The Heavens Are Empty

A magical place, a lost history: Trochenbrod, the setting for Everything is Illuminated, is now rediscovered for a new generation.

In the 19th century, nearly five million Jews lived in the Pale of Settlement. Most lived in shtetls—Jewish communities connected to larger towns—images of which are ingrained in popular imagination as the shtetl Anatevka from Fiddler on the Roof. Brimming with life and tradition, family and faith, these shtetls existed in the shadow of their town’s oppressive an...