In addition to the small farm on the outskirts of town, Max’s family had a grocery store in town that sold groceries, tobacco, wool, etc. In the winter the store was a gathering place for crowds of townsfolk who sat around telling ghost stories that would make Max's hair stand on end.

Max recalled someone in the store who once called Max a dirty Jew and his father knocked the guy out. In general, all accounts show the Jews had great relations with the other inhabitants of the villages and towns, at least until the occupation of Bukovina by Romania. In fact, entirely Romanian or Ruthenian communities often elected Jews as their mayors. The Jews of the region were very prominent in politics, education, medicine, law and commerce.

The revolution year of 1848 led to the constitution of 1849 granting all Jews in the monarchy equal rights. Bukovina was separated from Galicia and made it an autonomous duchy whose internal affairs was regulated by a Diet or Regional Parliament. These would be the courts where Avrum Zuckermann worked. The constitution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire of 1867 concerning the general rights of citizens finally removed all restrictions from the Jews.

There apparently was a small shul in the town of Oprischeny, on the property of a neighbour. Jews from surrounding towns walked 4-5 miles to come to that shul. The names of these towns surrounding Oprischeny are: Starcea, Tereblecea, Slobozia-Berlinti, Cerepcauti, Poiani, Garbauti, and Stanesti (de Sus, and de Jos). Interestingly, the 1910 map and modern maps do not show the exact same locations for the towns. The name of the owner of the land and building where the shul was located in Oprischeny, was named “Paris”, according to the original notes.

Despite the sketchy details, we can be sure that Oprischeny is in fact the right town. The only information Max gave us on the town was it’s name, population, and the name of one other family.

Records show Abraham Pariser was born in 1877 in “Oprischeni”. He led the Kultusgemeinde (Jewish community) of neighboring Sereth for many years. He was the son of the renowned Talmud-scholar Salomon Pariser. This would explain why the Jews from surrounding villages came to Max’s small village shul. Salomon must be the one who led the shul services Max attended. Abraham Pariser attended the Oberrealschule (high school) in Czernowitz and the Handelshochschule (trade-academy) in Prague. He was active in significant positions in the bank system in Sereth from 1900 until WWII, aside from which he held various community offices through the years. He was Kultuspresident and Vice-Mayor of the city. When he died in 1947, his huge funeral showed his great popularity in the town.

Other records from Sereth show Julius Pariser, born in “Opriszeny, Bukovina” studied at the Kaiser Franz Josef Gymnasium in Sereth. He graduated in 1908, at the age of 18, which means he was born in 1890, and therefore must have known Max, or at least his older brother very well. Other records corroborate that Dr. Julius Pariser practiced medicine in Jerusalem. His brother Martin Pariser also moved to Israel, and lived in Tel-Aviv.

From this list I found a third of the name of another family from Oprischeny. Max Wiedner of Oprischeny, graduated 1911 in Medicine, at age 22 (therefore born 1889). Leon Rolec of Oprischeny, who was probably not from one of the five Jewish families in the village, attended the Gymnasium as well. He graduated in 1914 at age 22, which means he was born in 1892, making him just a few years older than Max.

The list shows students at the Sereth Gymnasium as coming not only from Sereth, but from dozens of towns around Bukovina, as well as from Galicia, including Josef Jurman from Terescheny, born 1885. Other genealogical records show a Nikolaus Hackmann of Oprishceny. Adam Sauer is listed on familysearch.com as born in Oprischeny 1858.

Elsewhere I found a list of “Tolerated Jewish Farmers in the Bukowina” in 1808, a time when there were still great restrictions on Jews owning land or having certain professions in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Among the list was Juda Grosser of “Oprischeni”. Here then is another Jewish family of the village.

There was a German documentary made in 1999 about a 90 year old woman born in Czernowitz (in 1909) named Rosa Zuckermann, who survived both world wars, and still lived in the town. The film is called Herr Zwilling und Frau Zuckermann. Whether or not they are related, it is interesting that when Markus Zuckermann passed through Czernowitz in 1910, Rosa was there too. I obtained a copy of the film through the Goethe Institute. From the film I learned her husband’s name was Martin Zuckermann, and he had a sister named Rudolphine Zuckermann.