Category Archives: Press

Czernowitz in the Year 2010 – A Prophecy by Dr. Jakob Flinker

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[…] The Comet Tempel-Tuttle and the Leonid asteroid showers were visible from earth in 1866. They appeared just after writing my ‘Prophecy’ which was also the time people were fighting and dying in the Austro – Prussian war. But war sagas are not relevant to describing this city. This city is called Czernowitz and the year is 2010. What will Czernowitz look like in the next Millennium? If my views have any truth, we must move forward, not backwards and imagine that our city of the future will have water mains, good drainage, electric lighting and will look like as follows in the year 2010. Join me with my prophetic thoughts.

It is 10 May 2010 and 5 clock in the morning. The Graubart House and Beck’s Real Estates have gone. The Town Hall next to it now has an empty space on one side. It is springtime and a gorgeous fountain splashes its crystal clear water onto highly decorated metallic bowls, surrounded by beautiful fragrant gardens. Peace and tranquility prevail, the streets are much wider, the old buildings on the main square have disappeared, and well-appointed new structures fill the spaces where there were once narrow streets. Trams travel up and down these widened thoroughfares. This is a busy place, the streets are filled with people and there are many fabulous large new buildings, but I go further. In the main square, Elisabeth Square, buildings are made entirely out of glass. One of them contains a huge pool, where live fish swirl. Plantings of beautiful fragrant gardens are laid out in between. Gleaming roof tops are covered in bronze and shine Zen like in the May sunshine. Always lively is the bustle of people in our city. School children from the local school run fast because it is nearly 8 clock in the morning. This is happening in of all places, Austria! What a glorious sight! In the middle of all this, is a park, with another fountain, an example of splendid contemporary art, as well as modern houses built in modern-day designs, elegant and beautifully finished in glistening bronze. One historic monument standing silently and respectfully is the old courthouse, remembering that Law and Justice at all times should be the foundation of humanity.

For me the best part of any future construction in the next Millenium, is the Cecina Gasse which consists of a small bridge with a road reaching to the summit of Mount Cecina in the nearby Carpathians. Electrified railways go backwards and forwards carrying thousands of people. The route is only 5 kilometers long. I get into a car and within a few minutes reach the summit. Beautiful villas sit side by side, built in rustic style. An energy is found up here, fabulous restaurants and bands are playing, making everyone happy all breathing the freshest forest and mountain air, with wonderful wide vistas far into the distance. Life here is full of excitement and anticipation. Cecina now a city, is a splendid sight with its sunlit buildings and tall tower blocks. One brand new invention of the new millennium delights many admirers. There is a small cottage which has cameras and telephone devices so the inhabitants can use these between towns. People are able to see and speak to each other at the same time. I am lost in this world of the future! […]

Dr. Jakob Flinker

Courtesy: Jill Rothwell/Bieder • Read more at: Jill Rothwell’s Family Connection to Czernowitz

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

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Mechel (Michael) Fleischer, 1842 – 1908, Men’s Tailor in Czernowitz

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Bukowinaer Post, October 20, 1908, p. 3

Edgar Hauster: This is the obituary for my great-grandfather Mechel (Michael) Fleischer, deceased on October 16, 1908 in Czernowitz, subsequently to a diabetic coma. He was the co-founder of the Men’s Tailor Store Binderer & Fleischer as early as 1858. In 1881 Mechel became sole owner of the well-established business on Herrengasse; his customers came mainly from the middle class and the civil service. Mechel’s colleagues from the Tailor’s Association carried him to his grave while his family was in mourning for him, i. e. his wife [Fanny Fleischer, née Ehrlich], his son [Emil Fleischer, Deputy Station Master in Czernowitz] and his two daughters, the first one [Gusta Bardach] married with the postmaster Bardach in Stanislau and the other one [Marjem Hauster, my grandmother] with the engineer Hauslich [correct, Elias Hauster, my grandfather] in Czernowitz.

Marion Tauschwitz – Author of the Year 2015

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Autorinnenvereinigung e.V.: Die Autorin Marion Tauschwitz, bekannt durch Bücher wie ,,Hilde Domin – Dass ich sein kann wie ich bin‘‘ oder ihr neustes Werk ‚‘‘Selma Merbaum – ich habe keine Zeit gehabt zuende zu schreiben‘‘, welches schon jetzt zur Weltliteratur zählt, wurde von der Autorinnenvereinigung einstimmig zur Autorin des Jahres 2015 gekürt. „ Als Autorin verkörpert Marion Tauschwitz das, was die Autorinnenvereinigung von ihren Mitgliedern erwartet: Engagement, nicht nur beim Schreiben sondern auch im Alltag, im Politischen“, erklärt Ute Hacker die Entscheidung des AV-Vorstands. Tauschwitz, geboren 1953 in Freiberg, studierte Germanistik und Anglistik in Heidelberg, wo sie bis heute lebt und arbeitet. Bevor ihre Karriere als Autorin & Schriftstellerin begann, arbeitete sie unter anderem als Gymnasiallehrerin und Dozentin. Als engste Vertraute und Mitarbeiterin der Lyrikerin Hilde Domin war Tauschwitz in der Lage, eine vielbeachtete Biografie über sie zu schreiben. Ihre neueste und sehr bewegende Biografie über die ukrainische Dichterin Selma Merbaum, die mit nur 18 Jahren in einem deutschen Zwangsarbeitslager ums Leben kam, wurde durch jahrelange Recherche zu einer spannenden, wissenschaftlich fundierten Biografie. Darüber hinaus schreibt Tauschwitz sowohl Novellen wie auch Essays. Seit geraumer Zeit ist Marion Tauschwitz Mitglied in der Autorinnenvereinigung e.V., von der sie jetzt einstimmig zur Autorin des Jahres 2015 ernannt wurde. Das internationale Netzwerk für deutschsprachige Autorinnen und Schriftstellerinnen aus verschiedenen Genres setzt sich für mehr weibliche Präsenz in der Literatur ein. Die Mitglieder geben öffentliche Lesungen und halten Vorträge zu literarischen Themen. Überdies veranstaltet die AV jährlich den Goldstaub-Wettbewerb in den Genres Lyrik und Prosa, vergibt Projektstipendien und kürt die Autorin des Jahres, um nur ein paar ihrer Schaffensfelder zu nennen. Für diesen Anerkennungspreis werden jährlich viele Autorinnen und Schriftstellerinnen, basierend auf ihren herausragenden Leistungen nominiert. So erging es Marion Tauschwitz. Marion Pelny, ebenfalls Autorin und Beirätin der Autorinnenvereinigung, schlug sie nicht nur wegen ihrer bemerkenswerten Veröffentlichungen, sondern auch wegen des damit verbundenen politischen Engagements vor. Der Vorstand stimmte dem voll und ganz zu und wählte Marion Tauschwitz einstimmig. Die offizielle Vorstellung und Preisverleihung wird im Rahmen der Jahrestagung der Autorinnenvereinigung e.V. am 24. Oktober in Göttingen stattfinden.

ADDITIONAL LINKS:
http://marion-tauschwitz.de/
http://www.autorinnenvereinigung.eu/verein/news.html