Shtetl

Traces the trajectory of writing about shtetls--by Jews and non-Jews, residents and visitors, researchers, novelists, memoirists, journalists and others--to demonstrate how the Yiddish word for "town" emerged as a key word in Jewish culture and studies. Shandler proposes that the intellectual history of the shtetl is best approached as an exemplar of engaging Jewish vernacularity, and that the variable nature of this engagement, far from being a drawback, is central to the subject's enduring interest.