Not Tevia’s Shtetl: The Real Story Behind these Ancestral Towns
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- Опубликовано: 7 фев 2025
- Find all upcoming programming from the Museum at Eldridge Street at www.eldridgestreet.org/events.
Recorded: October 15, 2023
The Eldridge Street Synagogue, which now houses the Museum at Eldridge Street, was built by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in 1887 to represent their new lives in America, despite their humble origins in the small towns (shtetls) of Eastern Europe. Join us with historian Dr. Zachary Mazur as we explore the truth about shtetl life, and what remains of it today.
Ashkenazi Jews around the world can trace their roots to small towns in Eastern Europe. Before making the leap to a big shtot (city), Jews in Eastern Europe lived for centuries in shtetls. These places have become shrouded in myth and clouded by memories. Join us for an adventure into the real stories of the towns where our ancestors fell in love, experienced frustration, and tried to get ahead. At the end we’ll talk about what remains of these hallowed places and what’s being done to preserve Jewish heritage in places where Jews are absent.
About the Speaker:
Zachary Mazur earned his Ph.D. at Yale University where he studied under Professor Timothy Snyder. He’s the author of numerous articles and is finishing a book on Jews, Ukrainians, and Poles in Poland’s economy during the 1920s-30s. He is currently the Senior Historian at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.
Image Credit: Shtetl of Kretinge. 1914. The Lost Shtetl Museum.
When I studied in Cracow a bit more than 20 years ago I was out in town during All Saints Day, when the cemeteries are full of candles which you can see from afar. Next to one of the largest Christian cemeteries is an old worn down jewish cemetery (that has since been largely restored). But there were some candles there as well. So next to the one cemetery absolutely full of candlelight everywhere there was this other place with just some scattered candles.
It turned out there were some local people who went there and put candles on old jewish graves at random, not being in any way related to the people resting there, but having the feeling that the holiday is for rememberance of all people that once lived there. So it was described to me by local friends of mine.
It was sad and heart warming at the same time to see that largely deserted cemetery, but at least some people did what they could to keep the place in some order.
Again, this was more than 20 years ago, as the lecturer here says, since then this movement has become much more widespread.
a VERY GOOD TRANSLATION OF A YIZKOR BOOK IS THE ONE FOR BRANSK, THE TOWN THAT WAS THE SUBJECT OF THE PBS PROGRAM SHTETL (WHICH CAN BE WATCHED ON RUclips).
Most interesting and enjoyable. Thank you.
What I find extraordinary is the fact many people talk about the terrible oppression in Poland Lithuania etc . The synagogues are impressive , Yiddish newspapers existed and Yeshivas flourished . In contrast the American Indian/negro , Roma /Gypsy and colonised native peoples had no such rights and cultural freedoms . The Christian population of the middle east has been completely exterminated by Islam. Historians really need to reassess and rethink the history of this period.
Peasants had NO vote Extreme Poverty !!
Workhouses, child labour and slums!
you forgot to mention the end of feudalism in 1865 and how that contributed to the decline of the shetels.