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The Vanished Province: Remembering Bukovina

JL;DR SUMMARY The article explores the rich history of Bukovina, a culturally diverse region in Eastern Europe, mainly during the late Habsburg rule and its transition into Romanian control. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Jewish CultureYiddishEducationAssimilationRomaniaMinoritiesMulticulturalismHabsburg EmpireBukovinaCzernowitz

Places mentioned

Chernivtsi, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine
"In my parents drawer lay an airmail envelope postmarked Chernivtsi."
Seattle, Washington, United States
"crossed the Iron Curtain to our Seattle home."
Czernowitz, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine
"On their first of several trips, they went to Chernivtsi, once known as Czernowitz, capital of Bukovina"
Radauti, Botoşani, Romania
"in Radautz (Rdui), Torah scrolls were shredded to pad the soles of boots."
Sadagura, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine
"The pious passed through on their way to the provinces Hasidic courtsSadagura, Vizhnitz, Boyanwhere Wunderrebbes presided from gilded chairs."
Vizhnitz, Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine
"The pious passed through on their way to the provinces Hasidic courtsSadagura, Vizhnitz, Boyanwhere Wunderrebbes presided from gilded chairs."
Iasi, Iași, Romania
"Meanwhile, from Iaiwhere Abraham Goldfaden had founded the worlds first professional Yiddish troupeto Bucharests summer gardens and Czernowitzs modest halls, the Yiddish stage became a nightly rehearsal of Mangers we."
Bucuresti, Bucharest, Romania
"The same policies that stripped minorities of civic standing also galvanized cultural self-assertion. Forced out of the grammar of imperial citizenship, communities began to speak in self-defense, each sustaining itself in its own idiom. For Bukovinas Jews, that language was increasingly Yiddish. That story is recovered by Yiddish Culture in Greater Romania (19181940), a collaborative volume by Romanian scholars Camelia Crciun, Irina Nastas-Matei, Valentin Sndulescu, and Francisca Solomon."
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Cairo Item ID 71999
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Retrieved 2026-01-06 05:31:04 UTC
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