Chernivtsi was the ethnically most ‘mixed’ of all provincial capitals of the Habsburg Empire. In 1910 out of a total population of 90.000, around 33% were Jews, 17% Germans, 17% Ukrainians, 16% Romanians and 14% Poles. The rest were Armenians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Lippowanians etc. <br />The photo shows the Synagogengasse (Str. Wilson, vul. Barbusa). It was in the center of the so called Untere Stadt (lower parts of town), dating back to the times of the Turkish Rule. Here used to be the old Jewish quarter. There was never a Ghetto in Czernowitz (except during the Second World War), Jews could always settle all over the city. The Untere Stadt, however, remained the living quater for the poor and more religious members of the Jewish community. <br />The building in the center of the Photo is the Chewra-Tehilim Synagogue of the funeral brotherhood, one of around 70 synagogues and prayer houses in Chernivtsi before the Second World War. <br /><em>Helmut Kusdat</em>