JEWS FROM SOUTH BUCOVINA
Settlement, demographic situation and organization in the territory
The Jews settled compactly in Moldavia and Wallachia at the end of the 14th century, taking refuge here from Ludovic of Hungary nicknamed “the Great” (1470-1382), because they did not want to convert to Catholicism. However, their presence in Bucovina can be documented with certainty only starting with the 17th century. The first cohesive Jewish communities were formed in Chernivtsi and Suceava in the decades after 1700, but the number of Jews in the Beech Country increased dramatically after 1775, after the province was included in the Austrian Empire. In this context, many Jews emigrated here from neighboring Galicia, due to better living conditions (among other things, they were exempted from military service until 1830).
The Jewish communities in Bucovina were mainly made up of Jews from Eastern Europe (Ashkenazi), although there were fewer Sephardic Jews (from Western Europe) in this province.
The Bucovina localities that had the most Jews in 1776 were Chernivtsi (495 inhabitants), Suceava (218 inhabitants) Siret (73), Vijniţa (208), Sadagura (186), Câmpulung (46), Slobozia Bănilei (67), Vilaucea ( 59), Zastavna (33), Stăneştii de Sus (30), Ispas (24), Rohozna (22), Văşcăuţi (15).
In 1910 (the year of the last Austrian imperial census), there were 102,919 Jews in Bucovina, who made up 12.9% of the total population. The 1930 census recorded the existence of 91,089 Jews in Bucovina (10.8% of the total population).
After the deportations from Transnistria in 1941, the number of Bucovinian Jews decreased dramatically. Subsequently, Jews from southern Bucovina emigrated en masse to Israel during the Dej regime, and those from the northern province in the last years of the Soviet regime.
In the year of the first and, until now, the only census in independent Ukraine (2001), only 1443 Jews still lived in the Chernivtsi region, of which 1308 in the city of Chernivtsi.
The 2011 census recorded the existence in Romania of 3271 Jews, of which 70 in Suceava County (27 in Suceava, 12 in Fălticeni, 17 in Rădăuți, 3 in Vatra Dornei, 4 in Dorna Candreni, etc.).
The central organization of Jews in Romania, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania consists of 39 communities. Four of them are located in Suceava County: the Jewish community of Fălticeni (President Robert Steinmetz), the Jewish community of Rădăuți (President Igo Ziggi Kofler), the Jewish community of Suceava (President Sorin Golda), the Jewish community of Vatra Dornei Ana Corduban).
Customs (traditions)
The Jews are the “people of the book” and their survival in history, after the disappearance of the Jewish state, is due – no doubt – to their monotheistic religion, which they have kept unchanged to this day. Therefore, the main traditions of the Jews are the religious ones.
The religious life of Bucovinian Jews was especially influenced by Hasidism, a religious current that appeared in southeastern Poland today in the eighteenth century and introduced to Bucovina in the next century, characterized mainly by a kind of joy and ecstasy towards God’s creation. Under the influence of Hasidism appeared the famous “rabbinical court” from Sadagura (universal symbol of Bucovinian Hasidism), other Hasidic “rabbinic courts” being founded in Boian, Chernivtsi, Storojineț, Vijnița in northern Bucovina, Radauti, Siret and Suceava in the south of the province.
In the communities of Bucovinian Jews in the 21st century, there are still two types of customs (traditions): religious and secular. Among the religious traditions, the most important are the following: Roș Hașana (New Year), Yom Kippur (Forgiveness Day), Hanukkah (Maccabees Day, Feast of Lights), Purim (Feast of Destiny), Passover (Passover), Shavuot (Feast of Weeks, Pentecost).
After 1990, Jewish communities in southern Bucovina commemorate two tragic events in the history of the Jewish people: Holocaust Day (January 27) and the deportation of Jews from southern Bucovina to Transnistria (October 9).
2.1. Religious customs (traditions)
Organized by the leaders of the Jewish communities from Fălticeni, Rădăuți, Suceava and Vatra Dornei, they represent an opportunity to meet, rejoice and strengthen group solidarity. In addition to local Jews, these meetings are attended by leaders or personalities of Jews in Romania and political or cultural figures of Suceava County.
