THE HOME and its more modest commercial enterprises
were definetely the woman's domain. The matrilocal organization of the
shtetl household was at the core of the kest system, and thus a woman
in the household of a family oriented toward scholarship was in a particular
strong position. As the main breadwinner, she had considerable power,
power which had its roots in the early days of her marriage, when she
was just beginning to develop some kind of business with which to support
her family and thereby enable her husband to study without interruption.The
home was also the meeting point for many social activities, it was the
place where Hebrew clubs started and young Zionists planned their aliyah
(emigration) to the Land of Israel.
The family units of the Shtetl were usually matrilocal in nature:
the pattern in Eastern Europe, dating from the seventeenth century,
was for young couples to establish their first household in the home
of the wife's family. If the newlyweds did not actually reside there,
they usually lived close by and ate their major weekday meals as well
as all their Sabbath and holiday meals there. Instantly they bridegroom
became a member of a new extended family, with its own customs, quirks,
and complexities. Often it included three generations under one roof,
for kinship responsibilities were extensive and often mix was further
complicated by stepchildren from earlier marriages that had ended
either in death or - rarely - divorce.
