Category Archives: Books

No, it’s not Harold Lloyd, it’s Simon Rosner!

In 1932 Simon Rosner built an Eiffel Tower out of plywood, which was then exhibited for a whole year in a Czernowitz downtown shop’s window. The picture from March 14th, 1932 is showing him and the Eiffel Tower. And here is the English version of the two paragrahs in Charles Rosner’s book about the period in the early thirties in Czernowitz, when his father, Simon Rosner, got closer to his mother, Rusia Wagner:“…From then on, Simon enters Rusia’s group of friends: he participates to their excursions and cultural outgoings, to their sportive activities – he is good at the vaulting horse – and does his best to get her to notice him. More a manual than an intellectual, he has some difficulties to express his feelings with words. By the end of 1931, he builds an Eiffel Tower – a sign of premonition? – made of thin plywood: it is 1.5 meter high, has the name Rosner inserted in the structure, and will be exhibited for a whole year in a Czernowitz downtown shop’s window. A nice illustration of the fame France enjoys in Eastern Europe.The round and black frame of Simon’s glasses irresistibly reminds of Harold Lloyd, that American silent-movies actor [see below], whose character of a big clumsy boy is permanently and unconsciously running towards staggering adventures…  It is certainly at that time that he got the nickname ‘Bumerl’: Rusia, as well as all his friends, will call him by that nickname till the end of his life. In ancient Viennese, ‘Bummerl’ stands for a puppy easy to fool; whereas, in informal German, it means a stroller or a slowpoke. As for Rusia, he calls her Mäderl, little girl, nickname that he will sole be allowed to use all their life long.”

Click on picture to enlarge!

At least, one of Rusia’s brothers was well known in Czernowitz in the thirties: Edi Wagner, who created a folkloric ensemble (Die Rote Kapelle) in 1934, trying to resist the Romanian fascist environment. Towards the end, the ensemble had about 100 young people from all ‘nationalities’ (Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, Romanians, etc.) who sang, danced and played balalaika and guitar. They gave a dozen performances in Czernowitz, Bukowina and also in the old Regat, encountered great popular success, but in August 1936, the Siguranta arrested Edi Wagner: he was beaten and tortured to death and finally thrown out of a second floor window at police Headquarters. Edi Wagner was not yet 26 when he died.The photo below shows part of Edi Wagner’s orchestra: Rusia is second starting from right, Simon Rosner is standing behind her and Rusia’s sister (mother of Eduard Weissmann, Gabrielle’s husband) is sixth. If anyone recognizes someone in the picture, of course Charles Rosner would like him/her to let him know.

Click on picture to enlarge!

Released by Edgar Hauster by courtesy of Charles Rosner. Click here for Charles Rosner’s biography. For book orders please refer directly to Charles Rosner (contact details available upon request).

Moghilev-Podolsk – Ghetto – Three Clips

Headed by Valery Dymshits, Doctor of Science in Chemistry and Director of Petersburg Judaica, field Studies of Shtetls (Summer Schools for Field Work 2004-2008) were organized in cooperation with the “Sefer” Center (Moscow) and conducted in small towns of Ukraine (Tulchin, Balta, Moghilev-Podolsk, Bershad, Gaysin, etc.).


The first results of this work are presented in the volume “Shtetl, 21th century: Field Studies”.

This volume has been published with the support of the AVI CHAI Foundation and Chase Family Foundation.

We are eagerly looking forward to more of this research and hopefully an English translation of this volume.

 

Gueboiren of Tzu Kvetchen

GEBOIREN OIF TZU KVETCHEN

Is based on the first Chapter ot Michael Wex book Born to Kvetch,

Kvetchenzaij bakluguen is nit blois a shpas, oder di enfert tzu shlejte tzeiten oder shvirikaiten. Kvetchen is a leiben stil dos hot gurnisht tzu tien mit di meiglijkait tzuoisfiren dos vos nen vil oder men zujt in leiben.

