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Cahiers du monde russe
41/4  (2000)
Aperçus sur le monde juif
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Ben-Cion Pinchuk
The shtetl
An ethnic town in the Russian empire
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
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Cahiers du Monde russe, 41/4, Octobre-décembre 2000, pp. 495-504. 
BEN-CION PINCHUK 
THE SHTETL: AN  ETHNIC TOWN 
IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 
T 
HE
 
  R 
USSIAN
 
  
EMPIRE
 
  
UNDER
 
  
THE
 
  
TSARS
 
 was not a “melting pot”, nor did it produce
out of its diverse population a “Russian man.” The empire was made up of many
historical nations, ethnic groups, and tribes. While there was no doubt as to the
ruling nationality and official religion, the Russian Orthodox empire, on the whole,
enabled the separate and distinct existence of other ethnic groups within its
borders. 
1
 
 Although there were periods when the Russian government pursued a
vigorous policy of religious conversion and Russification, by and large the various
nationalities and denominations lived side by side with each other, preserving their
separate identity. The empire was and remained a multi-ethnic state. The western
regions of the empire were inhabited mainly by related Slavic nationalities, Poles,
Ukrainians, Belorussians, Russians, and Jews. The territories formerly belonged to
the Polish-Lithuanian state and were annexed at the end of the eighteenth century. 
2
 
Here were to be found hundreds of small towns, built mostly as private towns on
land belonging to the Polish nobility in pre-partition Poland. Those were the  
shtetls 
,
as they were named in Yiddish, or  
mestechki,  
in Russian. Their inhabitants, mostly
 
1. On the multi-ethnic composition of the Russian empire see: M. Florinsky,  
Russia: A history
and interpretation, 
 New York, 1960, Vol. 2: 797-800; 1086-1088; H. Seton-Watson,  
The
decline of Imperial Russia 
:  
1855-1914 
, New York, 1961: 30-40; id., 
The Russian empire, 1801-
1917 
 ( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988): 485-505; B. M. Kabuzan,  
Narody Rossii v
pervoi polovine 19 v. Chislennost' i etnicheskii 
  
sostav  
(Moscow, 1992): 137-146; 149-153;
179-208.
2. I. de Madariaga,  
Russia in the age of Catherine the Great 
 (London: Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, 1981): 427-454; E. C.Thaden, 
 Russia’s western borderlands, 1710-1870  
(Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1984): 32-81; 121-168.
 
02Pinchuk_Mr41_4  Page 495  Jeudi, 14. septembre 2006  1:22 13

496 
BEN-CION PINCHUK 
Jews, imparted a specific ethnic coloring to these urban settlements, making them
“Jewish” towns in the Russian empire.
 
Russian governors, administrators and settlers were found in every corner of the
empire. With them came the Russian language, culture, and Greek Orthodoxy, the
state religion. However, other religious denominations did not vanish and many
languages and dialects were heard within the boundaries of the empire. Non-
Russians were discriminated against and even, on occasion, persecuted;
nevertheless, with few exceptions, there was no lasting successful effort to
eradicate other ethnic cultures in an attempt of complete Russification. Local
cultures, customs and mores in their different manifestations in the arts and cultural
landscape continued to exist. Russians who settled in the annexed territories mostly
built their own agricultural and urban settlements alongside with preexisting local
communities. 
3
 
Generally no attempt was made by the Russian authorities to change the urban
character of newly annexed territories. In the eastern and southern regions of the
empire Russian towns and villages were built alongside with local communities,
the borderlines were quite clear, different ethnic groups preserving the distinct
character of their settlements. However, there were regional variations, in response
to local conditions. The ethnic composition and history of the western provinces of
the empire presented the Russian authorities with different problems than those
encountered in the east and south. It was an area fraught with historical ethnic
tensions and at the same time where the local populations could more easily blend
with and assimilate into each other. Here the Russian government conducted a more
vigorous campaign of Russification, particularly in the second half of the
nineteenth century, designed primarily to diminish Polish presence in the area. 
4
 
