prince Edward Island. In 1918 Bukovina was taken over by Romania, and after
1945, was divided between the USSR and Romania.
Unlike its neighbouring provinces, such as the Romanian provinces of Walachia
and Moldavia, and Russian Bessarabia, Bukovina developed in a very modern,
Western fashion. Bukovina (in the 19th century) never suffered from the extreme
oppression and anti-Semitism that the Romanian and Russian provinces had
suffered under. Once Bukovina (and Transylvania) came under Romania occupation,
they too were now subjected to these oppressive measures.
In 1900 the population of Bukovina was 40% Ruthenian (Ukrainian), 35 % Romanian,
13% were Jews, and the remainder was composed of Germans, Poles, Hungarians,
Russians and Armenians. The official language of the administration, of the
law-courts, and of instruction in schools was German. Religiously, about 70% of
the population belonged to the Greek Orthodox Church. The province was known for
its greatly mixed ethnic population, and how peacefully they coexisted.
The Jewish population of Bukovina expanded greatly from only 7,726 Jews out of a
total population of 371,000 (3%) in 1830. By 1880 there were 67,418 Jews in
Bukovina out of a total population of 571,000 (12%). By the time Max left in
1910, there were 102,900 Jews (13%) in Bukovina, the highest figure for any
Austrian crown land. The Jews of Bukovina were second in number only to the
Greek Orthodox religious community. In Czernowitz, the Jews comprised a third of
the population and were the largest religious group in the city.
This increase in Jewish population in Bukovina is attributed to the immigration
of Jews from Galicia, Russia (Basarabia), and Romania (Moldova). This was due to
the economic success of the Jewish community, their almost complete emancipation
and their high cultural level. In contrast to the first half of the 19th century
when there were great restrictions on where Jews could live, in the second half
of the century, the Jewish demographic was greatly changed with increased
freedom of movement.
Max said his father was born in Bukovina, but his family had originally come
from Russia. As Russia then (see 1900 map of Europe) was only a few kilometres
away from Oprischeny, it is entirely possible that his family originated very
close to the area, and moved across the border to Austria in the mid 1800s when
Jews were granted rights there. For example, a list of taxpayers in Gorodenka,
Ukraine in 1780 shows many men with the last name Zuckerman(n). Gorodenka is 30
miles north-west of Czernowitz, in Galicia, close to Russian Bessarabia.
Of the Jewish population of Austria, about 75% lived in Galicia, and about 5% in
Bukovina. In 1880, there were only 11 villages in Bukovina that had no Jewish
inhabitants. In the villages, Jewish farmers gradually disappeared as they took
up professions in the cities. There was only one Jewish village, Terescheny
(near Oprischeny), where there were 50 Jewish farm families.
Scattered throughout Bukovina there were Jewish landowners who worked farms of 1
to 2 acres. Bukovina was very rural and had only around a dozen towns with a
population over 1,000, and only six villages with over 1,000 Jews. Around 1880,
Czernowitz had 45, 000 people (15,000 Jews), (by 1910 this had increased to
30,000 Jews, and in 1940 to 43,000), Sereth had 7, 000 people (3, 000 Jews), and
Styrojenitz had 5,000 people (1,600 Jews). In 1948, (after WWII) there were
5,112 Jews in the Sereth region.
Because of the Jews, the region that was really Romanian and Ruthenian (Ukranian),
became “Germanized,” because they used German as well as Yiddish in their
everyday speech. The Jews also cooperated politically with the German speaking
government, who in these decades were still liberally oriented. There was a very
high level of assimilation among Bukovinian Jews, especially in the larger
towns.
Max’s family name was Zuckerman (though most likely spelled in the German form,
Zuckermann, with a double n. His Hebrew name was Mordechai, but his given name
was Markus (or Marcus), and this is what his family called him. Interestingly,
Markus seems to be a very common first name among Bukovenian Jews.
Markus (Mordechai) Zuckermann’s father’s name was Aaron Zuckerman, according to
Margo’s notes, but Avrum according to Adela. Avrum seems the right name, as
Max’s first son, Albert was named Avrum, after his grandfather. In fact, after
Max and Becky sat shiva for Albert, Max wanted his first grandson, Joel, to be
named Avrum in his place. The interesting part is that Max would only name his
son after his father if his father had died. As Albert was born in 1925(?), and
it seems Max was in contact with his family until at least 1930 if not later,
that he knew his father had died in the interim. This is not impossible, as he
could possibly have been killed during the First World War.
Avrum Zuckermann came from Bukovina (though Max didn’t specify where exactly),
but his family had come originally from Russia. He worked as an interpreter at
the courts, and he spoke many languages. Put into the context of the time and
place, it seems a very practical job. The languages he must have spoken were
Russian, Romanian, German, Yiddish, Polish and Hungarian. We also know Max spoke
many languages fluently. We can assume the courts were in the capital of
Czernowitz, to which Avrum may have traveled each day. Max stated his father was
also a farmer and liked riding horses.