Kvetchen, complaining is not just a joke, or the response to problems or difficult times. Kvetchen is a way of living that is not related with the possibility of accomplishing what you want or what you pursue in life.

Men ken zij kvetchen as men is zat oder ven men is hunguerig, ven men is tzufriden oder ven men ist un glicklich, es ist a mitle of tzu vissen est ist a mitlle zeij tzu zorguen vos kickt oif di velt mit colierte gleizer.

One can kvetch when one is satisfied or when hungry, when you are happy and content, it is a way to worry kind of looping into the World with colored glasses.

Kvetchen is a weig oid tzu aroisbreing a bisl fargueniguen bay backluguen zij, men tit of tzelujesder velt, a velt vos ist nisht fraindleich oder michet deij,

Kvetchen is a means to extract some satisfaction by complaining, a means to annoy the world that doesn’t like you or disturbs you.

Will continue.

Isidoro Zaidman

isidoro@racsa.co.cr

Moshe Barasch: Wunderkind & Art Historian

Begger – Moshe Barasch (Czernowitz 1920 – 2004 Jerusalem)

Barasch was born to Menachem and Gusta Barasch and grew up in Czernowitz. […] His father was a Zionist who introduced his son to the tradition of Haskala, the Jewish Enlightenment.

The young Barasch showed himself to have substantial art talent. By age 12, he had already exhibited his drawings and paintings in Czernowitz, Prague, Budapest and Boston, which he visited. He wrote daily in his notebooks, one of which was a diary. As a member of the Haggana, the Jewish military organization later to become the Israeli army, he used his artistic skills to forge passports for fleeing Jews. […]

Barasch was Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Univ. Center for Italian Renaissance Studies (“I Tatti”), Florence, in 1969. He was appointed Jack Cotton Professor of the History of Art and Chair of of Institute of Fine and Performing Arts, Hebrew University in 1971, which he held until 1975, intermittently acting as a Visiting Professor and Research Associate at New York University between 1970-79. He was Senior Fellow at Cornell University’s Society for Humanities in 1981and the same year Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Pennsylvania State University.

In 1982 he taught as a visiting professor at the Freie Universität, Berlin. He published the first edition of his collected documents on the history of art theory in 1985. Between 1986-88 he taught at Yale University.  In 1987 he published his Giotto and the Language of Gesture, major contribution to the literature on that artist. He became emeritus in 1988.  In 1996 he was the recipient of the Israel Prize, and elected corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Barasch was the first Israeli art historian to attain worldwide recognition, lecturing widely at institutions in Europe and the United States (Freedman). […]

His lectures and books, many of which were written in Hebrew, helped to develop the art historical terminology in that language and drew attention to many of the themes that were to attract scholars in the humanities. Three generations of Israelis grew up on the books he wrote, edited.  He was also instrumental in having important art history texts translated into Hebrew. Francis Peters’ 1985 book on Jerusalem was dedicated to him and his wife.

Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 9, No. 17 (1988), pp. 127-135

Reflections on Tombstones: Childhood Memories

CLICK HERE FOR THE PDF DOWNLOAD OF THE ARTICLE!

Spuren, die vergehen [Vanishing Traces]

This richly illustrated book documents the search for the former Jewish presence in Satu Mare in the Northwest of today’s Romania. In 1944, Satu Mare’s Jewry was almost completely annihilated in the Holocaust. What is left are vanishing traces, mostly ruined Jewish cemeteries and shabby synagogues. These forgotten sites bear witness to the formerly proud Jewish presence in the region. On his journeys Simon Geissbühler is not only interested in the Jewish heritage and the Jewish microcosm of Satu Mare. He also discusses the history of the Romanian Jews in the 20th century, the Holocaust in Romania, the still almost inexistent culture of memory and remembrance in Romania, a country which was home to one of the most important Jewish communities in pre-World War II Europe. The author builds new inroads into what once was a thriving Jewish community and makes a world long gone rise again.