Banila Czernowitz Ropcha and Storozhinetz [Eng] – 9/2017 – by Naftali Zloczower

Roots trip to Bukovina

My name is Naftali Zloczower, and both my parents, Dvora (Dora) Schneider Zloczower and Menachem (Maniu) Zloczower, were born, raised, and lived in Storojinets (Storozhynets), Bukovina (today in Ukraine), until the second world war, as did many members of my family and relatives.

In September of this year, 2017, my wife, Nava and I took a roots trip to Bukovina, visiting Czernowits (Chernivtsi), Storojinets, Banila (Banyliv-Pidhirni) and Rupcze (Ropche). We visited Lvov (Lviv) and Zloczow (Zolochiv – probably the source of my family name), but they are in Galicia, and not in Bukovina.

In Chernivtsi, we visited the archive and were presented with 3 files of Romanian records listing Jews who lived in the Storojinets Ghetto in August 1941, before they were herded away to the Transnistria camps. When time ran out, just before closing time, a file with records from Banila was brought to us, but, even though we were allowed to stay after the normal closing time, we did not have enough time to go over the Banila file. In the Storojinets files we found listings of all the members of my mother’s family, including my mother, her sisters and brother, and her parents, as well as listings of many other family members, relatives, and acquaintances. I photographed pages that included names of relatives and familiar last names.

In Storojinets, we found the house of my mother’s family and, we are pretty sure, the house of my father’s family. We also found and photographed the Great Temple on what was Temple Gasse, and the school were my mother and aunts learned.

We visited the Jewish cemeteries in Stotojinets and in Banila, In Banila, we found my great-grandfather, Yossel Zloczower’s grave and the grave of his brother (most probably), Peretz Zloczower, whom I did not know before. In the Storojinets Cemetery we found graves of my maternal great-grandparents, Abraham and Scheindel Schneider, and graves of quite a few family members and relatives. I photographed tombstones with familiar last names.

I wrote a report of our roots trip in Hebrew, and I will write one in English, as well.

See below the link to the trip report.

Roots – 9-2017 

See below pictures from Banila Cemetery:
The house nearby and the trail to the cemetery.

The tombstones peeping from the bushes

Tombstones and Zloczower family members tombstones


Pictures from Storozhynetz Cemetery

Pictures from Banila

Pictures from Storozhynets

The old synagogue… serves now as a gym… better than previously being a gypsy market…

Czernowitz Jewish Cemetery – 14 July 2016 – by Baruch Eylon

On 11-15 July 2016 a delegation of the World Organization of Bukovina Jews traveled to North Bukovina for a pilot project to survey Jewish Heritage Sites in the area around Storozhynetz. The team members were Sara Sweiry, Nathan Kinsbrunner and Baruch Eylon.

During this trip the team surveyed 12 heritage sites, met with local officials, filled the questionnaire (using a mobile application that allows capturing text and pictures, including GPS coordinates) and posted the information on the web, to make it available to all interested people around the world.

The team also prepared recommendations what to do in each site.

This post provides pictures taken by the team in the Jewsish Cemetery in Czernowitz with focus on the “Ohel” and the memorial near it.

Here are the pictures taken at the cemetery. The “Ohel” is planned to be renovated and turned into a museum.
20160714_152048   Cz-4

20160714_152058 20160714_152119

20160714_152253  Cz-3

20160714_152312   Cz-1