After searching through Czernowitz school records, I found an Aron (Adolf)
Zuckermann, who graduated grade 8 (fourteen years old), in 1883 from the Ober-Gymnasiums
in Czernowitz. This means this Aron Zuckermann was born in 1869. This would make
him 26 when Max, second oldest child in the family, was born,. He is the only
person with that name listed as attending the school from 1850-1890. We know his
father was born in Bukovina, and most probably in the region where he lived in
Oprischeny, and near where his wife came from in Czernowitz. Could this be his
father or uncle?
Max’s mother’s name was Toba (Toby) Blum, and came from the capital city of
Czernowitz. Blum is a common name in Czernowitz, and if there are any relatives
around today, it would most likely come from the Blums of Czernowitz. There are
records of Blums in the local cemetery, school records, businesses as well as
immigration records. This also lends weight to the idea that Max would have
traveled regularly to the capital to visit family. Toba Blum came from a small
family that had originally come from Bucharest, today the capital of Romania.
Max was the second oldest child, among 11-12 brothers and sisters. When he left,
there were five boys and five girls, as some of his siblings had died. In 1895,
records show for every 1000 Jewish births, 27 children were born dead. The only
names of the siblings Max mentioned are a brother named Jossel (Yossel- from
Yosef), and the youngest two, Avram and Toba, who were twins. There is an
interesting discrepancy here, as Max told Adela his parents, not the twins, were
names Avram and Toba. This may account for Margo’s notes, as to why he calls his
mother and sister by the same name. Adela’s notes show the listing of all the
brothers and sisters in order of age. There are two more girls listed there,
Liddy and Shoshanna. Therefore Aaron most likely would have been the name of a
brother. Max told a story of how one day, someone came into the family store and
saw one of the twins, and said it was the most beautiful baby. The next day the
child died, from the “eyan ha-ra”. We all know how superstitious both Max and
Becky were, using red string as amulets to keep the “eyan ha-ra” away. Max’s
older brother had joined the Austrian army sometime before 1910.
A funny fact, that in 1895, out of every 1,000 Jewish births, 700 were
illegitimate. This can be attributed to the fact that Jewish ritual marriages
were not recognized by the state.
Other names in the online records are those of Moses and Golde Zuckermann who
lived in Kupka, and owned a restaurant in 1909. This is only two villages
directly west of Oprischeny. Could this be Max’s uncle?
There was a Feivel Zuckermann who attended grade 1 in 1909 in Sereth (ie. Born
1903). A new listing of the Jewish cemetery in Czernowitz shows several people
named Zuckermann.
There was a German documentary made in 1999 about a 90 year old woman born in
Czernowitz (in 1909) named Rosa Zuckermann, who survived both world wars, and
still lived in the town. The film is called Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann.
Whether or not they are related, it is interesting that when Markus Zuckermann
passed through Czernowitz in 1910, Rosa was there too. I obtained a copy of the
film through the Goethe Institute. From the film I learned her husband’s name
was Martin Zuckermann, and he had a sister named Rudolphine Zuckermann.
Max’s family had a family store in town that sold groceries, tobacco, wool, etc.
Max recalled someone in the store who once called Max a dirty Jew and his father
knocked the guy out. In general, all accounts show the Jews had great relations
with the other inhabitants of the villages and towns, at least until the
occupation of Bukovina by Romania. In fact, entirely Romanian or Ruthenian
communities often elected Jews as their mayors. The Jews of the region were very
prominent in politics, education, medicine, law and commerce.
The revolution year of 1848 led to the constitution of 1849 granting all Jews in
the monarchy equal rights. Bukovina was separated from Galicia and made it an
autonomous duchy whose internal affairs was regulated by a Diet or Regional
Parliament. These would be the courts where Avrum Zuckermann worked. The
constitution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of 1867 concerning the general
rights of citizens finally removed all restrictions from the Jews.
There apparently was a small shul in the town of Oprischeny, on the property of
a neighbour. Jews from surrounding towns walked 4-5 miles to come to that shul.
The names of these towns surrounding Oprischeny are: Starcea, Tereblecea,
Slobozia-Berlinti, Cerepcauti, Poiani, Garbauti, and Stanesti (de Sus, and de
Jos). Interestingly, the 1910 map and modern maps do not show the exact same
locations for the towns. The name of the owner of the land and building where
the shul was located in Oprischeny, was named “Paris”, according to the original
notes.
Despite the sketchy details, we can be sure that Oprischeny is in fact the right
town. The only information Max gave us on the town was it’s name, population,
and the name of one other family.
Records show Abraham Pariser was born in 1877 in “Oprischeni”. He led the
Kultusgemeinde (Jewish community) of neighboring Sereth for many years. He was
the son of the renowned Talmud-scholar Salomon Pariser. This would explain why
the Jews from surrounding villages came to Max’s small village shul. Salomon
must be the one who led the shul services Max attended. Abraham Pariser attended
the Oberrealschule (high school) in Czernowitz and the Handelshochschule
(trade-academy) in Prague. He was active in significant positions in the bank
system in Sereth from 1900 until WWII, aside from which he held various
community offices through the years. He was Kultuspresident and Vice-Mayor of
the city. When he died in 1947, his huge funeral showed his great popularity in
the town.
