Editing Village (section)

===Ashkenazi Jewish culture===
{{See also|Shtetl|List of shtetls|Eastern European Jewry|}}
A ''shtetl'' (plural ''shtetlekh'') was a small market town or village with a majority Jewish population in central and eastern Europe. The word ''shtetl'' is Yiddish, derived from the word ''shtot'' (town) with the suffix ''-l'', a [[diminutive]]. Shtetlekh first began to appear in the 13th century, and were characteristic aspects of Jewish life in central and Eastern Europe until the 1940s. The shtetl occupies an important place in Jewish collective memory (particularly the history of Ashkenazi Jews) and has been depicted extensively in literature, visual art, theatre, and film, including such examples as the writing of [[Mendele Mocher Sforim]], [[Isaac Bashevis Singer]], and [[Sholem Aleichem]]. Sholem Aleichem's [[Tevye the Dairyman]] stories, set in the fictional shtetl of Anatevka, were eventually adapted into the [[Fiddler on the Roof]] stage play (which itself was later adapted for film).

During the [[Holocaust]], most shtetlekh were depopulated of their Jewish communities through mass deportations or liquidations. Many are memorialized in [[yizkor books]], written testimonies that describe the histories of Jewish communities destroyed during the Holocaust.