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Family Is All That Matters 12 Below: Mariam Brandes (Iosif 's grandmother) in Shtetl Graiding, Ukraine, during the 1920s. Mariam was known to give money to Iosif and his sibilings each Friday, allowing them to buy candy. In this photo, Mariam is wearing a wig. Previous page: Shlomo Volsun (Iosif 's father) in Moscow, 1955. Shmuel & Inda Rycya Volftsun Shmuel & Inda Rycya Volftsun We know that Shlomo's paternal grandparents were Iosif and Ita Volsun, and that they produced at least one child, Shmuel, in 1838. Shmuel Volsun married Inda Rycya, and they had three children: Rachel, Sara, and Shlomo. Shmuel and Inda were observant Jews, fiercely committed to their faith. They lived in a small shtetl (diminutive form of Yiddish shtot ָטאטש, or "village"). A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe, much like the town portrayed in the film "Fiddler on the Roof." They were mainly found in the areas that constituted the 19th-century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire. The concept of shtetl culture is used as a metaphor for the traditional way of life of 19th-century Eastern European Jews. Shtetls are oen portrayed as pious farming communities that follow Orthodox Judaism, are socially stable, and remain unchanged despite outside attacks. This definition certainly described the community where Shmuel and Inda created a life. It was in many ways a Utopian experiment. The community was organized around the synagogue. Everyone was committed to Orthodox Judaism, with an emphasis on piety, righteous behavior, Kashrut (keeping kosher), and, most of all, keeping the Shabbat. As sunset approached on Friday, the beginning of Shabbat, the women of the shtetl furiously began the preparations. They cleaned their houses inside and out, and went to the market to prepare the meals for the next two days. The challah bread was shaped and popped into ovens. By sundown, all the men were home om work and the family settled into an evening of rest and prayer. The house in Gorodok where Shmuel and Inda lived and created a vital enterprise was, by the standards of the shtetl, quite significant. In fact, during World War II, German occupiers selected it for their local headquarters. It still stands today, the only house in the village previously owned by Jews and not destroyed by the Germans. It is said that the German occupiers spent their last moments evacuating the documents om the house and then had no time to blast it as they had the other homes. Shmuel and Inda began their business with a horse, a cart, and little else, yet became one of Gorodok's wealthiest couples. How did they do it? In the middle of the shtetl was a big plaza. Twice a week in this plaza—Sundays and Thursdays—there was a market, with Thursdays

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