Czarnobyl: w żydowskim sztetlu
Chernobyl: in a Jewish shtetl

Summary/Abstract: The aim of this article is to reconstruct the microcosm of the 19th-century Chernobyl with particular emphasis on the social, economic and cultural significance of its Jewish inhabitants. The text attempts to answer the question about the kind of relationships between Chernobyl Jews and their Christian neighbors, especially in comparison with other shtetls of the Russian Empire. In the paper a hypothesis has been formulated that Jews played a key role in the economic and material development of Chernobyl, and that under the conditions of the tsarist discriminatory policy and growing nationalistic tendencies, the town on the Pripyat river until the Russian civil war could have been an example of tolerance and comparatively peaceful coexistence of various religions and cultures.

• Details
• Contents