 In
this region, between the shores of the Baltic and Black seas lived the largest Jewish
community in the world of over five million at the end of the nineteenth century. A
large part of the Jewish population lived in the small towns of the area. Up to the
last quarter of the nineteenth century they were the main urban element in this
largely agricultural region.
Towns and their inhabitants played a subordinate role in the history of the
Russian state. 
5
 
 In his nine-volume survey of Russian history written at the
beginning of the twentieth century, G. I. Shreider maintained that before Alexander
II's reforms, the cities of Russia “deserved recognition primarily for their
 
3. B. A. Anderson, 
 Internal migration during modernization in late nineteenth-century 
  
Russia 
(Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1980); R. Pierce, 
 Russian Central Asia, 1867-1914. A
study in colonial rule 
 (Berkeley, 1960); S. Becker,  
Russian protectorates in Central 
  
Asia:
Bukhara and Khiva, 1865-1924  
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968).
4. On Russification in the western provinces: H. Seton-Watson, 
 The Russian empire 
,  
op. cit.: 
736-737; E. C. Thaden, “The Russian government,” in id., ed.,  
Russification in the Baltic
Provinces and Finland,1855-1914 
 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981): 15-108.
5. On the city in Russian history see: D. R. Brower,  
The Russian city between 
  
tradition and
modernity, 1850-1900 
 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990); M. F. Hamm, ed., 
The
city in Russian history 
 (Lexington, 1976); J. M. Hittle,  
The service city: State and townsmen in
Russia, 1600-1800  
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979).
 
02Pinchuk_Mr41_4  Page 496  Jeudi, 14. septembre 2006  1:22 13

THE SHTETL: AN ETHNIC TOWN IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 
497 
insignificant size: they were an unnatural occurrence in a land of peasant serfdom
and lacked any genuine cultural significance.” 
6
 
 With few exceptions, the Russian
“pre-revolutionary official town 
, gorod 
, was essentially an administrative
settlement with weak rights of self-government,” noted R. L.Thiede in his study on
the connection between industry and urbanization. 
7
 
 Being small and of limited
economic significance, the towns served the neighboring agricultural countryside
mostly as administrative centers. Only the abolition of serfdom and the great
reforms that followed ushered in a new phase in the history of the town in the
Russian empire. The accelerated modernization and industrialization in the last
decades of the nineteenth century brought a dramatic change in the growth, size,
and role of the cities in the empire. 
The towns in the empire were classified in 1785 by Catherine the Great
according to the administrative organization of the state. Hence we had two major
administrative subdivisions; towns that were  
gubernia 
 capitals and towns that were 
uezd 
 centers. Since the empire had been subdivided several times, it also included a
special class of towns that were named  
neshtatnye, 
 namely, not on the official list,
settlements that lost their status as administrative centers 
. Posad 
 was a form of
urban settlement that derived its status from the economic activities of its residents
and not from its administrative role. “It should be obvious to all, how accidental and
arbitrary were and still are the grounds for granting the status of town to this or
another settlement in our country,” asserts an official publication of the Ministry of
Interior in 1860. 
8
 
 The criteria for determining a settlement's urban status were ill-
defined, the differences between the various categories blurred, with little
consideration for the economic role of the settlement. For the sake of fairness, one
should add that the problem of what constitutes a town is not only complicated but
also one that has not yet been resolved, and even today there is no single definition
that is universally accepted by historians and geographers alike.
With the annexation of the western provinces from Poland at the end of the
eighteenth century, a new class, the  
mestechki  
(small towns), was added to the list
of urban settlements, relates the author of the Interior Ministry. Hundreds of small
towns were scattered throughout the western provinces that had been acquired by
Russia at the end of the eighteenth century. They were founded under Polish rule by
grants of special privileges by the crown to big landowners giving them the right to
establish on their holdings fairs, markets and industry as it was done in towns. The
Polish landlords “attracted to the new settlements artisans and Jews to develop their
economy.” 
9
 
