Amos Gutermann, who was our host Friday night is employed by a bank in Basle. He met his wife Ruth in Bnai Akiva, where he was her Madrikh. Amos studied Torah in Jerusalem and speaks Hebrew fluently. So does Ruth.
We noticed that Amos helped his wife prepare the table and serve. When my wife commented on this, he remarked: “In Switzerland husbands help their wives!”
Between the courses and Shabbath songs we talked about our families, about Israel and about Jews in other countries.
The Gutermann’s direct contact with Israel is Ruth’s sister, who lives with her family in Maaleh Adumim. They are also familiar with the situation of Jews in other countries, courtesy of Ruth’s brother, Chazzan Marcel Lang, who has been giving concerts—with a rich repertoire of Chazzanuth, Hebrew and Yiddish songs and operas—in various Jewish communities in Europe, the USA and Canada, as well as in far-away Australia.
Thirty-two year old Marcel, who is the father of two children, was born in Basle. He studied in a yeshiva in Israel and attended the Musical Academy of Basle. His late father, who loved Chazzanuth, encouraged him to become a Chazzan. In 1982 he was appointed chief cantor of Basle.
He was invited to participate in the November 9 commemorations in both West and East Germany. Swiss Jewry’s two weekly newspapers—the Israelitisches Wochenblatt of Zurich and Basle’s Juedische Rundschau Maccabi—reported on his performances.
“Finally we experienced true Yiddishkeit,” read the headline of the report in the Israelitisches Wochenblatt. The article continued: “this was the reaction of East Germany’s Jews to the brilliant appearance of Basle’s chief cantor Marcel Lang in the Deutssches Theater in East Berlin. Lang sang in the presence of the entire Communist leadership the Kel Male in honor and in memory of the six million martyrs and all who heard him were deeply impressed. ‘We were all carried away. Even a young member of the Volkspolizei, who was on duty at the theater, had tears in his eyes,’ one of those who were present related. Marcel Lang also participated in the wreath-laying ceremony in the large Jewish cemetery of Berlin-Weissensee, where his Kel Male was broadcast by the radio and television of the German Democratic Republic.”
It has been said that when Jews from different places meet and engage in a longer conversation, they are bound to discover that either they are related to each other, that they have common friends and acquaintances, or that their families come from the same town or district.
Mrs. Lang, Ruth’s mother, whose maiden name was Leder, spoke of her father who came as a young man from Galicia to Switzerland. “Boiberik near Lemberg was the place he cam from,” she said.
“Did I hear you correctly?” I interrupted her. “Did you say Boiberik?” Some people believe that there never was a Boiberik, that it is an invention of Sholem Aleichem. But this is not so. There is such a place. My wife is living proof. She was born in Boiberik or Bobruka, as the place reads in her passport.”
The discovery of the “Boiberik connection” infused new fuel into our conversation. I was unaware that it was getting late until my wife lightly touched my arm, and pointing to the sleepy eyes of the two small girls, whispered that it was time to leave…
Mrs. Lang, who returned to her own apartment, accompanied us part of the way, making sure that we would find our hotel.
Next morning as I was taking a Tallith, Siddur and Chumash from a compartment in the last bench of the synagogue, Mr. Emanuel Lande informed me that my wife and I were his family’s guest for the Shabbath lunch.
Mr. Lande proved to be much more than our host. Most of the time we spent with him, he spoke about the life of the community; he didn’t seem to tire of answering in great detail my many questions.
On the way home from the synagogue, he stopped at a pedestrian crossing, announcing that he was going to show us something which was unique in the world. Throughout the city of Basle, wherever there is a pedestrian crossing with traffic lights, the pedestrians must push a button to change the lights. Not so at the place were we had stopped. Aware that many observant Jews made use of this crossing, the municipality installed a clock which automatically changed the lights of Shabbath and Jewish holidays.
When we arrived at Mr. Lande’s residence, we were greeted with a hearty Shabbath Shalom by his wife Madeleine and their daughter, a social work student.
By: Tovia Preschel
The Jewish Press
January 6, 1989