How small was a shtetl
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12523487 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Lawrence A Coben (Washington University in St. Louis, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 42 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 45-68 |
| Publication date | 2012-04-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | East European Jewish Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1350-1674 • E-ISSN: 1743-971X |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/13501674.2012.665586 |
| OpenAlex | W2005567282 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 5 |
The purpose of this study was to apply the recently proposed definition of a shtetl (Samuel D. Kassow, “The Shtetl,” in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, ed. Gershon D. Hundert, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), to the problem of determining the lower limit of shtetl size, if any, by relating the size of the Jewish population in a given site to the degree to which the site fits the definition. The definition of the shtetl used here is based on the presence of the five institutions needed for observance by an orthodox Jewish community, namely a free-standing synagogue, a heder, a mikveh, two or more charitable hevres, and a local Jewish cemetery. For each of 56 putative shtetl sites in Eastern Europe c.1845–1940, information on the presence or absence of these institutions was found in a memoir. The number of Jewish residents in these sites ranged from about 2600 to about 40. Each site was classified as either a shtetl, a potential shtetl, or a non-shtetl. The smallest shtetl had a Jewish population of about 200. This provides an estimate of the lower limit of shtetl size, in terms of Jewish population. The data suggest that the non-shtetl – more aptly called the “pre-shtetl” – is an entity separate from the shtetl as here defined
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art history · Judaism · Memoir · Population · Sociology · Demography · History · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Jewish Identity and Society · Religion, Theology, History, Judaism, Christianity
| Highly cited | No |
|---|