Other records from Sereth show Julius Pariser, born in “Opriszeny, Bukovina”
studied at the Kaiser Franz Josef Gymnasium in Sereth. He graduated in 1908, at
the age of 18, which means he was born in 1890, and therefore must have known
Max, or at least his older brother very well. Other records corroborate that Dr.
Julius Pariser practiced medicine in Jerusalem. His brother Martin Pariser also
moved to Israel, and lived in Tel-Aviv.
From this list I found a third of the name of another family from Oprischeny.
Max Wiedner of Oprischeny, graduated 1911 in Medicine, at age 22 (therefore born
1889). Leon Rolec of Oprischeny, who was probably not from one of the five
Jewish families in the village, attended the Gymnasium as well. He graduated in
1914 at age 22, which means he was born in 1892, making him just a few years
older than Max.
The list shows students at the Sereth Gymnasium as coming not only from Sereth,
but from dozens of towns around Bukovina, as well as from Galicia, including
Josef Jurman from Terescheny, born 1885. Other genealogical records show a
Nikolaus Hackmann of Oprishceny. Adam Sauer is listed on familysearch.com as
born in Oprischeny 1858.
Elsewhere I found a list of “Tolerated Jewish Farmers in the Bukowina” in 1808,
a time when there were still great restrictions on Jews owning land or having
certain professions in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Among the list was Juda
Grosser of “Oprischeni”. Here then is another Jewish family of the village.
Max’s family were religious Jews, who kept kosher and dovened. It is noteworthy
that at the time in Bukovina, there was a large and acrimonious split between
the traditional and the “Enlightened” Jews, who favoured German culture.
Ironically, the leader of the Enlightened Jews, and the major Jewish
philanthropist of the region, was named Markus Zucker.
The family received their (Jewish) education from what Max called a “melamed”, a
woman who came in to their town from the city (either Sereth or Czernowitz) to
teach.
Other than the “Pariser Shul”, in Oprischeny, in Sereth there was a Temple, and
4 public and 4 private prayer houses. Sereth had its own rabbi. In Storozynetz,
another regional city, (see map) lived 4,832 Jews in 1910, out of a population
of over 10,000 inhabitants (48%), among them Ruthenians (Ukranian), Romanians,
Germans and Poles. In the Storozynetz District, there were more than 40 small
rural communities with several Jewish families living in each. It seems it was
quite common in Bukovina for towns to sustain just a few Jewish families, like
in Oprischeny.
Czernowitz had one Temple, one synagogue and 28 private prayer houses.
The chief rabbi and educator in those years was Rabbi Igal, who led the
Czernowitz synagogue. It is interesting that he was a student and follower of
the great scholar Samuel David Luzzatto, whom he studied with in Padua, Italy.
During the years Max lived in Bukovina, were the years of the development of
Zionism. Both Sereth and Czernowitz had a great number of Zionist organizations,
including Hasmonea, Poalei-Zion, and Maccabea. It is worthy to mention that
Shalom Aleichem (1859-1916) visited Sereth and presented a series of speeches
there, probably during Max’s time there.
Rabbi Igal met the famous “proto-Zionist” leader Perez Smolenskin, who visited
Romania in 1874 and who stopped in Czernowitz. In 1900, Theodor Herzl met
leaders for discussion of the political situation in Bukovina. Three years
earlier, Dr. Meir Avner had been elected to lead three Bukovina representative
to the first Zionist Congress in Basel. In Bukovina, the Zionist movement did
not include organisations devoted to settlement and emigration to Israel like in
Eastern Europe, but rather to Jewish nationalism.
We don’t know of the Zuckerman’s Zionist leanings, but when Max decided to
emigrate, and he chose Canada. The Jews of Bukovina were spared the riots and
violent anti-Semitic disturbances that plagued the Jews of neighbouring regions
and countries. It is therefore not surprising that they did not join in the mass
emigration of Jews from Eastern Europe at the end of the 19th and beginning of
the 20th Century. Max stated that the impending army call-up, and the fact that
he was a pacifist, was the actual reason he left his Bukovina. Max never served
in the Austrian army. He was given a two year army grace. He had to leave before
he was 17, or else he would have to serve in the army. There were call ups at
age 17, 19 and 21 for physical exams. It therefore makes sense that Max would
have left at the age of 17, which again would confirm he was in fact born in
1893, if he left in 1910.
At the time, Bukovina was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Emperor
(Kaiser) was Franz-Josef. Max liked Franz-Josef, because he granted equal
rights. This is consistent with the how Franz-Josef is viewed by historians,
known for being very well liked by the many ethnic and national minorities of
his empire.
Franz-Josef was a member of the Habsburg family, and was crowned Emperor of
Austria in 1848 at age 18. By the time Max left in 1910, Franz-Josef would be in
the 62nd year of his reign. He reigned until his death in 1916. His once huge
Habsburg Empire was crumbling during this time, and Franz-Josef was determined
to hold on to the last strongholds in the Balkans and Serbia. He had lost major
wars and territory to France (1848) and Prussia (1866). There was obvious
trouble during Max’s lifetime as well, when Franz-Josef’s brother was executed,
his son, Crown Prince Rudolph, committed suicide followed by his wife's
assassination, and most famously, his nephew and new heir, Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, would be assassinated by Serbian nationalists in 1914 in Sarajevo.
