A photo from Vishniac's "A Lost World," a collection of photos published posthumously (image from NYT).
I'd never really thought much about shtetl life, or why Fiddler on the Roof is so popular, but the article made me realize that we really do romanticize pre-war Jewish communities. The writer's piece in Tablet magazine, and accompanying audio commentary/slideshow gives even more texture to this phenomenon.
It turns out that the photos Vishniac selected, and the way he chose to crop them, served to send specific messages about these pre-war communities, where people were supposed to be dirt poor but incredibly pious. These messages have served poiltical and personal purposes over the course of history, and only now are we starting to separate myth from reality.
During my time in Poland, I absolutely noticed a romanticization and exotification of Jews. In Warsaw, it was slight. In Krakow, it beat you over the head. Krakow's old Jewish quarter felt like Disneyland for Jews:
A replica of Jewish shops in Krakow's Jewish Quarter.
So few Jews still live in Poland, yet the idea of Jews looms large. And apparently even in the diaspora we're guilty of the same Disney-fication of Old World Jews.
