The Shtetl Book
The book reflects on the shtetl Jewish community. It was written by David G. Roskies, a recognized international literature scholar and Diane K. Roskies. In this book, the authors try to examine the life of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe before the Second World War began. The authors collect poems pictures, personal stories, legends, and much more from various sources. They present a detailed analysis of the community of the shtelt at the town of Tishevits, attitudes and how they are used toward Yiddish, professions, Jew-Gentile relations, religion, childhood, philosophy, entertainment, as well as the breakup of the shtetles and the shtetl cultures.
The book further describes the shtetl as being defined by the interlocking systems of social and economic relationships: the relations of peasants and Jews in markets, the Jews coming together for crucial religious and communal functions, and in the recent past, the increasingly crucial relationship of shtetls and their immigrants abroad (pg 25-34).
The Jewish settlements described had a big psychological impact as far as the Eastern Europe development is concerned, as also was the case with the Yiddish language spoken by the shtetls (pg 51). Though many Slavic words and idioms were used in that region, the Yiddish way of speaking was very different from the way their Slavic neighbors spoke. It would be very wrong to consider the shtetl as entirely the world of Jews, leaving out the gentiles; again, it is true that a profound logic of religious and psychological difference from the non-Jews was reinforced by the Yiddish (pg 61-65). Submersed with references to the Jewish tradition as well as the religious texts, Yiddish came up with a wealthy reservoir of sayings and idioms reflecting an energetic folk society undividable from Jewish religion.
Occupational diversity was also a characteristic of the shtetl community. It was obvious in the Diaspora that the Jewish community was mostly found in minimal numbers of occupations, which were determined frequently by political oriented restrictions. This was very contracting with the occupational grounds of the shtetl Jewish community. The shtetls comprised groups of wealthy entrepreneurs and contractors, carpenters, shopkeepers, tailors, water carriers shoemakers, and teamsters. Jewish farmers as well as villagers would be nearby in some areas (pg 75-81). This remarkable diversity in occupation contributed immensely to the cultural development of the shtetls and the community’s vitality. It also saw to the start of conflict in class leading to social divisions, which were painful (pg 120).
Many considered the Jews clannish because they chose to keep to themselves. Again, they were seeing as foreigners for speaking a very strange language.
The book looks at the social orientation of the shtetl community in depth. We get to see that the families in the community lived for generations in the same shtetl. It was a common practice to find three generations living together under one roof (pg 125-128). A daughter would get married and together with the son-in-law were taken in and a little room in the house would be partitioned for the couple.
The shtetl Jewish was seen as a community that was close-knit. People most often had a hand in the affairs of their neighbors. They borrowed and lent things; helping in times of need thus, they were generally close to one other. There was no isolation in the community and therefore the community provided endurance and strength for its constituents just like it is with a chain.
On their religious side of living, the book depicts the community as one that had immeasurable devotion in the affair. Sunday to Thursday the shtetls were always busy searching for their living. Things would then take another form on Fridays. Women would wake up so early on the Friday morning start to chop fish in order to make a fishmeal for the Sabbath. They also made fowl, hallah and soup. Therefore, throughout the week people would scrape and borrow to make sure that there was a meal for their festive Sabbath.
As the afternoon approached, a bath attendant would rush throughout the streets to call men to show up for the public bath to approach Sabbath in both physical as well as spiritual cleanliness. For the life of the shtetls, the bath was considered a very important institution, men alternated with women in the bath’s use. After the meal, the housemaster would usually take a nap and on arising, he would give a test to his sons to see if they really understood what they leaned during the week at heder.
The Sabbath together with other religious holidays formed a very crucial moment for the Jews. They were times of meditation so that they could forget hardships and daily problems hence reflecting on the resourcefulness of own heritage. These were special times to praise God for having ushered them into a new week. After they were done with the Sabbath, the shtetls resumed to their normal life of working as well as saving in order to curb poverty from harming the future generations and from harming the shtetls at that particular time.
As revolutions as well as wars in the Jewish community in the Eastern Europe, the shtetl community was increasingly torn apart. This also was to some extent fuelled by the class conflict among the Jews. Some leaders started to question the importance of the consolidated communities in the world that was changing assuming other forms beyond the muddy streets (pg 221-234). It was seen as being so fragile and outdated. The World War 1 turned the whole community into a brutal gang of unethical smugglers as they were being considered to be. There was a collapse in their traditional values and nothing could stand their way as they aggressively pursued for an easy profit. In 1920s as well as in 1930s, the Yiddish literature in the Soviet portrayed the shtetl community as a doomed one.
The experience of being a culture of the majority on the culture on the home level, language, occupational diversity and sheer numbers is an experience that went on to form the settlement of the Jews in the Diaspora.
Work Cited
Diane K. Roskies and David G. Roskies, comps, The Shtetl book: an introduction to East European Jewish life and lore (New York, 1975)
