Setting

"Gimpel the Fool" is set in an indeterminate time in the fictional Jewish shtetl, or village, of Frampol in Poland. Like many of the settings in Singer's fiction, the shtetl of Frampol is presented as a place where life has a mystical quality, the people are superstitious, survival is difficult, and everyday events and concerns revolve around Jewish faith and traditions. The town of Frampol does exist in real life Poland today. The town was founded in 1705, with a unique, highly symmetric layout of streets in the shape of concentric rectangles around a large central square. In 1869 it lost its official status as a town, to recover it only in 1993. During World War II 90% of the town's buildings were destroyed in a raid carried out by the Luftwaffe on September 13, 1939. During the German occupation the town's significant Jewish community perished in the Holocaust. The town never fully recovered...