From Galicia to Bukovina

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Synagogues

April 26. Chortkiv is our last stop in Galicia, a former center of Hasidism. Then we travel further south, into the Bukovina and towards Chernivtsi (former Czernowitz).

Chrortkiv – Hasidic synagogue

Chrortkiv – market

Chrortkiv – synagogue next to the market

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From Berezhani to Chortkiv

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

April 25. We travel further through Eastern Galicia. Berezhani, Pidhaitsi, Buchach, Chortkiv – remains of synagogues, cemeteries and rabbinical courts.

Berezhani – market square

Berezhani – Jewish cemetery

Berezhani – tour with the students from the local orphanage

Berezhani – Great Synagogue

Pidhaitsi – Jewish cemetery

Pidhaitsi – Jewish cemetery, mass grave

Pidhaitsi – Jewish cemetery

Pidhaitsi – synagogue

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Silence in the Rabbi’s Residence

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Northern Bukovina, Synagogues

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?

Sadagora synagogue, 2010

Sadagora, residence of rabbi Friedman, 2012

Sadagora cemetery, 2008

Sadagora cemetery, 2012

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In Zhovkva you can learn about Diversity

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Synagogues

During my visit in October 2012, Zhovkva turns out to be an extraordinary beautiful place. As the nearby Lviv (Lwow, Lemberg), the town’s streets tell about the multiethnic past of Galicia – in a smaller scale than the imposing Lviv. The town has a touristic future. Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish heritage would be part of it. Including one of the most beautiful synagogues in Galicia.

Zhovkva synagogue

Zhovkva synagogue and market

Zhovkva synagogue – Aron Hakodesh

Zhovkva synagogue

Zhovkva – traces of a mezuzah

Zhovkva – market square

Zhovkva – Ukrainian wooden square

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The Lost Synagogues of Czernowitz

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Northern Bukovina, Synagogues

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.

Beyt Meir Synagogue

Aaron and Frida Goldfrucht Synagogue

Synagogue in Klara Zetkin Street

Synagogue of the Sadagora Rabbi

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How a Synagogue became a Synagogue again

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Northern Bukovina, Synagogues

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.