Do you want to know about Chernivtsi? And the people who built up this wonderful city? Among men and women who inhabit the world, there are folks of special identity – Chernivtsi Jews. They are everywhere, like masons, recognizing each other by secret signs. They are called «the people of the city of Aha». You know this anecdote? Two emigrants talking: - Where are you from? - From Leningrad. And you? - From Chernivtsi. - Aha… Now you see what kind of city Chernivtsi is? Many of them have gone long ago, yet the feeling of Jewishness as the aftertaste of a good wine still stays on in Chernivtsi. To verify this, we usher visitors into the city through the Lower Town, along ul. Shkolnaya (Shkolnaya St.), where the old Turkish bridge is. This terrace has a view down on the former Jewish poor neighborhoods and on the impressive roof of synagogue Gro.shil, on the far-away lands behind the Prut River where Sadgora shtetl is silhouetting on a misty horizon. Today, this area is not called shtetl, but everyone knows there was a major center of Bukovina Hasidim – adherents of the Ruzhiner Rebe Friedman. The ruins of his kloyz are still standing, and a convenient path leads to his mausoleum and on to the old Hasidic cemetery. A walk up the terraces along ul. Holovna (Holovna St.) will take you to the Upper Town. And this is Europe. Rather, Austria-Hungary in pure form. That’s where the architecture is! The variety of styles and techniques – the embodiment of ideals of the historicism. And all this splendor on some 5 square kilometers of a hilly plateau. But what is Jewish about it? Do not look here for Shagal-esque curved side-streets and ramshackle little houses. Chernivtsi Jews did not grow up like tsibele with their heads in der erd, they studied at German and Austrian universities. And the city - the small capital of the Duchy of Bukovina - stretched on tiptoe to look like a metropolis. To achieve this ambition, the best architects were invited. A stroll along the streets will draw your attention to the forged bars labeled ‘Kislingerhof’ on the house of the president of the brick-yards stock company, or mosaic sign on the shop belonging to Shrentsel, the owner of the ceramic factory, or tessellated coach-passage in the house with the trade mark of manufacturer Zalter, or, breaking the multiple covers of stucco, the letters which, breaking the multiple covers of stucco, form the name of the knitting factory ‘Trinako’ of Trichter and Nagel Company. Once you are at Tetralnaya Ploshchad (Theatre Square), there reigns a dazzlingly luxurious facade of the former Jewish national house, and nearby, just right around the corner, there is a war-torn Reform Temple. Want to see the contemporary Jewish life – drop in at the synagogue on ul. Lukyana Kobylitsy, and if you are curious of Hasidim – visit the Chabad synagogue opened not long ago. Living Yiddish still can be heard in the charity Hesed Shushana. Or, instead of wandering in the city, come to the Museum of Jews and there plunge into the world of the previous-era Jewish life. And then, back home, when asked where you’d been, you would answer ‘In Chernivtsi’, I assure you, the response would be a respectful ‘Aha…’ | 