This event led to the outbreak of the First World War, and the Austrian army
going to battle four years after Max left the Empire.
The Jews in Bukovina were very loyal to the Kaiser and the Empire, and supported
his entering the First World War.
In the years before the outbreak of the war, Max must have made many trips to
Czernowitz. It would be in a cosmopolitan setting like Czernowitz, that Canada
would have publicly advertised free land for immigrants to Canada. The very
influential Minster of the Interior, Clifford Sifton, led the push to draw new
immigrants to Canada (particularly the West). Massive numbers of pamphlets in
several languages flooded Europe. Canadian exhibits were mounted at fairs,
exhibitions, and public displays, while articles were inserted in foreign
newspapers.
Here is an interesting quote Sifton made when describing what he looked for in
the ideal settler, in response to criticism that his policies were ruining the
British character of Canada:
“When I speak of quality I have in mind something that is quite different from
what is in the mind of the average writer or speaker upon the question of
immigration. I think that a stalwart peasant in a sheepskin coat, born on the
soil, whose forefathers have been farmers for ten generations, with a stout wife
and a half-dozen children, is good quality.”
Jews, along with Italians, Blacks, Orientals and urban Englishmen were
discouraged from being targeted for immigration, as he felt they would make bad
farmers.
Max left Oprischeny in the beginning of April 1910. Contrary to many stories, he
was in contact with his family in Bukovina while he was in Canada. He continued
for some time to send money back to his family. He eventually stopped sending
money to them, and the correspondences stopped and he lost all contact with his
family. We can assume he stopped sending money when he got married and began to
support a family, but that wasn’t for at least ten years, or after World War I.
Also surprisingly, he left his home by horse and wagon, with the family
accompanying him to the train. He took the train (certainly from Czernowitz)
into Austria (Vienna), and from there into Germany, most likely departing from
Hamburg which was the second busiest emigration port in Europe, or nearby
Bremen, Germany which was the busiest port, and handled about 30% of all
emigrant traffic. He did in fact leave Germany on a cattle boat. Immigration
records from the time show this was not an urban legend, but was quite a common
way for poor immigrants to arrive in North America from Europe. Personal records
of immigrants tell different stories of cattle boats. Some say it was a boat
that had brought cattle to Europe and was returning to Canada. Others say the
passenger ships had cattle in steerage, and 3rd class passengers stayed in
steerage with the cattle. Others say they were converted old cattle ships, now
used for cheap transport. The Struma is the most famous example of a former
cattle boat carrying Romanian immigrants. The boat travelled to Palestine,
fleeing the Nazis, where it was sunk, killing all the refugees aboard.
During his entire journey from Bukovina to Canada, Max pretended to be
Christian. One month after leaving Oprischeny, Max arrived in Halifax on May 10,
1910, when he was approximately fifteen years of age, according to his account.
Immigrants were required to have at least $25 in cash when they landed in
Halifax (according to records from 1911). That would equate to over two hundred
of today's dollars.
Max was able to enter Canada with a false passport. The name on his false
passport was Markus Braun (or Brun). From here we get our family name Brown,
which is Braun in German. Surprisingly, his first name on the passport was real.
The name Braun was a Jewish surname as well. While at the docks in Halifax, his
one bag with all his belongings, his tefillin and his photographs, was stolen.
Max landed in Canada at an interesting time. Only a few days before his arrival,
King Edward VII of England (and Canada), son of Queen Victoria, died. At the
time, Canada was still a Dominion in the commonwealth, decades away from the
autonomy and sovereignty granted in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster. On May
10, a Tuesday, there was a national day of mourning with flags flying at
half-mast. The mayor of Halifax read the proclamation of King George V. The
federal government at the time was led by Sir Wilfred Laurier, who had been in
power since 1896. All schools and government establishments and institutions
were closed (We can only wonder what was happening at the immigration offices?).
Max immigrated during a period of one of the greatest demographic changes in
history. In Canada, 1913 saw the largest ever number of new immigrants, when
over 400,000 newcomers arrived on Canadian soil.
In fact, Ukrainians (the collective name applied to Slavs from regions of the
Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires) were by far the largest group to immigrate
to Canada from eastern and central Europe in these years. Between 1891, when the
first wave of Ukrainian immigrants came to Canada, and the outbreak of the First
World War, approximately 170,000 Ukrainians immigrated to Canada, attracted by
the offer of free land.
For the most part, these Ukrainian newcomers were small farmers and labourers
from Galicia and Bukovina (both of which were provinces of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire) most of whom were fleeing oppressive economic conditions. Most of these
immigrants however were not Jews, and most continued west after landing in
Halifax, settling the prairies in the brand new provinces of Alberta and
Saskatchewan.
