Category Archives: History

The Liberation of Bukovina – The Capture of Czernowitz (1917)

General Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli at his command post; briefing with Austrian officers at the map table [00:10]; destroyed bridges over the Pruth before Czernowitz [02:11]; Austrian troops bivouac on the banks of the Pruth [03:04]; horsepond [03:49]; Czernowitz after being taken on 3rd August 1917: burning railway station building and burning crossties [04:37]; destroyed dome of the railway station [05:50]; ruins of houses [06:23]; the fire brigade extinguishing flames [07:14]; children in the city streets [07:25]; Austrian troops march past Archduke Franz Joseph on 4th August 1917 in Czernowitz [07:42].

Source: EFG european film gateway & filmportal.de

In Search of the Synagogue of Boian in Bukovina

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Florin Dyrda from Boian, a graduate of the Chernivtsi National Yuri Fedkovych University both in history as well as in computer systems and networks, is the creator/webmaster for a huge number of websites related to the history of Boian. A couple of days ago Florin drew our attention to his posting (in Romanian laguage) on the former Synagogue of Boian, erected at the end of 19th century and destroyed by the Russian Cossacks during WW1. Florin’s fine investigative skills led to this detective work:

http://www.mareleboian.com/lacasuri-sfinte/sinagoga-evreiasca/

In addition a list of Jews from Boian, compiled by Prof. Vasile Bizovi, is available at the site above and can be downloaded by clicking here. No doubt about, Florin’s perception of history is from a Romanian angle of view, but his websites focussed on history, churches/synagogies, schools, traditions, today’s life, photos, videos and events offer a wealth of material around Boian. Don’t miss Florin’s links/websites:

Boian Map Room: http://www.mareleboian.com/istorie/imperiul-austro-ungar-1775-1918/harti/
Museum of Boian in Alberta/Canada (English): http://www.boianalbertamuseum.com/
Bukovina Open Air Museum (English): http://bukovina-museum.com/en/

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

Bukovina History Conference – at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Thank you Irene Fishler for supplying a Hebrew language brochure (below) describing the conference coming up on March 15, 2016. The organizer’s contact information may be found a the bottom of this page:

Dr. Ronit Fischer
Center for Jewish History

 

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We are honored to invite you to a convention entitled:

Society and History of Bukovina
The “Multi-Kulti” district of Rumania
on
March 15, 2016
Room 15, Meyersdorf building
Mount Scopus
Jerusalem

9:00-9:30 coming together and refreshments
9:30-10:00 greetings

  • Professor Uzi Rebhun, Director of the Center for Research on Romanian Jewry
  • Mrs. Andreea PăstârnacAmbasador of Rumania in Israel
  • Professor Dror Wahrman, Dean of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Mr. Micha Harish, Chairman of the AMIR organization.
  • Dr. Sa’ar Pauker, representative of the Pauker family.

10:00-11:15 First Session
Bukovina as a Symbol for Multi-Culturalism
Chairman: Professor Daniel Blattman Hebrew University

  • The Jews of Bukovina as a symbol for Romanian heterogeneity in the inter-war period
    Dr. Ronit Fischer, Hebrew and Haifa Universities.
  • To describe and imagine Czernowitz – Professor Ya’avetz and his town.
    Dr. Rafael Vago, Tel Aviv University
  • Back to Czernowitz, a paradox of memory and nostalgia – a historic-anthropologic approach.
    Dr. Florence Heyman, The French Research Center in Jerusalem. (CNRS-NAE).

11:45 – 13:30 Second Session
A Small District – Many Worlds of Multi-Cultural Creativity
Chairman: Dr. Amos Goldberg Hebrew University

  • What happens to the multicultural character of Bukovina after the holocaust? Paul Celan Dan Pagis, and Aharon Appelfeld. Sidra de Koven-Ezrahi, The Hebrew University.
  • The Jewish theater of Czernowitz during the transition between Romania and the Soviet Union.
    Ms. Dafne Dolinko The Hebrew University and Yad Va’Shem.
  • “My Bukowiner”. The writer Nava Semel returns to the lives of her grand parents and to the place where her family originated.

Organizer: Dr. Ronit Fischer

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

Posted for Ruth Glasberg Gold

Czernowitz – Stadt der Dichter [City of Poets] by Amy-Diana Colin & Edith Silbermann

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Amy-Diana Colin’s (PhD, Yale) much-anticipated book “Czernowitz – Stadt der Dichter [City of Poets]”, the “History of a Jewish Family from Bukovina (1900-1948)” is now at the bookseller’s!

What a literary delectation, something for winter’s eve, but not only! From the blurb we learn: “The report of an exceptional contemporary witness: Edith Silbermann, nee Horowitz, from Czernowitz (Bukovina), actress, reciter, translator, Germanist, publicist, mediator between German and Jewish cultural traditions, narrates her turbulent family history and reports on her youth in Czernowitz before and during WW2. One chapter of this book is dedicated to Paul Antschel (Celan), Edith Silbermann’s friend from the early Czernowitz years until his death. It was for both, Paul and Edith, the first love of their youth. […]”

It is not just a literary delectation, it’s also a listening pleasure, since this precious book comes with two audio CDs including recordings from Edith Silbermann’s sophisticated recitation program. Read, listen and enjoy! It’s a special publication for Czernowitz lovers!

Jewish Population in Bukovina between 1774 – 1914

Die Juden in der Bukowina

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Visualization of the [Statistical Chart Covering the Population Growth of the Bukovinian Jews between 1774 – 1914] “Statistische Tabelle über den Bevölkerungszuwachs der Bukowinaer Juden von 1774 – 1914”  as per Dr. Salomon Kassner’s book [The Jews in Bukovina] “Die Juden in der Bukowina”, R. Löwit, Vienna/Berlin, 1917, p. 43.