The history of our brethren in Di Bukovina is a sad one, if you think of it. There wasn't much religious Judaism to speak of after WWI. This has been discussed here on the blog in the past. The late Vizhnitzer Rebbe, was born during WWI. He was raised both in Marmures, in Groswardein, and in Vilchovitz. He didn't get to see what was in Vizhnitz. You might ask: If, as the book tells us, the young ones all went to Germany to study, where are all the young Bukoviner professors and doctors? And this is all before WW2 came along and destroyed it completely. What we bring you is an excerpt from the biography of the late Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bene Beraq. Surprisingly they are quite open about the situation there, not trying to gloss it over and make it one euphoric mass of Ch'nyokes like some do when they speak of the Alte Heim. But what they do seem to do on their quest for the truth and honesty is maybe overdo it? It's mamesh as if there were absolutely no young chassidim left in Vizhnitz! Then, when speaking about the Vishiver Rov, the older brother of the Imrei Chaim, the one who had a Yeshiva with hundreds of bachurim hurreving in Torah, they make him sound like a Daf Yomi maggid shiur, you'll excuse the expression...
ReplyDeleteנאר בלייבט נאר... פארט אינגערישע
די אמת מוז געזאגט ווערן, די ויזניצע מצב איז נישט עומד לעצמו, בעלז איז נישט געווען בעסער, אוודאי נישט באבאוו אין די אנדערע!!!
ReplyDeleteYears ago Tzuki Lau said in a interview that he renumbers rosh hashana by his grandfather the Ahavas yisroel,that half of the crowd wore white yarmulkes,
ReplyDeleteA Viznitzer chosid a friend of mine was mad and said that it was a blatant lie,
But now I see that the Yeshioth moshe has the same recollection of that era
Many of the survivors from the Bukovina are indeed professors and doctors...
ReplyDeleteBukovina was very modern post WWI but each town was different. Gura Humour still had a nice amount of chassidim for example... As did Seret.. Other towns were mostly secular or what we would
From first hand accounts, I can relate that there was still somewhat of a hoyf/yeshiva in the town of Vihznitz even in the 1930's. The Ahavas Yisroel would come a few times a year to visit... I think Chanukah