Re: [czernowitz-l] ?translation

The headquarters in ChernivtsiPhoto by Wikimedia Commons

From Sarah Rachel SchechterJune 13, 2023

[Reprinted from Forward, March 26, 2010]

Usually, when people talk about the Jewish history of the city of Chernowitz, they emphasize its importance as a center of Jewish literature and culture.

You hear almost nothing about one aspect: the life of the pious Jews in Chernowitz. It's really a shame, because in that period there were no less than five Hasidic rabbis in the city, said Rabbi Meir Moskowitz, the Chernowitz-born author of a book of memoirs in Hebrew, "Kazah rah wakadesh" (So saw and sanctified).

Rabbi Moskowitz, who was born in 1927, was for many years a Bible teacher, as well as a Yiddish teacher, at the prominent New York Jewish high school Ramz. During an interview with the Forward in 2010, he said that he himself was the son of the hunter Rabin. Four other rabbis also lived in Chernowitz at the time: the Boianer rabbi, R. Moshe Friedman; The Nadverner rabbi, Itamar Rosenbaum; The Kitever rabbi, Grossman; The Zalishchik rabbi, Hager and the Shotz rabbi, Rabbi Avraham-Chaim Moskowitz. All the rabbis were relatives, because they all made matches among themselves.

The Shotzer rabbi in Chernowitz, R. Avraham-Chaim Moskowitz (right), with his uncle, R. Yankele, the Shotzer rabbi in Shotz (in the middle), and nephew Zalman Leib. Left: The Rabitsin, Old SheindelCourtesy of the Moskowitz Family

Every rabbi had a court with Hasidim, Rabbi Moskowitz said, but compared to the rabbis, who wore a turban on Shabbat and Yom Tov, the worshipers already considered themselves "modern people" - they didn't have a beard. or Paws, and came to the Menin wearing a top hat and coat. Rabbi Moskovitze's own family lived in the same building as the shill. "I myself had small problems," he added.

Rabbi Moskowitz's mother, Alte-Sheindel, was the daughter of the Pideyets rabbi, she wore a wig, but she, and the other "rabbi's children", as they used to call them, were far under the influence of the modern city. Compared to her husband, who spoke Yiddish with the children, the Rabbi spoke German. She went to the theater, read Yiddish poetry and shook hands with men. On Mother's Day, the little "Mayrel" brought her flowers, and on New Year's Eve, the rabbi and the other women of the rabbinical homes had a feast.

"On New Year's Eve, they came to us on the second floor, elegantly dressed, and ate and spent hours together," Rabbi Moskowitz said. And although they didn't drink any liquor, "the strings of the Bayonne rabbi did smell of cigarettes."

Rabbi Moskowitz still remembers his first day in the classroom at the age of three. "My parents never went for a walk together, but that day they dressed me in new shorts, new shoes and a new talit-kat, and both of them took me by the hand into the room. When we arrived, my father hugged me with a tallit and carried me inside. On the table was written 'Mairl' in large golden letters. Every time I correctly recited 'Kmts Alef O, Kmts Beit Bo' a honey cookie fell down. I really thought, it's from heaven! As it says in the proverb: Torah study is like honey and milk, sweet to the soul and heals the bones.

At the age of five, Mairl started learning the fifth grade. "It was on a Saturday afternoon. Family and friends and all five rabbis came. They placed me on the table, I wore a brown velvet suit, and both of my grandfathers put on gold watches on chains. Then they asked me: What do you study in the fifth grade?"

After listening to the child, people started dancing and singing, eating cake and pies. All the rabbis wore turbans, sat and distributed shirim. He, Mairl, sat between both grandfathers.

Every morning Meirel studied in the classroom, and three times a week after lunch he went to a Zionist Hebrew school, "Beit Safri". In 1936, he went to Vishnitz to study in the Vishnitz yeshiva. He used to come home only on Shabbat Hanukkah, Passover and Yom Tov.

Rabbi Moskovits remembers Sukkah in Chernovits very well. For a whole year, the men and women ate together, but Sukkah - not. The mother blessed the light, came to the sukkah for Kiddush and HaMotsia, but then entered the house, where she spent time with the other women.

The sukkah was a big one; When the father led the table on the second night of the sukkah, in honor of the Shimchat-Beit-Shuavah, 150 people entered the sukkah. But we didn't sleep there. "It was cold, and dangerous."

The Shatzer rabbi's house also served as a hostel for the rabbis of the surrounding towns, when they had to come to Chernowitz to see a doctor. The simple Arendars also used to come to see their rabbi. "They were simply dressed - emach - wearing boots, and brought Pirot as a gift to the rabbi."

Often the mentally ill came to their door asking for donations. "One, Fishele, used to say to my mother, 'I love you!' - she was a beautiful woman - they used to take him into the house, and they gave him the same food that we ate."

Eva Marder Bender, a resident of the Bronx, NY, was also born into a pious family in Chernowitz, in 1927, but her experience was quite different from Rabbi Moskowitz's. "The father was a Zionist and an Orientalist," she said.

On the street, the father, Berl Marder, wore a black hat, and under the hat - a yarmulke. When greeting people, he took off his cap, but not his yarmulke; The mother, Esther, wore a cap, not a wig. "We weren't that fanatical," she said. "We were obviously under the influence of the Austrian culture."

As a girl, Eva, of course, did not go to the classroom; She studied the first four grades in a Hebrew, Zionist day school, "Shafa Ibriya". After finishing school, she studied for two years at "Gymnasium Hoffman", an urban educational institution for girls, and then - when the Russians took over Bukovina - she moved to the Jewish school, where most of the children are were from secular families. Although the classes continued six times a week, including Saturday, the devout students did not care. "We didn't write on Saturday," she said. The problem, however, was with the exams, which all took place on Saturday.

"We, the devout students, really suffered from this, because they used to give us the exam on Sunday or Monday and deliberately ask more difficult questions. Some of the teachers were Jewish, but they were even worse than the Russians. They wanted us to investigate what was happening at home and inform the parents. We did not give in, they became very upset."

Passover, my mother's aunt, who lived not far from the Shatzer rabbi, came for the entire Passover. "The whole time she only peeled potatoes and carrots, carrots and potatoes... that was her task. And we, girls, didn't help out, always playing around."

She used to play ball or chess - both with girls and boys, both religious and free - "whoever happened to be in the street. It didn't work out because everyone in our area was Jewish. Only the 'supers' (guards) were not Jews."

Speaking to the forward, Ms. Bender recalled an incident from her childhood that hurt her deeply. Every year she used to look out for the son of the rabbi of Milnitz to come from Galicia to accompany the rabbis and other Jews to the graves of their ancestors. Eva's father used to take her too. The horses and wagons were harnessed, and they went to the Sadiger Rabbi.

"The ride took several hours, and it was very beautiful and lively. We went to the cemetery, and later they had a feast." When Eva turned eight years old, the son of the rabbi from Milnitz told her father that a girl of her age should no longer drive, so she had to Stay in the home. "I was very upset," Mrs. Bender remarked.

From what Rabbi Moskovits and Mrs. Bender have conveyed in such detail, it is clear that Chernovits was not a city of only secular Jews. Although the winds of modernity and assimilation have already affected the pious circles, and brought in the German language and elements of the surrounding culture, they continued to preserve the mitzvot and maintain the traditions, as far as possible.

Support for the Forverts comes in part from the Marinus and Minna B. Koster Foundation

Re: [czernowitz-l] ?translation

Religious Jewish life in prewar Czernowitz

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