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Shtetl or shtetel is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust.
Virtually every Jew today has a mental image of the shtetl, the small villages in which Jews lived for centuries in Eastern Europe. These images are informed by the portrayal of shtetl life in a variety of media, from fiction to film.
SHTETL (pl. shtetlakh; Russ. mestechko ; Pol. miasteczko ; Heb. צֲיָרָה), Yiddish diminutive for shtot meaning "town" or "city," to imply a relatively small community; in Eastern Europe a unique socio-cultural communal pattern.
Shtetl is Yiddish for “town,” and refers to the small pre-WWII towns in Eastern Europe with a significant Yiddish-speaking Jewish population. Jews occupied a large percentage of the shtetl, and were often the majority.
If you’ve ever watched Fiddler on the Roof or Yentl, you may already have an idea of what the shtetls—small Jewish market towns in pre-WWII central and Eastern Europe—were like. From 1791 to ...
Visit selected shtetls from all ends of Eastern Europe – Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus. Walk down their old streets, look at the Jewish homes, and see how general shtetl features are reflected in these particular towns.
The Yiddish term for town, shtetl commonly refers to small market towns in pre–World War II Eastern Europe with a large Yiddish-speaking Jewish population.
