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Emunah Czernowitz – “Heimkehr” Essays jüdischer Denker

Another of the Jewish fraternities was “Emunah”.  On June 3, 1903, the Jewish National Academic Reading Society was “thrown open,” with the club colors gold-violet-gold. “Emunah” was highly active in the field of Zionism – a  characteristic for all the Jewish fraternities –  and also set up a library open to the public. Furthermore, “Emunahs” intellectual athmosphere culminated in publishing several books. To mention is especially “Heimkehr. Essays jüdischer Denker”  with a preface by Leon Kellner. (Homecoming. Essays of Jewish Thinkers). This anthology contains contributions by notable Jewish authors like Balaban Majer, Nathan Birnbaum (who coined the term “Zionism”), Max Rosenfeld, Salomon Schiller and Leon Kellner. It came out 1912 and is now available online via the university library of Frankfurt: http://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/freimann/content/titleinfo/936863

heimkehr

JNAV Heatid Czernowitz

Hi all, i am currently worlking on a Research paper on Czernowitz Jewish academic fraternities. With “Hasmonäa”, founded 1891 by members of the Viennese “Kadimah”, this new type of Jewish academic fraternity appeared in Czernowitz and found successors throughout the German-speaking Universities. The Jewish academic fraternities were modeled after the traditional type of “Studentenverbindung”, that existed in Czernowitz from 1875-1938/40. The members of the various “frats” distinguished themselves by wearing ribbons and caps showing the club colors of their fraternity. In the Romanian period the University organisation was changed to the “college System” and members of the fraternities were issued membership cards. here i have got one issued by JNAV “Heatid” for Josef Stark in 1922. “Heatid” came into being in 1918/19 and existed until 1936. Its club colors used to be green-silver-black shown in the ribbons with white caps. Any further information on “Heatid”, Josef Stark or any of the Czernowitz fraternities – especially photographs – would be highly appreciated. Thank You!Heatid_Cz0001

Meyer Ebner on Leibu Levin – 1935

From Ruth Levin, an article from the “Ost-Yiddishe Zeitung”, 2.6.1935:

“…Dr. Landau introduced to the audience a young man whose name
should not be forgotten. Probably, we’ll hear from him again and again.

Levin isn’t a singer, rather he’s an artistic reader. He’s not a reader, rather
he’s an actor. As a matter of fact he’s all in one: singer, artistic reader, actor
and poet. Why also poet? He reads to us only the poems of others, does he not?
That being so, this is the secret of his art. He reveals what is hidden between the lines.
He brings the poet to completion. He draws from the poet’s soul riches the poet himself
did not know of, riches that were hidden in his sub-conscious…

Frequently the words of the text in his mouth serve solely as a stimulus that awakens –
just for a passing moment – the poetic spiritual inheritance of his own, and that has
always to be born anew, like the music.

The art of Leibu Levin needs not only to be heard, though, but also to be seen. He himself
one has to hear and see, how he breathes into the dim hall, into the pearls of strangers’
poetry, his young burning soul, the creative, sometimes ecstatic, and sometimes weeping
soul…  His profound understanding drew one deeply into the fables of
Eliezer Steinbarg and the ballads of Itzik Manger.

From time to time the reader becomes singer, and only when he was seen as well as heard,
did I finally understand the meaning of the old expression “to sing and to say”
regarding troubadours and minnesingers. When his spoken word passes to song, it reminds me
of a flying ship hovering above the earth and taking off to the blue heavens…

Talent is as rare as gold. From the gold it is possible to forge a holiday crown for
priests who serve gods and it is possible to pay with it the penance for sinful impurity…

Talent can be refined to capture surpassing art, or can descend to cheap popular
entertainment. It seems to me that all in Leibu Levin aspires toward and is uplifted to the
shining heights of noble art .”

Dr. Meyer Ebner
The newspaper “Ost-Yiddishe Zeitung”, 2.6.1935

Ostjüdische_Zeitung_1935_00169 Kopie

Bearing Witness More Than Once…

‘Flyer’ for a conference to be held in Berlin on March 14, 15 and 16, 2016.

On 16 March, Dr.Dana Mihăilescu will be presenting a paper entitled:
“Shifts in Testimony Focus Depending on Medium and Temporal Context:
On Ruth Glasberg Gold’s Holocaust Experiences in Transnistria”

[Click on image to enlarge]
Flyer_Bearing_Witness_More_Than_Once_kl-2

You can read the entire paper to be presented at:
mihailescu

Posted for Ruth Glasberg Gold

Czernowitz, Synagogengasse 18

Marion Tauschwitz, Selma Merbaum biographer, Author of the Year 2015 by the (German) Woman Writer Association, etc. and – above all – fellow member, is sharing with us most interesting photos of Czernowitz, Synagogengasse 18. From Marion we learn: “It’s Friederika Schrager’s birth house, Selma’s mother; Israel Schrager was cantor of the “Alte Shil”, just across the street. Today it’s a surveyor’s office, but the original door with the Magen David is still there and old-time furniture too, who knows…?!”

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