Natan Meir—Stepchildren of the Shtetl: The Destitute, Disabled and Mad of Jewish Eastern Europe, 1800 – 1939 (Virtual on Zoom)

In partnership with KlezCalifornia

Memoirs of Jewish life in the east European shtetl often recall the hekdesh (town poorhouse) and its residents: beggars, madmen and madwomen, disabled people, and poor orphans. In this course, we will examine the place of these marginalized figures in the Jewish community from the dawn of modernity to the eve of the Holocaust. The course will include sessions on the history of the hekdesh, mentally ill people and so-called “town fools,” the conscription of marginal people into the Russian military, and the cholera wedding, a magical ritual to end an epidemic in which the community would marry its most vulnerable and marginalized members to each other.

3 Thursdays: 11/3, 11/10 and 11/17