The massive number of immigrants led to the Immigration Act of 1910. The very
year Max arrived, the government was given the authority to exclude "immigrants
belonging to any race deemed unsuited to the climate or requirements of Canada."
The Act also strengthened the government's power to deport any individuals it
thought necessary.
From Halifax, Max went to Montreal. He spent only a couple of weeks in Montreal
before going to Toronto. He found work in a can making factory on King Street,
making $6.25 a week. In 1910, the average production worker in Canada took home
only $417 in annual wages. If Max worked 52 weeks a year, with no vacation/sick
days off during the year, he would earn $325 a year, or only about ¾ or the
average wage.
In Toronto, he first saw Rebecca Victoria (Becky) Tobias, when she was only six
years old. If this recollection is correct, he would have been 19 at the time,
and in Canada already for a few years.
Max says he never liked Toronto and left after a short time. He apparently went
to northern Ontario to work in the logging industry. He may have worked there
for as long as two years, because he arrived in Oakville in 1912. At the time he
was the only Jew living there. He got a job working in the local basket making
factory. He made return trips to Toronto, and attended the Romanian (Romanishe)
Shul. Here Max met Becky’s Buba. She told Becky this is the man she had to
marry. Although Becky had her eye on a red-headed boy (this would explain her
lifetime fascination with red-headed dolls), the other younger sisters couldn’t
marry until Becky was married off.
Although Becky lived in Toronto, and was born in Montreal, her family was a very
prominent rabbinical family from the city of Iasi (Jassy) in Moldavia, Romania,
the province to the south-east of Bukovina. Interestingly, there is another town
named Opriseni, just a few kilometers east of Iasi.
Here is the end of the story of Max’s immigration, and the beginning of the
story of the life of Max and Becky and their children in Oakville.
However, what happened in Bukovina after Max left, notably during the two world
wars? What could have happened to his family?
The cities and towns of Bukovina almost died out during the 1914-1918 war. All
able-bodied men were drafted into military service. In the summer of 1916, after
the Russian offensive and the collapse of the Austrian Front, families fled out
of fear of the invasion. Only a very few remained in their homes. Those in the
rural areas (like Oprischeny) came into the towns for protection. Eventually
even those in towns fled to the western sections of the Empire, most commonly
Vienna, and Moravia (Czech). About two thirds of the population fled west, and
after the war, less than half of those refugees returned.
By 1918 most houses in Bukovina were destroyed or had become uninhabitable
ruins. We can be sure Oprischeny was destroyed, as the Russian army advanced
from Czernowitz to Sereth via Tereblecea, and therefore the road also passed
Oprischeny.
People who returned home after 1918 found none of their belongings and were
dependent on philanthropy to survive. The Austrian Empire was dissolved, and
because Romania left the Central Powers in 1916 and joined up with the Allied
Forces, at the end of the war in 1918, it was rewarded by receiving three
regions of the defeated Empire. Bukovina became part of Romania, located in the
north central part of the country, with Moldavia on its eastern border. It was
also rewarded by receiving administration of Russian Bessarabia.
Until 1919, the Jews in Sereth and Czernowitz regions, as in the whole Empire
enjoyed rights, guaranteed by the laws of the state. At the end of the war, the
Romanian military occupied Bukovina and the Jews very quickly lost their rights.
Small merchants became the victims of decrees issued overnight. Their
interpretation and implementation depended the arbitrariness of the Romanian
officials. Doctors and lawyers lost their jobs. The rural Jews were compelled to
leave their property. The measures against Jews reached their peak just before
the outbreak of the Second World War. Jews, who had possessed Austrian
citizenship, became stateless and were often shipped over the border.
Romanian records show the new political and territorial divisions of the country
based on their land acquisitions in 1918. Here is the entry for Oprischeny:
Locality ... Opriseni ... County ... Radauti... Department ... Siret ...
Judicial District ... Siret ... Post Office ... Tereblecea ... Railroad Station
... Slobozia (3)… Distance to Department Seat... 32km.
Here they claim the distance from Oprischeny to Sereth is 32km not 10km.
German troops occupied Romania by October of 1940 and Romania joined the German
side of the war. At the same time, the Russians were moving westward into
Bessarabia and reclaiming land they once ruled.
Nazi records show plans for the relocation of ethnic Germans as agreed upon
between the Soviets and the Germans. These Germans, living in Bessarabia and
Bukovina, were transported westward into the German Reich. This work would be
carried out mainly by the German SS in 1940. There is a great irony that the SS
was deporting Germans by train from Bukovina a year before they began to deport
the Jews. The records show:
From the Czernowitz area: the Terebleschtie railway station (blue dot on 1910
map). 1,708 Germans transported. 1,613 from Terebleschtie (i.e. the entire
town). Among the other towns, one person from Oprischeny was transferred, a town
listed as six kilometres from the train station at Terebleschtie.
In June, 1941, the city was evacuated by the Soviets, and by October, all the
Jews (over 50,000) were confined to a small ghetto, while thousands were also
deported to Siberia. The Germans arrived on July 5.
