Re: [Cz-L] An Idea for 600th Anniversary Presentation

Dear All, I am resending the letter we set to
Kylynich more than a year ago. All tehse
proposals were already there, including some
additional suggestions about an exhibit that
includes books, objects and memorabilia, in
addition ot images. I think e should send an
amended form of this letter to Maita Prout and
offer to help gather materials.

best, Marianne

Dear Mr. Kylynych,

We are writing on behalf of a group of 250
persons connected to Chernivtsi through the
<http://czernowitz.ehpes.com>http://czernowitz.ehpes.com
website and listserve in response to your call
for suggestions regarding the 600th anniversary
of Chernivtsi. We have been discussing your
invitation for several months now as a group.
Each of us has roots in Jewish
Czernowitz/Cerna˜ut¸i/Chernivtsi and many of us
have visited the city on one or more occasions in
recent years. The preservation of this beautiful
city and the restoration of its neglected
cultural landmarks is of great personal and
collective importance to us all.

Several urgent priorities emerged during our
discussions. While these concern long-term goals
of preservation and renovation of Jewish sites in
the city, we believe that the 600th anniversary
provides a wonderful occasion for the city to
study, initiate and make a commitment toward
these long-term goals.

We feel that the city needs to do more to
memorialize and to recognize the important Jewish
history of Chernivtsi. Recent efforts to install
plaques and build monuments are certainly
important ways to mark this history, but we
believe that more needs to be done to give an
accurate sense of the multi-cultural tolerant and
cosmopolitan past of the city.

We therefore have several suggestions for the
600th anniversary. We believe that these are
reasonable and affordable suggestions and our
group is ready to work with the Chernivtsi city
council to put them into practice. We also know
that Chernivtsi is applying to Unesco for World
Heritage status and that a successful application
will make funds available. Our suggestions
should help Chernivtsi in the application process.

We are most urgently concerned about the state of
disrepair of the Jewish cemetery and the temple.
The Chernivtsi Jewish cemetery must be renovated
and permanently maintained. This cemetery is in
a shameful state that reflects very badly on the
city's relationship to its Jewish community.
There are members of our group who are
particularly interested in this renovation and
are willing to work on raising funds to match the
funds the city would put into this effort. We
also know of some volunteer groups who could come
to do some of the initial work. But we would
like to ask the city to commit to the
preservation of the cemetery once it is renovated.

  We know that Mr. Helmut Kusdat of Vienna is
raising funds for the renovation of the
Ceremonial Hall of the cemetery and that the city
has made a commitment to the preservation of the
Hall once it is renovated.

The temple is the heart of Jewish life in the
city and its current use as a cinema is certainly
inappropriate. The mutilation of this fine
building, one of the city's most important
historic structures, is a serious blot on the
landscape. We realize that the renovation of the
temple is not now a realistic project. But, on
the occasion of the anniversary, the temple
building, located in the very center of the city,
could be used to house a temporary exhibition on
Jewish Czernowitz and on the evolution of the
city's Jewish community. Our website has
excellent materials for such an exhibit and so do
many other individuals and groups. Works written
by Jewish writers could be on exhibit, as well as
books about the city, as could objects, images,
maps and other memorabilia. Such an exhibit could
be a good way to initiate a project of a museum
of pre-world War Two Jewish Czernowitz/
Cerna˜ut¸i.

This museum is our third urgent priority. It is
an absolutely essential part of the application
to Unesco which stipulates that any site chosen
must "bear unique or at least exceptional
testimony to a cultural tradition or to a
civilization which is living or which has
disappeared." Jewish pre-war Czernowitz has
indeed disappeared and needs to be memorialized.
This can be done in a variety of smaller and
larger ways and there are people in our group
with some expertise who could consult on the
design of such a museum, and the location of a
site for it in the city. We also know of
documents, libraries, and art works that could be
housed there, and we could be helpful in
soliciting donations to the museum, once it is
conceived.

We hope to continue this conversation with you.
Please contact us through this address.

With many thanks for your attention,







On Dec 1, 2007, at 12:19 PM, Miriam Taylor wrote:

>Miriam (Mimi) Taylor <<mailto:mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
>
>This is a very good idea.
>Should they not be able to set up a revolving presentation,
>They could set up a photographic exhibit, using the material
>on the website. You Jerome, as the master of the website,
>should write Maita Prout, or Mr. Kisinich, OR BOTH and suggest this.
>A high quality photographic exhibit with appropriate captions,
>could also serve as the first exhibit of a museum in the "Tempel"
>devoted to the Czernowitz Jewish history and heritage.
>
>You may remember that this was suggested a long time ago by Charles Rosner=
.
>
>Happy Channukah,
>
>Mimi
>
>>Czernowitzers...
>>
>>
>>On our website are literally thousands of photos and postcards from
>>
>>before 1945 which depict in many different ways, life in Jewish
>>
>>Czernowitz.
>>
>>
>>Suppose someone were to make a continuously revolving power point
>>
>>presentation out of these materials. And suppose this was played on a
>>
>>large plasma or lcd display in the temple during the festivities.
>>
>>Would this not be an appropriate response for materials on our part?
>>
>>
>>There is so much material instantly available that I would bet it
>>
>>would take hours and hours for a repeat if the presentation were in a
>>
>>continuous loop.
>>
>>
>>It would be a labour of love, of course, but I'm sure someone would
>>
>>rise to the occasion.
>>
>>
>>To get a feel of what I'm talking about, Hardy Brierer has made a
>>
>>small power point presentation about the town of Podhajce which I've
>>
>>posted on the Podhajce JewishGen website. If you get a chance, take a
>>
>>look at:
>>
>>
>><http://shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/podhajce/breierpps/hardypps.html>http://=
shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/podhajce/breierpps/hardypps.html
>>
>>
>>and imagine thousands of our pictures and documents being presented
>>
>>this
>>
>>way on a large screen with sound.
>>
>>
>>Just an idea....
>>
>>
>>Best,
>>
>>jerome
>>
>>
>-snip-
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Received on 2007-12-01 18:28:30