 For all practical purposes these were the only urban centers serving the
 
6. As quoted by M. F. Hamm in “The modern Russian city: An historiographical analysis,” 
Journal of Urban History 
 (1977): 39.
7. R. L. Thiede, “Industry and urbanization in New-Russia, from 1860 to 1910,” in
M. F. Hamm, ed.,  
op. cit.: 
 125-126.
8.  
Gorodskie poseleniia v Rossiiskoi imperii  
(St. Petersburg, 1860), vol. 1: 9-10.
9.  
I 
bid.: 
 9. On the origin and early history of the shtetls see the introduction in G. D. Hundert, 
The Jews in a Polish private town 
 (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1992). 
 
02Pinchuk_Mr41_4  Page 497  Jeudi, 14. septembre 2006  1:22 13

498 
BEN-CION PINCHUK 
peasant population of the territory. The new rulers found it difficult to define the
status of this urban form, since in Russia, towns did not exist on private lands
regardless of size and occupation of the settlement. The shtetl residents, for taxation
purposes — the main interest of the rulers in the ruled population — were defined
as forming part of the town classes,  
meshchane,  
but the legal definition of the shtetl
itself remained in limbo for almost a century. The Ruling Senate, serving as the
high court of appeals, was forced in a series of decisions taken after 1882 to try to
define what constituted a  
mestechko.  
It was defined as a settlement that possessed
privileges of a town, and was recorded in an appropriate official document granted
to the owners of the land. The residents of such a town belonged to the 
meshchanstvo  
(town class) and engaged in commerce and industry. 
10
 
 While still ill-
defined, the Ruling Senate’s decisions facilitated the conclusion of a more definite
listing of shtetls in the empire. Consequently, a separate category of small towns, 
mestechki 
, appeared in the 1897 census, the first full-fledged census to take place in
Russia. The census thus provides us with a list of settlements officially defined as
small towns ( 
mestechki 
) or shtetls.  
 
Jews, who for centuries were forbidden to reside in the Russian empire,
constituted a minority that lived mostly in urban settlements in an area that was
especially designated for their residence, the so called Pale of Jewish Settlement.
Various attempts made since they became subjects of the tsar at the end of the
eighteenth century to force their assimilation were, by and large, of limited success.
The bulk of the Jewish population preserved its distinct religious and ethnic identity
and lifestyle as well as its cultural idiosyncrasies. They were recognized by the
Tsarist authorities and by the Soviet government after the revolution, as a separate
nationality. The Jews did not constitute a territorial minority, however, their high
concentration in the numerous small towns of the Pale could be taken as providing a
semblance of a territorial basis and contributed to the maintenance of group
identity. 
According to the1897 census in the  
gubernii 
 of the Pale of Jewish Settlement
and Poland, there existed 462 small towns with an absolute Jewish majority, and
116 had a Jewish population of over eighty percent. 
11
 
 It should be added that in the
latter category were towns that were for all intents and purposes, completely
Jewish, since most non-Jews, registered as residents, lived on the periphery and
were engaged mostly in non-urban occupations. The town’s Jewish residents
completely dominated its commerce and trade and hence determined the
settlements’ urban character. 
 
10. The Senate was forced to deal with the status of the shtetls in the wake of the so-called
“Temporary regulations” of May 1882. The expulsion of Jewish residents from some of the
shtetls, under the pretext that these were villages, required a more definitive distinction
between the two. See the article on the Temporary regulations ( 
Vremennyia pravila 
) in the 
Evreiskaia entsiklopediia 
, F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron, eds. (St. Petersburg, 1910).
11. The calculations are based on the 1897 census as recorded for the different  
gubernii 
 in 
Evreiskaia entsiklopediia 
 ,  
op. cit 
. 
 
