A Simple Jew: A Picture From My Family's Shtetl

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

A Picture From My Family's Shtetl - Week 24

9 Comments:

At January 10, 2006 at 6:18:00 AM EST, A Simple Jew said...: This is a picture of the lake - possibly where the shtetl's Jews performed Tashlich.

In the warmer months it is where the town's residents do their laundry.
At January 10, 2006 at 9:58:00 AM EST, MC Aryeh said...: That is a very cool picture - with the trees leaning and the reflection on the lake, it looks like the lake has secrets to tell if only someone would ask it...
At January 10, 2006 at 10:57:00 AM EST, A Simple Jew said...: I am sure it does.
At January 10, 2006 at 9:07:00 PM EST, torontopearl said...: I find it so difficult to look at all these serene pastoral photographs of your family's shtetl and think of the "chaos" -- to put it mildly -- that reigned during the wars and pogroms and massacres of Jews.

As MC said, if only the waters could speak...and the pavement...and the houses...and the earth.

You are 2 generations removed from those scenes; I am but one generation removed, and it is still most difficult for my father to talk about his time in his shtetl...
At January 11, 2006 at 6:30:00 AM EST, A Simple Jew said...: Pearl: Is your father a Holocaust survivor? I know you have mentioned before that your family comes from Poland, but you have never written much about it.
At January 11, 2006 at 6:37:00 AM EST, torontopearl said...: I can't write what I don't really know. In my house it's mostly hush-hush so as not to bring pain.

He wasn't in the death camps, but he was in work camps in Siberia, but till he got from his shtetl to Siberia... his mother and youngest sister choosing not to leave with him. My father has lived with the guilt of their deaths all these years, I'm sure.
At January 11, 2006 at 6:44:00 AM EST, A Simple Jew said...: Pearl: Facinating! I strongly encourage you to speak to him about it. Otherwise the history of your family will be lost.
At January 11, 2006 at 4:11:00 PM EST, Chani Vogue said...: You know, I went to russia to do camp, the year before the Coo. I used to take my campers into the woods behind our bunks, and I would sing with them lubavitcher chasidishe niggunim. Then the dreamer in me would come out, and I would ask them to contemplate how many chasidim walked past these trees in an effort to get to their rebbes, and sang niggunim even perhaps the same ones we were singing,,, as they trod along the same paths we were taking.
The picture reminds me of the lake we had near our camp. It could have been taken anywhere, but one thing. I know it effects each person differently.
At January 11, 2006 at 7:35:00 PM EST, A Simple Jew said...: annonymously beautiful: I am glad you posted your comment. I wish I had spent more time in the shtetl and just wandered around more, taking it all in.