A wikipedia definition says "Shtetl'derives from German 'Stadtlein', meaning 'small city'. It was the name for a small Jewish town, village or neighborhood. Larger Jewish communities in cities such as Lemberg or Czernowitz were called 'Schtot', Yiddish for 'Stadt' . They are considered extinct.
How was a shtetl in reality, without the embellishments of nostalgia?
JOSEPH ROTH
Joseph Roth, author of the "Wondering Jews" died in 1939 in Paris and it is considered one the greatest German writers.
He writes:
.."it is the little town in the middle of a great plain, not bounded by any hill, or forest or river... One passenger train once a day, 15 minutes between the Shtetl and the train. When it is raining, you have to take a cab, the streets are under water. Poor people sit six in a cab. Rich people have a cab for themselves and pay more than the six poor people combined. The eight cabbies are Jews, who don't drive on Sabbath. The town has eighteen thousands inhabitants: fifteen thousands are Jewish, three thousands are Christians. from three thousands Christians, one hundred are traders and merchants. Another hundred are officials. One notary, one doctor and eight policemen. They are actually 10 policemen, but two of them are Jewish. from fifteen thousands Jews, eight thousands are traders. They are small merchants. bigger merchants and big merchants. The remaining seven thousands are small artisans, laborers, water carriers, scholars, servants, teachers, scribes, Torah scribes, tallit weavers, doctors, lawyers, officials, beggars and paupers too ashamed to live on public welfare, gravediggers, circumcisers (mohels) and gravestone cutters."
"The Shtetl has one church, one synagogue and some forty prayer houses, where Jews pray three times per day. This avoids walking to the synagogue six times a day. Jewish scholars study in the prayer houses from five in the morning until midnight. They live from small gifts, act as cantors, shofar blowers and teacher on Holy Days
Their wives are at home with children and trade in pickled cucumbers, maize in summer, naphta in winter, beans and baked goods.
The lay Jews said their prayers very quickly and leave themselves time to discuss politics and events on great and small stages. They smoke cigarettes and bad pipe tobacco in the prayer house they treat like an officers' mess. They are not rare visitors to God they live with Him. In their prayers they inveigh against Him, they cry to high Heaven, they complain at His severity, they go to God to accuse God, and then go on to admit that they have sinned, and that they will be better in the future. There are no other people who live thieir lives on such footing with their God!" And they know that while they could be punished, they will never be abandoned.
There is a clear distinction between so-called enlightened Jews (maskilim) and kabbalists, the followers of individual wonder rabbis, each of who has his own group of followers Hasidim. The enlightened Jews are by no means unbelievers. They reject mysticism, while having unshakable faith in the miracles from the Scripture, they confront miracles performed by contemporary Rabbis. But for the Hasidim, the wonder rabbi is the intercessor between man and God.
And yet, many Jews, even if they are no Hasidim, are unable to resist the wonderful atmosphere that wafts around a Rabbi, and unbelievable Jews and even an occasional Christian peasant like to seek out a Rabi for help and solace when they are in difficulty.
The contempt that the Eastern Jew feels for the unbeliever is thousand times greater than any that is directed at him. What is the rich nobleman, the police officer, teh governor compared to single word from Gd?Even as he meets the nobleman, he laughs at him. What does the nobleman knows about the inner meaning of life? He may know the laws of the land, build railways, invent all sorts of things,write books and go hunting with kings, But what are all these compared to tiny character form the Holly scripture, compared to the most ignorant question from the youngest Talmud student?
A Jew who thinks like this will not interested in any movement that gives personal and national liberty... The Jew is not a nationalist in Western sense. He is the God's Jew. He does not fight for any Palestine. He detest the Zionist, who uses ridiculous European methods. In this crazy stubbornness, there is as much courage and spirit of sacrifice, as the young halutzim (pioneers) who are building Palestine. An orthodox Chassid from the East, will prefer a Christian to a Zionist"
I stop here and I will continue with Kafka position and inspiration from Orthodox Judaism. I am using the latest book of Roger Kamenetz, "Burned Books" with the latest interpretations and facts which are startling. The Shtetl is somewhat different to the idealist, colorful picture from British children films and famous artists.
He does not fight for any Palestine. He detest the Zionist, who uses ridiculous European methods. In this crazy stubbornness, there is as much courage and spirit of sacrifice, as the young halutzim (Pioneer) who are building Palestine.
ReplyDeleteThese ideas proved to be useless and dangerous to one's life when 6 millions were slaughtered?
Paul, Joseph Roth died in 1939 before the Holocaust. He was a journalist, one of the best in Europe. He reports what he learns and sees, The Zionists had a hard time to convince the East European traditional Jews that emigration to Palestine was the salvation.
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