Shtetl
Shtetl is a Yiddish term for a small Jewish town or community in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in what was once the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and later the Russian Empire. The word, from Yiddish shtetl meaning "little town," denotes towns with predominantly Jewish populations and distinct communal structures.
Most shtetls were located in present-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Moldova and western
Culturally, the shtetl produced a rich body of folk literature, music, and theater. Writers such as Sholem
The emergence of modernity, migration, and antisemitic policies weakened many shtetl communities in the 19th and