"Die Stimme", 01-MAY-1950: “We received the following letter: In the article by André Spire reproduced in the previous issue of your newspaper, the gravestones that Dr. Diamant showed in Czernowitz are compared with those in the Prague Jewish Cemetery, among others. What is remarkable about them, however, is that they have nothing in common with those. The Prague stones, for example, were created by Christian stonemasons in the style and ornamentation of the Christian environment there. The stones that Diamant discovered in northern Bukovina, the southern tip of Eastern Galicia, and Moldavia were carved by Jewish stonemasons, members of the Chewrah Kadischah, in fulfillment of a sacred duty. They are worked from left to right, the writing itself is a means of expression, the ornamentation harks back to ancient symbolic motifs from the Middle East and is often completely redesigned. The craftsmen often succeeded in expressing something of the nature of the person buried beneath the stone (see, for example, the gravestone of a young girl or that of the rabbi in Diamant's book). Diamant was therefore right to claim that he had discovered a kind of Jewish folk art in these stones. In doing so, he refuted the assumption that we Jews are incapable of developing folk art. These stones have such richness and power of expression that they are something entirely unique and become an experience for the viewer.Diamant's book “Jüdische Volkskunst” [Jewish Folk Art] was published by Präger Verlag, Vienna, but due to a lack of funds it had to be printed in Czernowitz and the clichés for the illustrations were obtained in Bucharest, not always to our full satisfaction. A subscription in Vienna, followed by one in Czernowitz, covered part of the printing costs; Diamant himself paid the rest, just as he had often restored the gravestones in the cemeteries at his own expense. Most of the book's print run was destroyed by the Nazis in Vienna. It would be welcome if a new edition could be published, which, among other things, could provide a wealth of inspiration for Jewish arts and crafts. The people of Bukovina will remember that Ing. Dawidowicz created chandeliers and grilles for the lodge house in Czernowitz based on motifs from Diamant's book. M. Seidman”
