Editing Shtetl (section)

{{Short description|Town with a predominantly Jewish population}}
{{For|the documentary|Shtetl (film){{!}}''Shtetl'' (film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Italics title}}
[[File:Исаак Аскназий Еврейская свадьба.jpg|thumb|300px|An 1893 [[Isaak_Asknaziy#Selected_paintings|painting by]] the artist [[Isaak Asknaziy]] of a Jewish wedding with a {{lang|yi-Latn|[[klezmer]]}} band in a {{lang|yi-Latn|shtetl}}]]
'''{{lang|yi-Latn|Shtetl}}''' or '''{{lang|yi-Latn|shtetel}}''' ({{IPAc-en|lang|ˈ|ʃ|t|ɛ|t|əl}} {{respell|SHTET|əl}};<ref>{{Cite Dictionary.com|shtetl}}</ref> {{langx|yi|שטעטל|shtetl}}, {{IPA|yi|ʃtɛtl̩|pron}}; [[Grammatical number#Overview|pl.]] {{lang|yi|שטעטעלעך}} ''shtetelekh'') is a [[Yiddish]] term for small towns with predominantly [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi Jewish]] populations which [[Eastern European Jewry|existed in Eastern Europe]] before [[the Holocaust]]. The term is used in the context of former Eastern European Jewish societies as mandated islands within the surrounding non-Jewish populace, and thus bears certain connotations of discrimination.<ref name=maschu>Marie Schumacher-Brunhes, [http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/crossroads/courts-and-cities/marie-schumacher-brunhes-shtetl "Shtetl"], ''European History Online'', published July 3, 2015</ref> {{lang|yi-Latn|Shtetls}} (or {{lang|yi-Latn|shtetels}}, {{lang|yi-Latn|shtetlach}}, {{lang|yi-Latn|shtetelach}} or {{lang|yi-Latn|shtetlekh}})<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Speake |editor-first1=Jennifer |editor-link=Jennifer Speake |editor-last2=LaFlaur |editor-first2=Mark |chapter=shtetl |date=1999 |chapter-url= https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199891573.001.0001/acref-9780199891573-e-6562 |title=The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acref/9780199891573.001.0001 |access-date=28 March 2021 |isbn=978-0-19-989157-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of SHTETL |url= https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shtetl |access-date=28 March 2021 |website=Merriam-Webster.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Sacharow |first1=Fredda |title=Shtetl: A Word that Holds a Special Place in Hearts and Minds |url=https://www.rutgers.edu/news/shtetl-word-holds-special-place-hearts-and-minds |work=Rutgers Today |date=22 August 2014 }}</ref> were mainly found in the areas that constituted the 19th-century [[Pale of Settlement]] in the [[Russian Empire]] (constituting modern-day [[Belarus]], [[Lithuania]], [[Moldova]], [[Ukraine]], [[Poland]], [[Latvia]] and [[Russia]]), as well as in [[Congress Poland]], [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Austrian Galicia]] and [[Duchy of Bukovina|Bukovina]], the [[Kingdom of Romania]] and the [[Kingdom of Hungary]].<ref name="maschu" />

In Yiddish, a larger city, like [[Lviv]] or [[Chernivtsi]], is called a {{lang|yi-Latn|shtot}} ({{langx|yi|שטאָט}}), and a village is called a {{lang|yi-Latn|dorf}} ({{langx|yi|דאָרף}}).<ref>{{Citation |url= https://www.jewish-guide.pl/shtetl/history-of-shtetl |title=Jewish guide and genealogy in Poland |contribution=History of Shtetl}}.</ref> {{lang|yi-Latn|Shtetl}} is a diminutive of {{lang|yi-Latn|shtot}} with the meaning 'little town'. Despite the existence of Jewish self-administration ({{lang|he-Latn|[[kehilla (modern)|kehilla]]}}/{{lang|he-Latn|[[Qahal|kahal]]}}), officially there were no separate Jewish municipalities, and the {{lang|yi-Latn|shtetl}} was referred to as a {{lang|pl|[[miasteczko]]}} or {{lang|lt|miestelis}} ({{lang|ru-Latn|mestechko}}, in Russian bureaucracy), a type of settlement which originated in the former [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] and was formally recognized in the [[Russian Empire]] as well. For clarification, the expression "Jewish {{lang|pl|miasteczko}}" was often used.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/shtetl |title=Shtetl |website=JewishVirtualLibrary.org |access-date=5 April 2019}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |last=Petrovsky-Shtern |first=Yohanan |author-link=Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern |date=2014 |title=The Golden Age Shtetl |publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref>

The {{lang|yi-Latn|shtetl}} as a phenomenon of Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe was destroyed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.<ref name="tabletmag.com" /> The term is sometimes used to describe largely Jewish communities in the United States, such as existed on the [[Lower East Side]] of [[New York City]] in the early 20th century, and predominantly Hasidic communities such as [[Kiryas Joel, New York|Kiryas Joel]] and [[New Square, New York|New Square]] today.