At different times in the history of the Pale, Jews were alternately forbidden to live in agricultural communities and certain cities, as in Kiev, Sevastopol, and Yalta and forced to move to small provincial towns.  This practice fostered the rise of the shtetl. A Yiddish word literally meaning “small city,” “shtetl” came to be the typical Jewish community.

A shtetl usually had a few thousand inhabitants, was centered around a marketplace, and could be characterized by

• synagogues and rabbis as the foundational stones and pillars
• spatially clustered and socially tightly-knit living spaces
• a horizontally-organized social structure that nevertheless allowed for hierarchy
• matrilineal residence patterns
• a bustling, animated street and entertainment life
• a religion-based unity as all members partook in the same Sabbath rituals regardless of class or distinction

Jews earn their living as petty traders, middlemen, shopkeepers, peddlers and artisans, often working with woman and children as well. There were many organizations and community events. Here are some scenes of street life in a larger provincial city where shtetl inhabitants might have sustained their shops:

Source: The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present

Unfortunately, typical living arrangements in the shtetl were hardly desirable.

Factual descriptions often fall short in describing the misery that permeated much of these settlements. One of Western Europe’s greatest writers, Heinrich Heine, traveled through the Pale and noted in his 1822 journal:

The outward appearance of the Jews is terrible … However, disgust soon gave way to pity after I observed the situation of  these people at close quarters and saw the pigsty-like holes in which they live, talk Yiddish, pray, horsetrade, and – are wretched. (Source: Haumann, Heiko. A History of East European Jews)

Being a German Jew himself, Heine’s comments emphasize the unique kind of squalor and wretchedness that the Eastern European Jews were forced to live in.

Such is a house he might have been speaking of –

Source: World of Our Fathers (Österreiches Staatsarchiv)

Despite the squalor, the shtetl seemed like it had some positive aspects, such as a strong sense of community. Were there other reasons for the great wave of migration to come shortly?