"In the forests surrounding the small #Lithuanian town of #Seduva, hundreds of #Jewish men, women, and children were shot to death in the summer of 1941. Their names, once erased from memory, now line the walls of a new #museum built to commemorate a world that vanished with them. Yet as #Lithuania struggles to confront its past, #antisemitism is once again finding legitimacy in the country’s present.

Seduva, a town of just 2,400 people located about a two-hours’ drive north of #Vilnius on the road to neighboring #Latvia, was for decades little more than a forgotten dot on the map. Until recently, its main attractions were an old windmill and a nearby restaurant hosting occasional events. Few #Lithuanians, let alone foreign visitors, had any reason to stop there.

That changed last September with the opening of the Lost #Shtetl Museum..."

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-888114

"An ambitious project a decade in the making, the #Šeduva #Jewish #History “Lost #Shtetl” #Museum in #Lithuania officially opened its doors in September 2025 to great excitement, with every single guided tour now booked until April.

Against a global backdrop of huge waves of #antisemitism, the region’s biggest museum dedicated to shtetl culture in the #Baltics was developed and realised by an international team of #historians, #architects, and Jewish cultural experts.

Based in Šeduva, whose Jewish history dates back at least to the 15th century, the museum structure resembles a small town, its rooftops visible from afar across the flat #Lithuanian landscape, and encompasses a series of distinct halls beneath the gabled roofs of “individual houses,” each designed to house a specific part of the exhibition."

https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/lithuania-lost-shtetl-museum-dedicated-to-200-jewish-communities-destroyed-by-nazis/

#NewOpening | On September 20, 2025 The Lost Shtetl Museum in Šeduva welcomes visitors to discover the history of Jewish life in Lithuania | Details:

Lost Shtetl Museum | jewish history museum lithuania

#shtetl #jewsineasterneurope #lithuania #museum

Illustration by Issachar Ber Ryback, from Mayn horever heym : a gedekhenish (1922).

Source: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

https://pdimagearchive.org/images/423ffe87-d878-4279-a0e3-11c739650be8

#judaism #ukraine #shtetl #yiddish #jewish #movement #pogroms #art #publicdomain

#Montreal folks, I highly recommend this production which is playing at Quai des Brumes on Sept 21. I saw it here in Vancouver a few months ago and it's great, a very thoughtful reimagining of Jewish folklore to comment on how we engage with the past & heritage today. Live music with crankie and dramatic narration!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/magid-ensemble-presents-shterna-the-lost-voice-montreal-tickets-1631850571989?aff=oddtdtcreator

#klezmer #theatre #Yiddish #folklore #shtetl

🔍 Did you know the last Jewish shtetl in the world is in Azerbaijan? 🇦🇿
Qırmızı Qəsəbə has preserved Jewish traditions for centuries—keeping Sabbath, speaking Juhuri, and maintaining a matchmaker!
Read more: https://www.ryanjhite.com/2025/02/27/the-last-shtetl-inside-the-enduring-jewish-community-of-qirmizi-q%c9%99s%c9%99b%c9%99/

#JewishHistory #Shtetl #Azerbaijan #HiddenGem

📖 Tevye the Dairyman & Motl the Cantor's Son 📚

As a big fan of Fiddler on the Roof, I decided I should read the original Tevye stories. First published in 1894, Tevye 'tells' Aleichem the tales of his family, focusing on six of his seven daughters, Tzeitel, Chava, Hodel, Shprintze, Taybele, and Bielke. I was surprised by how different these tales proved to be from musical.
But the highlight here is the delightful adventures of the 'orphan' Motl in Aleichem's unfinished novel Motl and the Cantor's Son. These tales take us on the journey from poverty in the Shtetl, across Europe to the promise land of America. Motls' take on life is endearing and funny. I am amazed that these stories have never made it to film!

#tevyethedairyman #motlthecantorsson #shalomaleichem #fiddlerontheroof #tevye #tevyeandhisdaughters #books #book #mybookshelf #mybooklist #reading #booklist #readinglist #livre #buch #libro #libros #novel #novela #livres #bücher #judaica #shtetllife #shtetl

@mazeldon
@judaism Encountered common #transphobia on Reddit in #jewish spaces from a "conservative."

However, I'd like to instead focus on the story of Berel-Beyle, who left his #shtetl as a woman named Beyle and came back and was accepted as a man named Berel. If early twentieth century rural Orthodox Jews can embrace #trans #Jews, it's not too much to ask for modern day ones do the same.

https://www.heyalma.com/the-uplifting-story-of-berel-beyle-the-trans-jewish-man-accepted-by-his-shtetl/

"When the curtain came down on another day, he always needed a little while to remember he wasn’t Jakub Shlayfer, a hungry Jew in a Polish village that had vanished from the map more than a hundred years ago."

- Harry Turtledove in #OtherCovenants: Alternate Histories of the Jewish People.

Launching next week!! Over 400 pages of Jewish speculative literature!

https://jort.link/www.benyehudapress.com/books/other-covenants/

#Jewish #Mazeldon #SFF #AlternateHistory #Fantasy #HistoricalFantasy #Shtetl