Life in the Ghettos: Eastern Europe

Catalog description

Explore lives in the valley of the Shadow of Death, in such places as the Warsaw, Vilna, and Kovno Ghettos. Regarding religious life, we will examine Rabbi Ephraim Oshry's responsa in the Kovno Ghetto and Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapiras hasidic sermons in the Warsaw Ghetto. We also will look at the importance of Yiddish theater, literary clubs, and libraries in the Vilna Ghetto. In addition, we will learn the story of the Vilna Ghettos paper brigade and will discover Emanuel Ringleblums Oyneg Shabes archive in the Warsaw Ghetto. Methodologically, we will address the question of the extent to which pre-war local conditions determined Jewish religious, cultural, and physical responses to ghettoization and to what extent Nazi policies contributed to these responses.