10 tut Side „ lit Spoip,

Sholem Aleichem and even the pho-
tographs of Roman Vishniac don't
present a complete view, nor do they
reflect the changes that modernity and
Zionism brought to the shtetl.
She explains that not all shtetl Jews
were poor, nor were their lives uni-
form, nor were women powerless.
Dr. Eliach refutes those reviewers
who have characterized Once There
Was A World as a yizkor book, refer-
ring to memorial volumes published
about specific towns by survivors that
are more like community albums. She
notes that those books were not
researched historically, rather they
were based on various people's memo-
ries and viewpoints.
"I wanted this to be an accurate his-
torical document," she says. She gath-
ered diaries, letters, public records and
other resources in private and public
archives — some newly accessible after
the break-up of the former Soviet
Union
and interviewed as many
people who once lived in the town as
she could locate, traveling to six conti-
nents. She explains that she document-
ed "every element of their testimony"
as well as her own memories.
Some former residents of Eishyshok
were reluctant to talk. But many were
eager to share their stories, affirming, as
her father said, that "at least the people,
and perhaps even God, will remember
that there once was a world filled with
faith, Judaism and humanity."
Featuring 430 photographs, the
beautifully designed book tells the sto-
ries behind the photos: of how life was
lived, what mattered to these people,
descriptions of home interiors, kid-
dush arrangements after Shabbat ser-
vices, marital decisions, treatment of
the mentally ill, the resolution of com-
munal disputes in the synagogue, reli-
gious conversion, the coming of elec-
tricity and movies to the shtetl.
One theme that emerged from her
research, she explains, regards the
position of women. In Eishyshok,
women wielded power. Successful in
owning and running businesses, they
spoke more languages than the men
and were also in command at home;
some acquired learning too.
She found evidence that the rabbis
granted women permission to recite
the mourner's Kaddish in synagogue
when no male members of their fami-
ly were present.
Dr. Eliach came up with the idea
for documenting the normal life of
her shtetl back in 1979, while in
Europe as a member of President
Carter's Holocaust Commission. On a
flight between Warsaw and Kiev

somewhere above her hometown —
she began thinking that she wanted to
create a memorial ro life, not death,
and chose pre-war Eishyskok as her
model. As a Guggenheim fellow, she
traveled to the town in 1987 and, by
coincidence, met the nanny who saved
her in the 1941 massacre. This
woman showed her all around the
town and brought her to her grand-
mother's house, where her mother was
murdered. But she couldn't go inside.
(She did go inside last year with the
PBS crew, and stood with her hus-
band, daughter and grandchildren on
the very spot her mother was shot.)
At the mass graves of the thousands
of men and women killed in 1941,
she became mesmerized with images
of the town as she knew it. She recalls
feeling surrounded by the townspeo-
ple, who were not skulls and bones
but very much alive, skating, celebrat-

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Yaffa Eliach: '7 heard them talking to me,
this is the way you should remember us."

ing bar mitzvahs, smiling. "I heard
them talking to me, this is the way
you should remember us." Later, back
in New York, when she conveyed this
experience to the museum's exhibition
designers, the idea for the tower of
photographs was born.
Dr. Eliach's collection of photographs
from Eishyshok numbers 10,000. Her
own connection to photography goes
back to the shtetl where her grandpar-
ents were the town photographers.
Hanging in her Manhattan study is an
enlargement of the last photo taken by
her grandmother before she was killed
in 1941: 4-year old Yaffa in a gingham
dress surrounded by chickens.
The 61-year old professor and her
husband, Rabbi David Eliach, who
met when he was her high school
principal in Israel, have lived in New
York since 1954.
Ceaselessly positive, Professor Eli-
ach says she enjoys her "normal life."
But Eishyshok — the first word pro-
nounced by many of her 12 grandchil-
dren — is never far away. H

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