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THE SHTETL: AN ETHNIC TOWN IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 
499 
The basis for the “Jewishness” of the shtetl was quite obvious to the people who
lived in the region, or happened to visit there. Jews were by far the predominant
ethnic group in the urban settlements of the area. In the ethnic make-up of the
region the numerous Jewish communities constituted a visible minority. Visible in
the sense that it is being used in contemporary North American discourse, as
applied to such groups as the Afro-American or the American-Indian communities.
The Jews were easily distinguished from the Slavic peasants of the countryside.
The numerous small towns where the Jewish population constituted an absolute
majority and often the only residents, were Jewish in the same sense that similar
settlements in other parts of the empire were Armenian or Polish. Each carried the
imprint of its civilization and the prevailing material conditions. The whole
material culture as reflected in the cultural landscape and seen in the building
materials, shape and size of public structures, private homes, streets and public
parks, sewage system, etc., reflected the prevailing poverty of the region, one of the
more backward on the continent. The shtetl carried the imprint of the material
priorities and cultural attitudes of its predominant ethnic group as it evolved in this
East European Slavic environment. 
Many of the shtetls of the Pale dated from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
yet they did not have the air of respectability that comes with age frequently found in
small towns in other parts of Europe. They looked rather dull and shabby, the result
of poverty and neglect. The shtetl stood out in its squalor even on the background of
the typically dull Russian provincial town. Whether portrayed by a sympathetic Jew,
born in the small town or coming from afar, a Gentile tourist that happened to pass
by, or a Russian official appointed to investigate the economic situation, a similar
sordid picture of the shtetl emerged. Crossing the north-western provinces in 1805,
on the road from St. Petersburg to Berlin, a Prussian diplomat noted that: “[the area
that was only recently annexed] may in truth be denominated the land of Jews, whose
number is incalculable. [...] One is in fact miserably off on a Friday evening after
sunset or on a Saturday, when one is want of anything, for everything must be had
from the Jews.” The towns looked obviously Jewish to the German diplomat. The
shtetls he ran across on his way he characterized as primarily market towns
consisting of a market-place with a few brick houses and “a few miserable streets
with wooden huts. The filth which prevails both within and without exceed
everything witnessed in Russia, which is saying very much.” 
12
 
 Summing up his
impressions ten years later, in 1814, yet another Westerner noted that: “As all towns
in Lithuania Novogrudek has a large square, from which a number of dirty lanes
branch off. In the center of the town are a few mean brick houses. [...] The people are
coarse, mean and dirty and consist chiefly of Jews. [...] There is little or no trade
carried on beyond the traffic of the Jews.” 
13
 
12. G. Reinbeck,  
Travels from St. Petersburg to Germany in the year 1805 
 (London, 1807):
137-138.
13. R. H. Johnston,  
Travels through parts of the Russian empire and the country 
  
of Poland 
(London, 1816): 355.
 
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500 
BEN-CION PINCHUK 
Of particular interest are the insights provided by F. Palmer who spent many
years in the empire and became intimately acquainted with everyday life in the
Russian countryside. Writing at the end of the nineteenth century he compared in
great detail the “Jewish town,” as he unhesitatingly names the shtetl, and the
Russian “country town.” The latter, Palmer maintained, had “streets generally wide
and paved, the best only were paved with cobblestones. In many of the larger
provincial towns [...] the sidewalks for foot passengers are often formed of planks.
Purely Russian towns are [...] generally kept in somewhat better order than those of
the Jewish district. But even in the former it is only in the more important that any
system of drainage is ever attempted.” Jewish towns are, according to the author, of
smaller size and their houses “[...] always far more slightly built than the 
 izbas 
[huts] of the peasantry. Though there is considerable variety in their architecture,
there is one feature that they almost all possess in common — the extreme of
squalid dilapidation. The sanitary condition is, if possible, worse than in the very
poorest of the Russian towns. Household refuse of every kind is simply thrown into
the street.” 
14
 
