Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
shtetl
References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images
Four Jewish men in traditional dress sit on a bench outside a shop in Krasilov, Ukraine, circa 1916-17, engaged in conversation. Map highlighting the Pale of Settlement, the region in the western Russian Empire where Jewish residency was legally allowed from 1835 to 1917. The area is shaded in orange, covering parts of present-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova, with major cities such as Warsaw, ?odz, Lublin, Bia?ystok, Hrodna, Kyiv, Odesa, and Chisinau marked. An inset map shows the same region within modern European country borders for reference. Tower of Faces at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, with three-story walls covered in hundreds of family photographs of residents of the Eyshishok shtetl. Black-and-white photo of a Jewish family outside a wooden house in Chelm, Poland, circa 1916-18; children stand with a goat, two are barefoot, and an older woman stands in the doorway. Chaim Topol as Tevye and Sara Kestelman as Golde sit together on stage in costume during a performance of Fiddler on the Roof at the London Palladium.
Related Questions
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites
Four Jewish men in traditional dress sit on a bench outside a shop in Krasilov, Ukraine, circa 1916-17, engaged in conversation.
A conversation in the shtetl Jewish men sitting outside shop chatting, Krasilov, Ukraine, c. 1916–17.

shtetl

Jewish community
Also known as: שטעטל, shtetel, shtetlekh, shtetls
Written by
Jordana Rosenfeld
Jordana Rosenfeld is a copy editor at Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Jordana Rosenfeld
Fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

shtetl, Yiddish term referring to small towns in eastern Europe before World War II that had significant Yiddish-speaking Jewish populations. There were many kinds of shtetls, depending on their geographic and political context, but all were characterized by having a concentrated and close-knit Jewish settlement. Shtetls existed across areas that are now the countries of Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Slovakia, Moldova, Romania, and southern Latvia. These unique settlements functioned as significant Jewish population centers...

Discover the world with Britannica

Subscribe to Continue Reading

Free Trial | No Ads | Exclusive Content
Explore Subscriptions
DNA
Right
Mobile