Once Upon A Shtetl

A fond look back at a treasured slice of the Jewish past.Think of the shtetl and you think of Chaim Shapiro. More than a beloved and colorful chronicler of Jewish life in the towns and villages of Poland and Lithuania, he is a man who lived there and still breathes its air. And he has the precious knack of communicating his experience in prose that crackles with vividness and enthusiasm. In this book we meet great rabbis and rebellious rogues. We enter famous yeshivos whose names still evoke awe and we savor the atmosphere of humble dwellings of people who never knew they were desperately poor. We marvel at the pure faith and reverent conduct of unlearned stevedores who carried their rabbi on their shoulders, rather than let him trudge up the steps to his flat. And the foundations of Jewish life tremble under our feet as we feel the anguish of parents seeing their sons and daughters swarm after the blandishments of the new 'Workers’ Paradise' of Lenin and Stalin -- and the hated Yevsek