 Depressing as the foregoing descriptions may seem, they do portray
the reality of the shtetls in the Pale as revealed to any observer. The scenes of decay
and urban disintegration were corroborated by numerous similar reports from
diverse sources like Western travelers, Jewish journalists, Russian officials, etc., all
along. Probably, the most famous and influential depictions of the shtetl in the same
spirit are to be found abundantly in the classical Jewish literature. There should be
little doubt as to their veracity.
When depicting the shtetl, outsiders visiting the western provinces of the
Russian empire as well as local residents often allude to a town with what may be
called a “Jewish look.” Among the details of that “look” one always finds a
reference to a pervasive poverty that confronts the visitor. Buildings and streets,
shops and marketplace bore evidence to the continuing pauperization of the Jewish
population in the Pale. The houses were crowded, the streets without pavement or
adequate drainage, the stores with little merchandise. In the small towns with a
predominant Jewish population, the accidental guest was impressed by the lack of
elaborate gardening or embellishments, contrary to what he saw at non-Jewish
settlements. There was a rickety quality, captured so vividly in the paintings of
many artists, to the entire settlement. There reigned a certain air of temporariness
reflecting the material level as well as the cultural attitudes of the Jewish
population. The way houses and their surrounding courts, sidewalks and streets
looked and were treated represented not just poverty or material affluence but
cultural-ideological attitudes as well. It is a well known Zionist tenet that the
Diaspora Jew, particularly in Eastern Europe, was ever waiting to be returned to his
ancient homeland, an attitude reflected in the way he lived and treated his physical
environment. 
In 1821-1822, many years before Zionism appeared on the historical scene as a
political entity or modern ideology, an Englishman passing through the Pale of
 
14. F. H. Palmer,  
Russian life in town and country 
 (London, 1901): 110; 122-125.
 
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THE SHTETL: AN ETHNIC TOWN IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 
501 
Settlement noted that among the Jews “some, who are in circumstances of
affluence, possess houses and other immovable property, but the great mass of the
people seem destined to sit loose from every local tie and are waiting with anxious
expectation for the period when, in pursuance of the divine promise, they shall be
restored to what they still consider their own homeland.” 
15
 
 Limited attention to
gardening, painting and decoration in general, activities more common among their
Gentile neighbors, reflected a deep-seated reservation for external beauty that
could be found in traditional Judaism. When combined with the insecurity and
poverty of life in the Pale it produced the drab and squalid sights encountered by
outsiders and by shtetl inhabitants alike.
The basic geographic layout of the shtetl corresponded to its economic role and
ethnic composition. In a schematic way there was “a clear pattern of center and
periphery [... ] and the location of the various functions [was determined] according
to their importance on the socio-cultural scale of the Jewish town. The center stands
out as an important area that expressed Jewish culture and way of life. The
periphery and beyond were of lesser importance.” 
16
 
 Here, on the periphery were to
be found the homes of the Gentiles, quite frequently engaged in non-urban pursuits,
constituting a gradual transition to the non-Jewish countryside. On the periphery,
not far removed from town was located the residence of the shtetl owner or his
representative. The center of the settlement was also the focal point of economic
activity and Jewish presence. Serving as an urban center for the surrounding
countryside, the market square was the natural center of town and close by were
also to be found the major Jewish public buildings and residential area. The main
street led to the market square that was the most important meeting ground between
the shtetl Jews and the Slavic peasantry. It served as a reminder of realities beyond
shtetl limits. 
17
 
The small East European town was built mostly of wood, straw and clay, the
cheap and easily available building materials of the region. Brick buildings were a
sign of affluence and less frequent, mainly found in public structures, while houses
built of stone were a rarity. Fires were common and every shtetl had several on
record. Many buildings were relatively new, hence what might be called their
“young” appearance. However the sight of health and freshness associated with
youth, when combined with low-quality building material, lent it a deteriorating,
downtrodden appearence. The shtetls lacked the serene respectability and the
patina of age that is part of the charm of the small towns of the Mediterranean or
Central Europe. Absent from the rather bland East European settlements were the
composure frequently found in the brick- and stone-built towns of other parts of the
continent. The overall view of the shtetl reflected the poverty of its inhabitants,
 
15. E. Henderson,  
Biblical researches and travels in Russia  
(London, 1826): 224.
16. Y. Bar-Gal, “The shtetl — The Jewish small town in Eastern Europe,”  
Journal of 
  
Cultural
Geography, 
 5, 2 (1985): 17.
17.  
Ibid 
.: 20-21.
 
