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A Filmmaker's Journey Through a Forgotten Carpathia: Yale Strom Traces. Jewish-Gypsy Ties
At the beginning of "Carpati: 50 Miles, 50 Years," Yale Strom's poignant new documentary of life in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, we hear a telling joke about a Gypsy who meets a Jewish friend on the street.
"Reb Yid," the Gypsy says, "we Rom travel quite a bit, and we have to learn to speak a lot of languages. But why do you speak so many languages, when you've hardly travelled at all?"
"Listen," Reb Yid answers, "when I had my bris I was living in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Came my bar mitzvah, I was living in Czechoslovakia. When I got married, it was during the war, and I was living under the occupation of Hungarians and Germans; but the marriage didn't go so well and I found myself living in the Soviet Union. And, when I die, I'll be buried in the Ukraine." The punch line comes when the old Jew adds: "And I've never once left my hometown."
"That's such a perfect metaphor for the region," says Mr. Strom, 38, who has worn many hats over the years: klezmer musician, photojournalist, author, filmmaker. "It's especially true for the Jews of Carpathia because all the different conquerors had different effects on the Jews."
One such Carpathian Jew, Zev...