Lives Remembered: A Shtetl Through a Photographers' Eye

Zalman Kaplan, the towns photographer, captured the history of Szczuczyn from within the community. So in addition to photographing the town cemetery and architecture and meetings, he also recorded Purim parties, family portraits, bicycle excursions, and other moments of carefree life. What is so poignant is that the towns nearly 3,000 Jews, pictured leading vibrant and joyful lives, had no idea what disastrous fate was to befall them. Compelling essays by Jonathan Rosen and Jeffrey Shandler provide excellent context for understanding the shtetl of Szczuczyn. Rosens essay, for example, draws a parallel to September 11, how the photographs used on missing posters and in newspapers were of the subject at a time of joy. Photographs of lives lived, like the portraits in the book, now symbolize not how these people lived, but how they died.

Author: Louis D. Levine
Publisher: Museum of Jewish Heritage
Published: 03/01/2002
Pages: 123
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.85lbs
Size: 11.96h x 9.02w x 0.56d
ISBN: 9780960997091

About the Author
Rosen, Jonathan: - Jonathan Rosen is the author of the nove""l Eve's Apple,"" He created the Arts & Letters section of ""The Forward,"" which he edited for ten years. His essays have appeared in ""The New York Times Magazine,"" ""The New York Times Book Review,"" ""The American Scholar,"" and several anthologies. He lives in New York City.
Shandler, Jeffrey: - Jeffrey Shandler is Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University. He is author of ""While America Watches: Televising the Holocaust ""(1999), editor of ""Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youth in Poland before the Holocaust ""(2002), and coauthor of ""Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting ""(2003), among other books. He lives in New York.