In her message of November 5,00 concerning the town of Bielcza Ellen
Sattler-Harpin asked whether is is unusual for only two or three families to
live "in a village like this."

It may have been the case that there weren't many non-Jewish families in that
village either; Bielcza was just a small village. (I couldn't find an entry
for it in any of my Gazetteers.) Or, perhaps, those few Jewish families
supplied the needs of the rest of the population,such as for tailoring and
tinsmithing, and in particular, the need for liquor. A tavern was also a
place of respite for the area's farmers and for intinerant traders and
peddlars.

If those few Jewish families of a little village were observant, they would
go to a larger village or nearby town to fulfill their religious oblgations
for circumcision, marriages, cheder attendance, etc., and the great holy days
and, maybe, more regularly and frequently, for Sabbath services.

That at the time of the Shoah there were only two or three Jewish families in
Bielcza may indicate merely that other Jewish families who may have lived
there had died out by then, or had emigrated.

Naomi Fatouros (nee FELDMAN)
Bloomington, Indiana
NFatouros@...
Researching: BELKOWSKY, Odessa, Berdichev; FELDMAN, Pinsk; SHUTZ, SCHUTZ,
Shcherets; LEVY, Mulhouse.