Artwork Description:
the town where my father was born File1119
“Shtetl” is Yiddish for a small town with large Jewish population. Many existed in Central and Eastern Europe dating from the 19th century. Virtually all were destroyed during the Holocaust. Nearly all the people I grew up with, and just about everybody living in my childhood neighbourhood, was an immigrant, or the child or grandchild of an immigrant. The old people would talk about the town or city of their birth, but never conveyed a description. Somehow I got the impression it was old, decrepit and crowded, and it was this impression on which I based this painting.
While the residents of the shtetl were very poor economically, they had a very rich culture. When they emigrated to Canada and the USA they organized fraternal societies called landsmanshaftn. In return for a modest membership fee they would provide a doctor, free loans and other social services, long before these were available from government. Equally important they carried on with the culture of the shtetl – such as concern for fellow immigrants, and offered important assistance in learning the language and mores of the New World. There is no question that it was because of these self-help groups - based on the culture of the shtetl - that a very high percentage of second generation Jews became fully integrated into the cities of Canada and the USA. They achieved success with outstanding swiftness. Although Jews make up only 0.2 percent of the worlds population, they won an astonishing 22 percent of Nobel Prizes as of Oct 9, 2013.