Shtetl

Shtetl-

A shtetl Little city, small town, village, was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania. of 19th-century Eastern European Jews. Shtetls are portrayed as pious communities following Orthodox Judaism, socially stable and unchanging despite outside influence or attacks.

In the shtetl, life revolved around the home, the synagogue, and the market place. The life cycle was the cycle of the Jewish calendar with its Sabbaths and festivals, interrupted by the vicissitudes of life and death. Pious men prayed and studied, women held together the home, and most struggled to make ends meet in petty trade and the traditional Jewish crafts. The Community, caring for all and involved in everything, was the outward expression of the common heritage and destiny that bound its members together. The Holocaust resulted in the disappearance of the vast majority of shtetls.

The concept of shtetl culture is used as a metaphor for the traditional way of life