Shtetl, Kettle & Me was inspired by my Grandparents Chaim Laib and Etel, who immigrated to America from Bessarabia in 1906. Their village or Shtetl no longer exists, but would be in what is now Moldova. At the time, Bessarabia was Beyond the Pale of Imperial Russia, a place Jews were sent to get them out of the heart of Russia, but still keep them under the Tsars control. As a child, I often wondered where my father's family came from, but did not delve deeply. Now I know that it matters. We all come from somewhere else. That sense of belonging and being part of a community came with them and made them confident and relaxed. Then when I grew older I learned how much they struggled to create new lives in a new land. I realized how strong they were and how kindhearted and also funny. Chaim was just 5 feet tall but he used to say than inside he felt at least 7'8"! When Ukraine was invaded by Russia, I was moved and proud to be related to Vladymyr Zelensky. All Jewish People are actually 5th cousins or even closer related. This is partly because they were both confined to Shtetls for hundreds of years ane because they had limited access to enrich the gene pool. What is a Shtetl, I wondered. Is it merely a hardscrabble version of Anatevka in Fiddler on the Roof? It is actually something much deeper and greater. It is a mirror of our souls protective embrace. I often cut pictures out of newspapers and magazines and throw them in shoeboxes and forget about them. One day I found a photo of a drawing of an archetypical Shtetl procession of souls in one of the shoeboxes and I started to doodle in crayon and Sharpie directly onto a canvas. I believe that the Shtetl in our hearts will never die.

Artwork Size & Ink Base:

31 x 66

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Daniel Aaron Schwartz

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