The narrator gives the geographical, political situation of Wysokie
NARRATOR: Lisa, backgrounding/commenting. Today the town of Wysokie Litewskie /1/ is just due east of the Russian border near a main artery connecting the cities of Brest and Bialystok. In 1895 Wysokie Litewskie had 4,105 inhabitants, most of whom were Jews. /2/ Geographically and economically, Wysokie Litewskie was like thousands of other towns throughout the world. It was a nucleus of commerce, around which produce was grown in small farming villages. There was a noticeable ethnographic division between Jews and gentiles: the Jews clustered together within the town; the Gentiles lived on the farms.
/1/ Pronounced Veesoka Litovsk
/2/ Królestwa polskiego Słownik geograficzny = Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland
Wysokie is presently close to Belarus's border with Poland. In Max's time, Wysokie was under Russian hegemony. After the Russo-Polish war following WWII, Wysokie fell under Polish government, which persisted until WWII.
A "main artery" near Wysokie connecting Brest with Białystok cannot be readily identified. Possibly, this refers to the longstanding rail connection between Brest and Białystok. To this day, Wysokie is connected to the outer world by narrow paved roads running through forests and farm fields.
In this region, residents of small towns frequently kept modest gardens. They also purchased produce was provided by ethnic Belarusian peasants, who lived in isolated rural homes or very small clusters of houses among the surrounding fields and forests.
NARRATOR: The Jews have had a long history of political and religious oppression which had inexorably determined the way in which they lived their daily lives. The concept of Diaspora, which is both a state of being and a state of mind, is illustrative of the Jewish formula for survival, begun six hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ. It exemplifies the wanderings of a people who live in perpetual exile, hoping always to return to Palestine. Although the Jews have lived in exile, they have always adapted to their host culture without losing their own identity. The very teachings of the Talmud, the Jewish book of learning, stress the importance of the Jews always retaining their ability to live peaceably within another civilization, so that they would be able to maintain their own identity.
From our perspective this description is broadly representative, but it isn't clear that the Jews of Wysokie painted their existence in such broad, dramatic brushstrokes. By the available accounts, they were mostly occupied with their families and their community for which Judaism provided a sturdy framework. The yearning to return to Palestine increased significantly in the 20th century as evidenced, for example, by practical Hakhshara ("preparation") programs during the interwar period-- at least one in Wysokie-Litewskie.
NARRATOR: A permanent component of that unity was, however, the knowledge that at any moment the Jews might be banished from the place in which they lived, as the result of any number of religious, economic and political factors. They therefore pursued occupations that consisted of temporary transactions with clients or employers: those that could be left quickly and easily. They became proficient in specific skills and trades, excelling as craftsmen, artisans, financiers, salesmen, and professionals.
Likewise, it isn't clear that the Jews of Wysokie felt particularly insecure. Outside of a few isolated incidents, no record of anti-Semitic violence has been discovered.