Dear Hardy, Bruce and Jerome;
This is an impressive achievement and truly a labor of love. You
deserve congratulations and our gratitude.
I am sure that you will get a variety of responses. Here are some of
our thoughts -- please take them in the spirit of constructive
suggestions rather than critique:
1. We wonder if list members have a few additional pre-20th century
images -- presently the show is quite contemporary. We would suggest
cutting some of the slides from 2007 in favor of earlier images, since
people in Chernivtsi are well aware of the present-day look of their
city. Some obvious image are missing : das juedische Haus, for
example, with the staircase and the cut off Jewish star; the
theater, the railway station, all beautiful examples of Habsburg
Czernowitz architecture when Jewish life was thriving there. Also
plaques on Rosa Auslander's house and Selma Meerbaum Eisinger's -- the
advantage being to alert present-day inhabitants to these markers of
Jewish presence in the city, and particularly to notable Jewish women.
2. The Holocaust: We would strongly urge you to change that segment.
The Holocaust in Cernauti was of a very different character than the
Holocuast in Poland, Hungary etc. and your images blur those very
important historical distinctions. It would be important to show the
Cernauti ghetto, an image of the ordonanta to gather there, Jews
wearing the yellow star in Cernauti in 1943 (you have one, but in the
wrong place), and maps and images of Transnistria. We can send you
these images. It is really really important to convey the particular
character of the Holocaust in Cernauti and not to relativize this
important aspect of Jewish history. The images of the destroyed
temple are great, though the flames and the lit candle, to my eyes are
a touch of kitsch, but that is a mater of taste.
3. Music: Please include popular songs and liturgical music by Josef
Schmidt. there are recordings available online. Please please remove
By the Rivers of Babylon -- very different foreign element. Is the
implication that we, now, are in Babylon -- in a contemporary
Babylonian captivity -- or that Czernowitz was Babylon? Is the
implication that Zion is "old" Cernowitz, or Palestine/Israel?
Whichever: I love Marley and reggae, but the song is totally out of
place in your usage. I also don't feel that Carmina Burana is
appropriate here at all. Although not proven, Carl Orff, its
composer, was a Nazi. Certainly, Carmina Burana was hugely popular in
Nazi Germany after its premiere in Frankfurt in 1937.
4. There are many pictures from organizations and its Jewish Czerno
members other than educational ones that might be included: Hashomer
Hatzair, die Freimaurer, the various university "fraternities," etc.
We -- and I'm sure other list members -- can supply you with a good
selection of these.
Again, thanks for taking this on. If nothing else, you've inspired us
into a collaborative undertaking.
Best,
Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer
On Dec 23, 2007, at 6:56 PM, jerome schatten wrote:
> Czernowitzers, here's the latest on the 600th Anniversary
> Presentation:
- snip -
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Received on 2007-12-24 16:51:45
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