It’s all gone, it’s still there

Galicia and Bukovina are covered with partially or totally destroyed Jewish cemeteries. The grave stones were abused as building material during the German occupation and the years of Soviet rule. However, history does not just disappear. During construction works fragments of Jewish grave stones come to light. These stones raise questions – first of all the question of how we want to deal with the past.


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Galicia and Bukovina in Black and White (1)

Analog photography is not for the impatient. Through digital cameras we are used to check a picture directly. Images on film are different. Two weeks after the trip through Galicia and Bukovina I got the developed black and white films and the scans of the negatives. A first impression and a first selection.


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The Lost Synagogues of Chernivtsi – A Correction

April 29. My fellow travelers and I have time to stroll through the streets of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). As always, it is wonderful to be here. In October last year I wrote about the lost synagogues of the city. Berti Glaubach then made me aware of an error. Now I have a chance to correct my mistake.


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The Leather Suitcase

This is a poem by Tom Berman, the great-grandson of Lazar Igel, the first Rabbi of the Czernowitz Temple. Tom died a few days ago in the Galapagos islands; it was a life-long dream of him to go there. Tom survived Nazi dictatorship over huge parts of Europe through the “Kindertransport” to England. His family was erased. The poem reflects this. Tom immigrated to Israel and became an internationaly known scientist. He survived the time of persecution by 68 years.

Tomb of Lazar Igel at Czernowitz Jewish cemetery

Tomb of Lazar Igel at Czernowitz Jewish cemetery

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Travel Plans are almost complete

From April 21 to May 5  I go to Ukraine again. With me are two good friends, an old camera, a bunch of black and white films, a lot of travel plans and one of the most terrible books I have ever read. I hope to report from the trip while traveling. Do you have recommendations?


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Action Reconciliation Service for Peace announces summer camp to clear the Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi

Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) expects 13 to 15 volunteers for a summer camp from September 26 to October 8 in Chernivtsi (former Czernowitz). Participants in the age of 40+ will not only work but also explore the history of the city.

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Silence in the Rabbi’s Residence

In 2006 I was for the first time in Sadagora (Sadhora in Ukrainian). Since then I have returned almost every year. The formerly independent community is now a suburb of Czernowitz (Chernivtsi) and was up to the Romanian and German occupation, the home of a Hasidic rabbinical dynasty and its followers. What remained is a cemetery, the synagogue of the rabbi of Sadagora and his residence. Do these spots of commemoration have a future?

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The Lost Synagogues of Czernowitz

The Chabad community of Czernowitz (today’s Chernivtsi) has compiled an impressive list of Jewish related sites in the city and published it. Using this list, I was strolling through the streets of the city in August 2012. Often these traces can only be suspected, but sometimes they are also obvious. From the former 60 synagogues and prayer houses many are still there.

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How a Synagogue became a Synagogue again

In 2006 I was for the first time in Chernivtsi, former Czernowitz. Looking for the traces of Jewish life I tried to locate former synagogues. One of them is the Korn Shil – 2006 still abused for an electric transformer of the power company. Today the Korn Shil is a synagogue again.

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Work-camp by SVIT Ukraine to clear the Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi announced

We can complain or we can take action. SVIT Ukraine helps since 5 years to rescue one of the most important spots of Jewish heritage in Eastern Europe: The Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi – former Czernowitz. You can be part of it!


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