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Three Idlers [finish chanting]:Why, oh why,Did the soul descendFrom the highest heightTo the deepest end?The greatest fallContains the upward flight.[A long pause. All three sit motionless, lost in…
Even though the town has a well right in the middle of the marketplace, many of its finest people use river water that they have to carry from the edge of the town half a mile away. The river water is…
Humor—is a Jewish thing. What Jew doesn’t enjoy listening to a nice story, parable, or witticism? When is a Jew indisposed to joking around? Not due to great luxury, God forbid, but on the contrary…
In every village in the region, in every farmhouse you’d meet them, the Boyars. The first Boyar, family legend had it, had settled in the Polesian forests many generations ago. His name had been Ezra…
Anyone familiar with our Russian Poland knows what Jews mean by a small shtetl, a little town.
A small shtetl has a few small cabins, and a fair every other Sunday. The Jews deal in liquor, grain…
Great men were once able to perform great miracles.
When the ghetto of Prague was under attack and marauders wanted to rape the women, roast the children, and murder everyone, when it seemed that all…
I have a story here to tell
To all my children—you as well.
Hush, dear friends, be very still—
Hear my story, if you will.
There’s a land that’s quite remote,
Beyond the reach of train or boat;
Even…
It was a bright and frosty winter night, moon and stars in the sky, snow, bedded snow, in the fields, and no sound from the paths, no horse and sleigh, no bell from the way, just field and peace…
In the province of Mollive, there is an old woman who is known for her shtetl wisdom, her old sayings, and her folktales. I met her quite by chance. Her…
Now in that same shtetl there lived a youth named Shimen, but he was nicknamed Simkhe (joy, celebration) and Plakhte (coarse cloth) because he was barefoot and almost naked and that was all he wore…