Roș Hașana is celebrated, depending on the Jewish calendar, in September or October, but it can never fall on Thursday, Friday or Sunday. In 2022, Roș Hașana will be celebrated on September 25, 5783 according to the Jewish calendar.
This holiday also called “Remembrance Day” (the memory of the creation of the world and of Adam and Eve) lasts 2 days and is marked by two special events: the blowing (sounding) in the shofar (horn) and a special dinner. Breathing in the shofar is meant to “confuse Satan and thus prevent him from bringing charges against the Jews before God before the Day of Judgment” (another name for the Roș Hașana holiday).
At the festive dinner, apples smeared with honey are served, so that next year it will be good and sweet, various fruits and vegetables and a head of fish. The traditional wishes during dinner are “Șana tova” (A good year) and “Șana tova ve metuka” (A good and sweet year).
The next ten days after Roș Hașana are days of examination of conscience, penance and prayer, in anticipation of the Day of Forgiveness. Yom Kippur, considered the holiest day of the Jewish year, is a day spent in prayer and fasting, until the appearance of the first stars. It is believed that then God decides, according to tradition, the fate of each Jew and the fate of the Jewish people. In 2022, Yom Kippur will be celebrated on October 5, 5783.
Hanukkah is an 8-day holiday that commemorates mainly the historical events that took place between 165-163 BC, marked by the victorious battle of the Maccabee family against the Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom of Syria. It is also called the “Feast of Lights”, reminiscent of the miracle of lights lit for eight days (although they had oil for only one day), at the expulsion of the heathen from the temple in Jerusalem, during the reign of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The beginning of this holiday in 2022 is December 18, the year 5783.
Purim is a holiday that celebrates the miracle of saving from death the Jews of the Persian Empire led by King Xerxes / Artaxerxes I (465-424 BC), of the royal dynasty of the Achaemenids. According to the book of Esther in the Old Testament, Haman, a high royal dignitary, wants the death of the Jews who are saved from death by the wisdom of Esther and her uncle, Mordecai. Haman is later killed along with his 10 sons. Purim is a playful celebration, with carnival, songs and dances. A special triangle-shaped cake, consumed on this occasion by the Bucovinian Jews, is Hamantaschen (generally translated as “Haman’s pockets”), but reminiscent, by its shape, rather of a cap / hat worn by him.
In 2022, Purim will be celebrated on March 16-17, the year 5783. Passover or the Passover feast commemorates the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egyptian captivity and the 40 years of pilgrimage through the wilderness. During this holiday, no bread or leavened bakery products are eaten. In 2022, Passover will be celebrated on April 15-23, the Jewish year 5783.
Șavuot.
The feast celebrates God’s giving of the Torah to the Jewish people through Moses. Christians call it Pentecost because, according to the Jewish calendar, it is celebrated 50 days after Passover. Shavot will be celebrated on June 4-6, 2022, the Jewish year 5783.
2.2. Secular traditions
The commemoration of Holocaust Day (January 27) and the deportation to Transnistria of Jews from southern Bucovina (October 9) benefited, after 1990, from participating in specific activities (mainly scientific conferences and symposia) held in Fălticeni, Rădăuți, Suceava, Vatra Dor of some big names of the Jewish community in Romania: Otto Adler, Lya Benjamin, Liviu Beriș, Oliver Lustig, Liviu Rotman, Raphael Schapiro, Harry Kuller. People of culture from Suceava County or from other counties of the country always participate in these activities, as guests or lecturers.
Legends and stories
The folk tales of the Jews from the Romanian space (including here Romania, northern Bucovina and the Republic of Moldova) fall into two types of storytelling: maises (sg. Maise) and kaskalim (sg. Kaskale). According to the writer, ethnologist and art historian Claus Stephani (originally from Brașov), maises are folk tales with a fairy tale character while kaskalim have a different fairy tale character, but slightly ambiguous: they tell stories about events that “may to have taken place ”but also about characters who have lived in the past, in reality. In the following, we present a corn harvested by Claus Stephani in 1981, in Rădăuți. Surveys conducted in 2021 within the Jewish community there show that it was still known to the interlocutors.
