Editing Jewish Shtetl (Town) (section)

== Disappearance of Jewish Shtetls ==
Starting from approximately 5631 (1871), there began a significant decline and extinction of Jewish shtetls. This came following the construction of railways that bypassed small shtetls, causing a drastic decline in the economy of the shtetls, which had served as transit stations between large cities. Trade relations with gentile neighbors were damaged, and severe pogroms began in Jewish communities, backed by turning a blind eye and even encouragement from the government. Many attacks against Jews occurred during World War I, the Civil War in Russia, and wars between Russia/Ukraine and Poland.

Against this background, many young Jews left the shtetls and migrated to Central and Western Europe, and some even to the United States and Eretz Yisrael. With the end of Czarist rule in Russia, the boundaries of the Pale of Settlement were breached, and Jews were allowed to settle in the cities of the Soviet Union. In total, about two million Jews left the shtetls of the Pale of Settlement during those years.

With the extermination of most of Central and Eastern European Jews in the Holocaust, the phenomenon of Jewish shtetls finally passed from the world.