די לעצטע וויזשניצע חסידים אין ראדאוויץ, אין די בוקאווינע - תשל"ה

זעהט דא אויך

כ"ק אדמו"ר ר' משה'לע וויזשניצער זצ"ל האט פראבירט ראטעווען די יונגווארג אין בוקאווינע/מארמוראש

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...

  Vizsnitz for Parents Berlin for the Boys

אסאך רעבעצינס אין דארנא, בוקאווינע

Vatra Dornei -  דארנא וועטרא in Bukovina was a resort town/spa where many Jews would travel on vacation. It was also where a certain Bar Mitzvah took place in the summer of 1939. The bochur - Yaakov Yosef Twerski, son of the Reb Mordche Yisroel Twerski הי"ד, Rebbe of Azarnitz-Chotin - was a VERY big Yachsan and EVERYBODY and their wife came to the Bar Mitzvah. Some of them posed for pictures. We bring you two pictures from that occasion. You might say that is בהמשך to yesterday's post about the Rebbetzin Tzipoyreh, wife of the previous Skverrer Rebbe, zt"l.  Taking a closer look, without, ahem, looking too close, one can see a little of ירידת הדורות, or נשתנו העתים, if you will, in the manner of dress of the ladies, with the older generation still wearing the old tichel and the younger ones wearing some sort of sheitel or sheitel/tichel combo. This may have been the forerunner of what we see today in the ezras noshim in some kehillos. The Rebbe of Azarnitz-Chotin was killed by the רשעים in Bessarabia in 1941, but his son, the bochur haBar Mitzvah survived and married the daughter of the late Kopycnitzer Rebbe, Reb Avrohom Yehoshua Heschel, zt"l. We shall try and name the ladies pictured here, at least those in the first photograph. Photo caption courtesy of ספר מי יראנו טוב מאת הרב יצחק מאיר טווערסקי

מימין לשמאל: עומדות שניה מימין - הרבנית בת שבע אשת רבינו (רבי מרדכי ישראל טווערסקי מאזארניץ-חאטין), רייזל מרים ליפקיס בת רבינו, הרבנית טריינא (טראנע) אשת רבי יעקב יוסף טווערסקי אדמו"ר מסקווירא, הרבנית שיינדל אשת רבי  ישראל הגר אדמו"ר מוויזשניץ, הרבנית צירל אשת רבי ברוך  הגר אדמו"ר מסערט-וויזשניץ, הרבנית ברכה אשת רבי יהושע אייכנשטיין אדמו"ר מזידיטשויב גראסווארדיין, מימין לשמאל - יושבות: הרבנית בת שבע אשת רבי דוד פרידמאן אדמו"ר מפלוישט, הרבנית חוה אשת רבי אליעזר הגר אדמו"ר מוויזשניץ, הרבנית רחל אשת רבי לייפער אדמו"ר מפיטסבורג, הרבנית ראצע אשת רבי פנחס הגר מבארשא, יושבות ששי מימין: הרבנית ריבא אשת רבי שמחה רובין אדמו"ר מטאמאשאוו, הרבנית חנה סימא בת רבי דוד (הראשון) אדמו"ר מסקווירא, הרבנית שיינדל אשת רבי ברוך הגר אדמו"ר מווישיווא, הרבנית בלימא אשת הרב פייוועל הורוויץ, הרבנית מירל אשת רבי מרדכי דוד רובין מסאסרעגן. מימין לשמאל יושבות: הרבנית שרה אשת רבי משה זייוואלד, הרבנית צפורה חנה בת רבי ברוך הגר אדמו"ר מווישיווא, הרבנית סימה מירל אשת רבי מרדכי הגר אדמו"ר מוויזשניץ-מאנסי, הרבנית מרים אשת רבי חי יצחק אדמו"ר מרחמסטריווקה-בארא פארק  

In this picture I assume that seated second from left is the Vizhnitzer Rebbetzin again. See if you can identify others based on the picture above.

תורה ומדע - תורה עם דר"א in Di Bukovina (why not us?)

