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The first Conference for the Yiddish Language of 1908 was a highly significant event in the history of Yiddish language and culture, which became known in the literature as the Czernowitz Language Conference [Yidd. „di konferents far der yidisher shprakh“]. This conference was held in the city of Czernowitz from August 30 to September 3 and united prominent representatives of the worldwide Yiddish movement and, thus, triggered a significant impulse to the development of an energetic Yiddishspeaking constellation. The conference manifested awareness of the importance of Yiddish language and culture as a breeding ground for the survival of traditional “(Eastern) Jewish” values. Within this framework the debates regarding the cultivation of the Yiddish language have been intensified through reflective and resolute actions with the aim of releasing it from the stigma of jargon.
The historical events during 1918, which marked the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy, along with the violent acts of World War II were for the majority of the “Austrian-Bukovina” Jews the catalyst leading to profound identity disruption and disorientation. The destruction of the old “foundation” and the loss of the existential centre of reference were perceived by a large number of Bukovina Jews as extremely painful. The most of them continued to cultivate the old “Austrian” values. The experience during the war and the Holocaust shattered the survivors in an irremediable way. In this paper, I rely deliberately on the short story „In fartogikn groy” written by the Yiddish writer Alexander Spiegelblatt in order to illustrate the traumatic transition from a multinational to a “national(-istic)” construction, marked by severe and irreconcilable conflict between “old” and “new” values.