02Pinchuk_Mr41_4  Page 501  Jeudi, 14. septembre 2006  1:22 13

502 
BEN-CION PINCHUK 
their culture and the economic underdevelopment of the region, among the poorest
in Europe. 
18
 
Too small to have any significant governmental presence, most of the prominent
public structures in town were associated with the life of the Jewish population.
Foremost were the synagogues, houses of prayer and assembly. Their number and
prominence varied from town to town, reflecting the size of the community, its
material well-being and existing ideological and class divisions. There always was
a central synagogue designed to accommodate the entire community for religious
or social purposes. In the shtetl, the synagogue had the same role as in other
settlements. Along with the primary role of a house of prayer, the synagogue also
served as an assembly hall and a place of study. In their heyday, before the onset of
modernity and secularization, shtetl synagogues were bustling with life and activity
not only at the designated times for prayer, they were real community centers.
Contrary to the church found often in town and mainly serving the countryside
peasantry on Sundays and holidays, the synagogues were used for religious and
social activities throughout the day and the entire week.
Buildings and sites associated with the Jewish religion and its customs were
prominent sights in the urban landscape of the shtetl. Small places of worship were
to be found all over town. They carried different names,  
Beit-midrash 
,  
Shtibl,
Kloiz 
, and served different sections of the community. Besides being places of
worship, the synagogues were also centers of learning of the scriptures and their
commentaries. However, the primary place of instruction was the  
Kheder 
, literally
“room,” where a teacher provided his pupils with basic education. In a region where
elementary education was a rarity among the surrounding population, the  
Kheder 
was a unique institution. Located in the private residence of the teacher, the
“rooms” were to be found all over town and the sounds and sights of classes packed
with children chanting and learning by rote were part of the peculiar ethnic
characteristics of the shtetl. So were other sites with a definite Jewish nature, like
the  
Mikveh, 
 ritual bath, the kosher slaughterhouse and the cemetery that was one of
the first signs of the existence of a Jewish community. Together they made up a
network of sights and sounds, tangible manifestations of the distinct ethnicity of the
shtetl.
Yet, more than any single physical or structural element found in the landscape
of the small Pale town, what made it ethnically Jewish were its people and their
lifestyle. Demographic preponderance meant that the outside observer or the local
inhabitant met on the unpaved sidewalks, on the street or market square the Jewish
residents of the shtetl. In this part of Europe, where Jewish emancipation had been
slow in coming and ever-present ethnic animosities and struggles strengthened
group cohesiveness, the Jews constituted what may aptly be called, in present-day
terms, a visible minority. Even in the twentieth century, when external
 
18. The description of the shtetl as presented in this paper draws on documents long in the
public domain. The composite portrait is based on literally hundreds of separate descriptions
published in autobiographies, travel diaries, memorial books, etc. Since this is an interpretative
study, no attempt was made to draw attention to any particular shtetl.
 