(a Kol Koreh for the Sereter Trade School)

A good friend of the blog sent us this flyer for a trade school, today's version of IDT, or The Lander Beis HaMedrash (Touro College) that was set up by the late Sereter Rebbe, Reb Burech'l Hager, in Seret, Bukovina before WW2. He asked the question: "How is it different than what Dr. Lander instituted, where students learned half a day and learned a trade the other half, so that they could feed their families once they got married? I have no real answer for him. As many of you know, I myself went and learned a trade after I was married, so that I could feed my family - not that it worked out so great... I never really asked anybody of authority if I should go and do it, I just did. We've discussed this before, don't be so surprised. Maybe what upset some people was that Touro caters to bachurim who should otherwise be learning. In that case so did this Yeshiva; they weren't catering to married men back then, you can be sure of that. So what else can we say is the difference between back and then and today? There are probably several, both, geographic, time period and personality, as well as the people involved today and in der alter heim. Allow me to explain:

Geography is important here for several reasons. Bukovina was a wasteland by that time, as far as Yiddishkeit was concerned. The youth was going downhill fast. His own father, the Rebbe der Ahavas Yisrool left Vizhnitz, Bukovina during WW1 never to return. He said he couldn't bear to watch the youth go astray. He said he did it to save his own children... Not every bachur went to Yeshiva in those parts, not by a long shot, so any one that would come and learn for a half day was a big deal already. The fact that he worked for half a day and was taught by a G-d fearing Jew was a bonus, they were saving lives by having such a Yeshiva. These boys were also needed at home, to work in the fields or to do other work so to help feed the rest of the family, who might have otherwise starved. (Not that today is any different - many families would do alot better if the older boys went to work and helped with the bills, especially some of the boys who are wasting their time in Yeshivos... There, I go again, destroying my own point...) So to compare Bukovina, 1938 to Flatbush, 2009 may be a bit disingenuous. Or at least that's what they'll have you believe. The "time period" difference that we mentioned can be closely related to the "geography" issue, being that the time period has lots to do with the geography... The geography of Bukovina is what - you might say - made Bukovina into what it became, a place of Haskoloh and the abandonment of traditional Judaism en masse. Bukovina was not always that way, it boasted many great Tzaddikim and Rabbonim just a short time earlier, but the time period of post-WW1 was what destroyed it, much like in Poland, Lithuania and Russia.

Then there's the personality issue. The Sereter Rebbe was a gutter Yid who built Torah and made - or at least kept - hundreds of families into Shomrei Shabbos and Chassidishe Yidden. This was the case in Eretz Yisroel after WW2, and I'm sure he had done that in Bukovina, despite the fact that he didn't have all the mosdos that he ultimately built in Haifa. There was a nucleus in Seret that stayed frum despite all the hardships. Such a personality, with such Zchus Avos, has a very strong leg to stand on, no matter how revolutionary the idea that he proposes; (unless, of course, you're a Lubavitcher Rebbe...) So if the Sereter Rebbe wants to start a trade school and teach Bocherim how to earn a living, then so be it.But it's not just about the Sereter Rebbe. In Seret there was no Rosh Yeshiva who decided that he was the רשכבה"ג and that all must heed his words, like there was in Bnei Beraq. Heck, there wasn't even one in Vilna, Mir or Slabodka for that matter. All those Roshei Yeshiva, may they rest in peace, were concerned about their own talmidim and their own problems! So had Dr. Lander done this in Europe chances are that there would be little or no opposition to his school, not that the opposition accomplished much anyway. The place is packed with Chassidishe and Yeshivishe yungeleit and girls, and Lakewood even set one up in a nearby town... So there you have my 2 cents.

The Sereter Rebbe (r) at a simcha, possibly pre-WW2

But in the end it didn't matter much. Even if you had a parnosoh you were rounded up and sent to Transnistria and may have died on one of the Death Trains. Or if you were so lucky, you survived the trains but died later in some death camp... All Jews shared the same fate, no matter your level of observance, and no matter if you stayed away from Torah im Derech Eretz. The Bukoviner and Bessaraber Yidden may have borne the brunt of it all; their culture was totally wiped out, even more so than the Polish and Litvish. At least with the P&Ls the Hungarians rekindled that culture to the best of their abilities (where Litvishe are concerned) and some remnants of Poylishe Judentum remained, mostly from pre-war aliyah. But with the Bessaraber and Bukoviner it's GONE! Well, there was a quasi-renewal after the fall of the Soviet Union, when you could once again hear from an old man how he "iz illemoo'el gegunnen koyfen mutzes in peysikh," and how "er hut ul ding voos er durf..." So was the will of Hashem.

I hope the point was made.