The International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem, Israel’s leading Center for Holocaust Remembrance, has launched a new educational program dedicated to the topic of the shtetl. To give both students and the general public an idea of how prewar Jewish shtetl life looked, they selected the Jewish community of Gombin. Using images from the 1937 Sam Rafel film of Gombin and material from the Gombin Yizkor Book, they create a powerful and compelling picture of shtetl life. One of the components in the learning environment is an interactive map (based on the map sketched by Wolf Mantzyk) that incorporates segments from Rafel’s film. We are grateful to Dafna Dolinko and Natalie Mandelbaum for their attention to Gombin’s Jewish community; they honor the work of many Gombiners all over the world and the memory of our ancestors who are featured in the program and those who perished in the Holocaust.

Click here to view the Gombin component on Yad Vashem’s website.