About the man with his wife A man once lived, and if he had not lived, I would not have told this corn. Yes, yes, you heard right: It’s a corn and not a story, that means everything is untrue or the truth is so deep that it can’t be recognized. Because this man existed, maybe someone once said that he was a Hutan from Vicovul de Sus, the one to whom all this happened. Can you know? But I am of a completely different opinion: The man I am talking about now was not a Hutan from Vicovul de Sus and was not a Swabian either; he was one of our men, a Jew, a poor Jew. So far, about the person I’m going to tell you a few things about right away. So: He once lived a a man who was neither clever, nor stupid, nor lazy, nor industrious, who lived his days like this, without anyone noticing him. Such people exist and it is said about them: He did not eat garlic, but his mouth does not smell either. Or it is said: Before going to steal a horse, ask permission. Yes, there are some of them, and among the Jews, in ancient times it was full of these poor figures, who did not steal any chicken, but they did not have any.
This man, therefore, had nothing but a modest hut of earth, a cat (you must always have this, otherwise you do not get rid of mice), a small vegetable garden also had, right behind the house, and of course he also had a wife, but she was very greedy. Now, this is what happens: The woman is greedy, she wants to grab and have, but where to get something, if there is nothing to take from nowhere. Greed alone does not bring wealth, at most it poisons the soul.
One day the woman said to the man: “Iosii”, because that was his name, I had forgotten to say that, “Iosii, you go to the forest and cut wood, but go only when it gets dark, so that the horn does not see you. We just don’t need any wood to boil the dandelion soup. ” (These people were so poor, you couldn’t even find a steak on Saturday, a proper soup, let alone fish or stew.
When it became very dark, Joshua took his ax and went into the woods, and because it was a moonlit night he could see well. This is how he saw a young beech that the storm had bent and that probably could not have straightened anyway. He raised his ax and wanted to strike, but he heard the beech say softly:
“Oh, Joshua, good man, spare me. I’m still young and I want to grow up and live. I will gladly fulfill any wish of yours ”. That’s what the young beech said.
“No,” said Joshua, “then all you have to do is take my shed full of wood and then you just have to knock it down.” And run home.
When he looked behind his hut, the small, crooked shed was indeed stuffed with the finest and finest firewood, all cut, cracked, and stacked. Now he also told his wife, Șura, what had happened to him a short time ago in the forest.
“You fool, what a fool you are,” she scolded him, and sprinkled him with the worst words, “how could you be such a fool?” Many more had to, for example, a new house with a tile roof, as there are a few in Frătăuți, where the Swabians live. Come on, run to the forest and ask the beech for a new house ”.
What should I say next? and this wish was granted, and he thought that now his wife would be satisfied. But it was not so, unfortunately, because not long after he began to ask for something and then something else and something else and he always had a wish that the beech had to fulfill. And Joshua, I must say, had even begun to be a little upset with Shura because he was not giving her peace and her greed was growing.
Then one day he said, “Come, you go into the forest, Joshua, and ask the beech to make all the people of the village our serfs; and all their possessions to be ours ”.
And as Joshua stood in front of the beech tree and transmitted to him, a little embarrassed – and this must be said, because he did not feel at ease at all – , and the branches of the tree bent and slapped him over the face, so that several times he shouted “Auvei, auvei”. There was thunder in the sky and the storm broke out. But Josiah was suddenly frightened, he felt that this time he had asked too much; and leaving quickly, he ran to the village.
Amu, what do you think he saw in the village?
Where the new and beautiful house had been was his small, dirty hut again, and his wife had crouched in front of her, whining that everything she had received in such a short time had simply slipped from under her ass. He was gone, as if he had never been! “Alas, alas, alas, my God!” Josiah now repented. and they both sat all night and wept and wailed. That was the punishment because, in their greed, they wanted to make other servants.
The very next morning, Josiah runs into the woods to apologize to the good beech and recover at least some of the lost wealth. But no matter how hard he looked for the beech, he couldn’t find it.