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THE SHTETL: AN ETHNIC TOWN IN THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 
503 
acculturation and widespread assimilation took place, the shtetl Jew was quite
easily distinguishable from his Gentile neighbors, mostly belonging to one of the
Slavic nationalities. The usually darker complexion of the shtetl Jews, even though
there were individual exceptions, left no doubt as to the town’s distinct ethnic
make-up. During most of the nineteenth century, the men had beards and side-locks
( 
peyes) 
, that set them further apart from the Slavic peasant. What made the shtetl
Jew even more visibly distinct from his surroundings was his peculiar clothing that
drew the attention of foreign visitors. “Jews are all dressed alike,” claimed
R. Johnston who traveled through the region in 1814. In a rather lengthy passage of
four pages he went on to describe the peculiarities of the way Jewish men and
women dressed and how different they looked from their Gentile neighbors. 
19
 
 The
description is negative if not outright anti-Semitic and is very much similar to that
of E. Henderson, written almost a decade later. 
20
 
 He noted that the attire of the
Jews, in particular that of the women, was lavish and elaborate when compared to
that of the peasants. Writing at the end of the century, F. Palmer noted significant
changes in the clothing of the shtetl Jews living in the Pale. He noticed that “the
dress of the older generation has a distinctly Jewish cut,” which was not true
anymore of the younger men. However, what impressed him most was the special
effort to wear clothing that looked different, more respectable in their eyes, than
that of the Gentile peasant. 
21
 
 Beyond stereotype and prejudice found abundantly in
the foregoing observations that cover the entire nineteenth century, it is obvious
that the dress of the shtetl inhabitant was different from his neighbors’. The general
appearance of the small town’s residents emphasized its distinct ethnicity.
The structure of daily life within the confines of the shtetl imparted to the small
town a distinct ethnic beat, reflecting the Jewish spiritual and temporal
civilization. 
22
 
 Throughout most of the nineteenth century the shtetl embodied a
traditional Jewish way of life. This should not be construed as if life in the small
East European towns were in any way ideally Jewish or idyllic. No such claim is
being made. The content and quality of life in the shtetl are not the subject of the
present paper, but rather their external manifestations and impact on the town’s
ethnicity. Every aspect related to the conduct of the individual and the community
was regulated by law and custom, thus affecting the rhythm and flow of the town’s
life. Working hours were affected by daily praying times. The Jewish weekly rest
day, the  
Shabbat 
, brought to a halt all economic activity in town. It determined the
weekly economic cycle and the external appearance of the shtetl. Preparing for the 
Shabbat 
 occupied an important part of the week and could be noticed in the stores,
at the marketplace and in the streets. The small size of the population and the high
percentage of Jews imparted a prominence to the peculiarities of Jewish tradition
 
19. R. H. Johnston, 
 op. cit 
.: 331-333.
20. E. Henderson, 
 op. cit 
.: 223.
21. F. H. Palmer,  
op. cit.: 
 126-127.
22. For a rather idealized version of life in the shtetl see: M. Zborowski and E. Herzog,  
Life is
with people. The culture of the  
Shtetl (New York, 1952).
 
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504 
BEN-CION PINCHUK 
and customs since they practically affected the entire settlement. The general
standstill of all economic activity on rest days imparted to the small town a unique
sensation of festive tranquillity and rest. It has been remembered with a tinge of
yearning and nostalgia by those who lived there and it was recorded with a certain
amazement by foreigners. The unique ethnic composition of the Pale small town
was particularly evident on this rest day. So were the major holidays of the Jewish
calendar. They were landmarks in the yearly cycle that highlighted the ethnicity of
the shtetl. Each holiday had its visible trappings and specific customs. The routine
hustle and bustle of daily life came to a standstill during the High holidays, when
the shtetl for all intents and purposes closed down.  
Pesakh 
,  
Sukot  
and  
Purim, 
 all had
their visible presence in town as did the  
Khanuka  
candle lights in the cold
December nights. The Jewish calendar left its mark on the small East European
town.
 
The numerous shtetls in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian empire carried a
distinct ethnic character which could be traced in almost every aspect of life: in the
way buildings and streets looked; in the sounds of a distinct and exotic language
heard in shops and at the marketplace; it could be detected in the rhythm of daily
life and seasonal cycles. And most of all, in the presence of a distinct people that
made the shtetl a Jewish ethnic town.  
History Department
Haifa University
31905 Haifa 
Israel
e-mail: pinchuk@research.haifa.ac.il
 
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