Shtetl : the life and death of a small town and the world of Polish Jews

Today the word 'shtetl' (Yiddish for 'small town') summons only hazy, distant associations: images of Chagall-like crooked streets and glowing Sabbath dinners on the one hand, of pogroms and brutal Cossacks on the other. In fact, the shtetl was a unique and highly resilient microsociety with its own customs, beliefs, and rituals, its own social distinctions, organizations, and civic structures. before its life was cut short by the tragedy of the Holocaust, the shtetl had also been a long and fascinating experiment in intimate multiculturalism. Before World War II, Bransk, in eastern Poland, was a shtetl whose population was equally divided between Poles and Jews. Today there are no Jews left in Bransk. This book reconstructs the lost world of Polish Jewry up until its final days. It explores its rich culture and institutions and looks at the forms of Polish-Jewish coexistence during several centuries, the shades of prejudice and tolerance, and the phases of conflict and comity. By probing the deep ambivalences that colored relations between Poles and Jews on the eve of World War II, it throws new light on the motives that influenced Christian villagers' decisions to rescue or betray their Jewish neighbors when the Nazis invaded. As an emigrant from Poland, the author brings a penetrating intelligence and compassionate eye to a history that is fraught with intensely private emotions and profound implications for humanity. -- from Book Jacket. Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-269). xi, 269 pages : illustrations, maps ; 22 cm