|
World Jewish News
Book on Shtetl Phenomenon Published in Saint Petersburg
28.12.2008
A book on the phenomenon of shtetl, which is based on the results of field research by scientists from the "Petersburg Judaica" Center at the European University of St. Petersburg, has been published.
After the Second World War, the word "shtetl" in English, and then in other languages, became a symbol of the distinctive world of Eastern European Jewry, destroyed by the XX century disasters.
However, as described by the authors of the collection "Shtetl XXI century", in several Ukrainian cities there still exist small Jewish communities that survived the war and consider their history to be the continuation of the shtetl life.
What had happened to them in the Soviet times? How do they imagine their past, look for its traces in the present? Can we find in their culture Jewish folklore in its traditional forms? How does the shtetl myth coexist with the modern realities of a provincial town?
|
|