In 1941, the Czernowitz Jews were concentrated in a ghetto, and all their
property was confiscated. On an order of the German rulers from Bucharest in
July 1941, the Jews of Bukovina were loaded in cattle-wagons and evicted to
Kalafat. The survivors, over 30,000 Jews, were ultimately deported to
Transnistria (Ukraine), where 60-80% perished due to illnesses and hunger. Many
of the remaining Jews were murdered by Rumanian soldiers during their retreat
from Bukovina and by incited Rumanian peasants. They were shot and their corpses
thrown into a ditch. These victims from the Sereth region were buried eventually
in the Sereth Cemetery in a common grave, with tombstone and common inscription.
In October, 1943, restrictions on Jewish movement were abolished, and the quick
liberation by Soviet forces in early 1944 saved the 15,000 Jews remaining in
Czernowitz. Despite these atrocities, Bukovinian and Romanian Jews had the
highest survival rate in Europe.
A wooden tablet in the Synagogue of Sereth, which still stands today, has the
names of more than 700 Jews who died. It is certain that no community inhabited
by Jews was spared. After the war, the town of Storozynetz was just a pile of
rubble. Just ten Jewish families still lived there -some who survived in
Storozynetz or in the Transnistria death camps. A list of Bukovinian Jews who
died at Transnistria includes the names of several Blums.
Still, at least 50,000 Bukovinian Jews returned to the towns after the war. Over
the next decade, most of these families found their way to Israel. It is very
possible that members of the Zuckerman family emigrated to Israel in the 1950s.
Lists of Zuckermans in Israel (of which only sons of Max’s brothers would be
listed as such), are very numerous. There is no way at present of knowing if any
of these came from Bukovina.
In any event, I found the following interesting piece of information. The famous
author, Martin Gilbert in his book “Atlas of the Holocaust”, lists all the Jews
of the Bukowina on the eve of WW II. Czernowitz had 43,000, Sereth had 2,120,
and Toraceni (Tarascheni) as 58 Jews. Villages with as few as 4 Jews are listed,
but Oprischeny is not listed at all.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, a Jewish Cultural Society has been formed in
Czernowitz (today called Chernivtsi, Ukraine) for the new community of 3,000,
and to protect the historical Jewish places. There is even a Jewish school with
150 students (mostly of mixed families), and a synagogue with a rabbi.
Following some leads, I spoke with a woman named Rita Hollinger, who lives in
Israel. She is the representative of Bukovina Jewish World Union - Sereth. Her
maiden name is Kraft, a common name in Sereth records. She gave some interesting
information. She said all men from Sereth and the surrounding villages went into
military service in 1914. Her mother took all the children to Vienna, and
returned after the war in 1918. This seems to be a common practice as all
families fled to the western parts of Austria. Rita was born in Sereth in 1925.
The former Jews of Sereth have written a book in Hebrew called “Sereth Shelanu”,
or Our Sereth, of which I now have a copy. She mentioned firstly, that the
pronunciation of the town is O-prish-SHEYN-ee, and Max’s family name would have
been pronounced Tzukerman. There was one remaining Jew in Sereth who died in
2002. During the Nazi invasion, Rita was sent to the Jurin ghetto with Abraham
Pariser, and his sons. The sons returned to Sereth after the war, before moving
to Israel. She also led me to the apparently only living grandchild of Abraham
Pariser.
I spoke with Karol (Katriel) Pariser. He was born in Czernowitz, to Abraham’s
son Zeev (Wolf) Wilhelm Pariser. He was one of five boys and one girl born to
Abraham Pariser. Three of the boys were Martin (Moju), Zeev Wilhem (Wili), and
Max and the girl was named Gina. Katriel told me his grandfather left Oprischeny
and went to Sereth when he got married. We can assume he got married in his
early 20s, so he would have left Oprischeny when Max was still young. Katriel
did not know of anyone named Zuckerman. He and everyone else had no recollection
of Julius Pariser, born in Oprischeny, and educated in Sereth.
Rita also gave me the name of Feiwisch Herman, who was one of the writers of Our
Sereth. He told me that there was nobody named Zuckerman in Sereth (in the
1930s), and there were no Jews at all from Oprischeny who came to Sereth. They
would most likely have gone to the city of Czernowitz. He did tell me of the
reference in the book to a Hugo Zuckermann. He was a writer, and a student with
Abraham Pariser in Czernowitz. Hugo Zuckermann died in the First World War.
Also in the book, it says that Sereth was the commercial and administrative
centre for twenty surrounding villages. Included in the list is Opriseni. Also
mentioned is a 1930 (Romanian) census, which shows a Jewish population of 15 in
Opriseni (57 in the neighbouring Treblecea). There is also a list of the names
appearing on the memorial wall in the Holon cemetery (a suburb of Tel Aviv), of
the victims from Sereth who died in Transnistria. Among the names is Babzi and
Shmuel Zuckerman.
Feiwish also passed me along to Haim (Karl) Reicher. He was born in 1924 in
Sereth. He in fact was in Oprischeny. While fleeing the invading Russian army at
the end of WWII, he was captured just outside his hometown of Sereth, and
imprisoned in the local town, Oprischeny. He spent two nights there, and said
there is nothing to say about the town. He said that no Jews from Oprischeny
came to Sereth.
I then tried calling the Czernowitz representative of the Buvovina Jewish World
Union to see if they had any information about Oprischeny or the Zuckermans.
Andi Rosengarden had never heard of the town, or anybody with that name from the
city. He then led me to the headquarters, and the president, Jula Weiner. The
Bukovina World Jews Union, based in Tel Aviv has an office with a library full
of books on Jews in Bukovina. They also publish a monthly newspaper in German.
They agreed to publish my search, and have claimed they have had great success
this way. So we may hear news in the future {ad published in May 2004 edition}.
He also mentioned that Toronto had a Jewish Bukovinian Society for decades, but
has recently ceased to exist. He did tell me the name of a family from
Czernowitz who live at Bayview and Steeles.
After contacting Yad VaShem in Jerusalem, they did a search of their database
for any names of victims from Opriseni. Only those names will appear when a
family member has filled out a Page of Testimony and submitted it to Yad Vashem.
The database came up with the following names:
Fisel Glenzer (Glanzer), born in 1883 in Cacia?, Bukovina, place of residence
Opriseni, Bukovina, married to Bella Glanzer (maiden name Kroner), born in
Opriseni, children Yosef and Frada. Fisel, Yosef and Frada died in Krizhopol,
Vinnista, Ukraine in 1942. (This was a Ghetto 100km from Vinnista). Bella died
in the Ukraine in 1943. Frada was 17 (born 1925) and Yosef was 15 (born 1927).
Fisel was an upholsterer by profession. Their nationality is listed as
“Czernowitz”. The information was submitted in 1956 by Mordechai Glantzer, son
of Fisel. Mordechai Glantzer also submitted a page for Wolf Glanzer, son of
Fisel and Berta (Shneider), born in 1906 in Opriseni, lived in Opriseni. Wolf
was a salesman by profession, and married to Chaya Glanzer. They had a daughter
Malka, who died at age 8 in the Ukraine in 1942 (born 1934). Wolf died in
Mogilev Podolski, Vinntsa, Ukraine in 1943. (This was a transit camp for
expelled Bukovinian Jews).
A separate page was submitted for Isaac Weissbrod, born 1907 in Opriseni,
resident of Mihaileni, Dorohoi, Moldavia, died 1941 in Mohilev Pololsk, Vinnitsa,
Ukraine.
We therefore now know three more names of the Oprischeny Jews, Glanzer, Kroner,
and Weissbrod, to go with Zuckermann, Pariser, Wider, and Grosser.
From these records, I looked for the name Glanzer in Israel, and found there
were very few, so I tried calling some. I spoke with Esther Glanzer, who I found
out is the widow of Zvi Glanzer, son of Mordechai Glanzer, who filled out the
forms. She said that while she was born in Israel, she remembers her husband
mentioning the village of Oprischeny. He also gave video testimony to Yad
Va’shem. She then gave me the name of Raphael Tadmor, who was Mordechai
Glanzer’s stepson. He was born in Czernowitz in 1936 and moved to Israel in
1946. He explained that the Jews of Czernowitz who came under Soviet rule
following the war fled across the border to Romania, as the Soviets did not
allow emigration, but Romania did. He also said that any of the generation who
grew up in Oprischeny had died. He said he would check with an aunt of his for
any other information. He said that Gusta (Marco) Glanzer was actually born in
Opriseni in 1928, moved to Czernowitz at age six, and then at age 16 (1945)
moved to Israel after the war. She however has absolutely no recollection of
Opriseni or any other family that came from there.
Through a tip, a called the Jewish Agency in Israel which has a Bureau of
Missing Relatives to see if they have any Zuckerman’s on record who emigrated
from Oprischeny. Unfortunately, the department was recently closed, and all
records were transferred to the Central Zionist Archives. I sent a query by
mail, but they said because of the volume of requests, it would be up to a year
to receive an answer.
I then decided to try a different route, instead of Jews who had left the
region, I’d see if there were any non-Jewish families who had lived there for
generations, who might remember the Zuckermann family.
Through the Chernivtsy (Chernowitz) synagogue, I contacted the local Jewish aid
society, Shushana-Hesed. They forwarded my request by mail to the town, and
waited for a response, which seems not to be coming.
60445 с. Опришени
Глибоцького району
Чернівецької області
I then seemed to catch a break. I found an article on the web from a Bucharest
newspaper that wrote a story, in Romanian, about the village of Opriseni. From
the article I took a few of the old family names mentioned, such as Biletchi,
Birau, and Pitul, and hoped I could somehow contact them. Through international
directory assistance, I actually got the phone numbers.
With the help of someone from the Toronto Russian Jewish Community Centre, we
called the modern village of Opryseny. This is what we found out -
After trying a few numbers, we finally spoke with Rodina Dmitrienvna, because in
addition to Ukrainian, she speaks Russian, Romanian and French, and teaches
languages at the school. She told us a little bit about the village today, which
has a population of 2,000, which is the same population as a hundred years ago
when Zaida was born there. The village is very small, as addresses do not
include house numbers, and everyone in the village knows everybody else. She was
very proud Opryseny, as a picturesque and hospitable place. She said the town is
585 years old, and was according to legend, first settled by Polish soldiers who
encamped there, as Oprizh in Polish means army encampment. After World War II,
Ukraine actually changed the name of the village to Dubovka, and the town just a
few years ago, decided to change it back to its historical name. When I enquired
if the Opr in the name may mean oak, she said no, but interestingly, Dub in
Dubova does means oak tree in Ukrainian.
She mentioned that all families live in houses, there is a village church,
shops, and a “cultural center” for any and all gatherings. The village is
surrounded by forests, and there are two rivers flowing through the village, the
Kotivetz and the Oprishanka.
I enquired if she knew of the Zuckerman family. She asked her father, who was
born in 1927, but he had no recollection of the name. The family spoke Romanian
to each other, which shows even after fifty years in Ukraine, they hold on to
their Romanian ethnicity. She also pointed out they are less than five
kilometres from the Romanian border. Rodina immediately said the Zuckermans must
be a Jewish family. However, anti-Semitism can’t be that bad, as she invited all
of the descendents of one of their own native sons, to come and visit the
village, take pictures and meet the locals. She extended the invitation five
more times.
She then offered to ask around the village elders to see if anyone remembers the
Zuckerman family. She also gave us the number of the town hall, which holds all
the records, and may hold old birth records.
A final note not yet cleared up. I came across what might be the most concrete
piece of evidence of Max’s family. GenAmi, a French Jewish genealogical website
lists every Jewish emigrant who passed through Brussels on their way to their
new countries. Under the listing I found this amazing entry:
ZUCKERMANN (Opriseni* 1897/Stryy 1909/Hamburg 1900)
I wrote to the site owner asking for information about what this exactly means
(is 1897 the date of birth or arrival in Brussels), and after many follow ups,
never received a response. Is this concrete evidence that one of Max’s siblings
emigrated without his knowledge?
Hopefully in the future a few more details from these sources will come through
and clarify even more about the Zuckermans’ time in Bukovina.
Note: When researching, there are other towns by the name Opriseni in modern
Romania, near the town of Falticeni, and also an Opriseni in Romania just east
of Iasi on the Moldavian border.
An incredible resource, with many helpful fellow researchers is
www.jewishgen.org
Here are some other good sites I found:
http://jewishwebindex.com/bukovina.htm
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/suceava/suceava.htm
http://www.bukovinajewsworldunion.org/
http://bukowina.info
Max Brown - Original Notes
Info written down by Margo 1982
-from Opreshena town in Bukovena
-a pop. of about 2000 people
-5 Jewish families lived there
-family name was Zuckerman
-they had/there was? a vegetable stand in town
- there were 11-12 children in the family
-he was the 2nd oldest child
-when he left there were 5 boys and 5 (?) girls
-his brothers and sisters, but some died
-his mother’s family came from Bucharest
-he never served in the army
-was given 2 years army grace
-he left with a false passport
-why did he lose contact with family?
-he stopped sending money to them and correspondence stopped
-left by horse and wagon
-the family took him to the train
-he took the train into Austria, Germany
-from Germany he went to Halifax, arrived May 10, 1910
-he was approx. 15 years old
-he had to be out before 17 or else had to serve in the army
-were called up at 17, 19, 21 years for army physical exams, therefore he left
-came over on a cattle boat with a false passport with name Marcus Brun
-his real name is Marcus and his family called him Marcus
-Hebrew name is Mordechai
-went from Halifax to Montreal
-youngest brother named Avrum, was a twin to Toba
-also a younger brother Yossel
-his mother’s name was Toba (Toby)
-her maiden name was Bloom
-mother came from capital city of Bukovina called Czernowitz
-mother from a small family
-they had a little shul in their rown on the property of a neighbour
-Jews from surrounding towns walked 4-5 miles to come to that shul
-name of owner of land and building where shul was located was called Paris
-they were religious Jews, were kosher, dovened
-a Melamed taught them, a woman from the city
-Franz Joseph was the ruler at the time, and the area was controlled by Austria
-Bukovina was part of Austria then
-his father’s name was Aaron
-father was born in Bukovina
-his paternal grandfather was from Russia
-his father was an interpreter at the courts, spoke many languages
-father also was a farmer
-he rode horses, liked horses
-had a family store – groceries, tobacco, wool, etc.
-someone in the store called him a dirty Jew, and his father knocked him out
-liked Franz-Joseph, granted equal rights
-spent a couple of weeks in Montreal, then went to Toronto
-worked in a can making place on King Street for $6.25 a week
-first saw Becky at 6 years old
-first Jew in Oakville in 1912
-never liked Toronto
-he pretended to be Christian when leaving and the whole time on the boat over
-was born January 1, 1895
-it took one month from leaving the home town to arriving in Halifax
Below: Text of e-mail regarding Warren's search for Zuckerman family