The book was published in 1998 as 900 year chronicle of the shtetl of Eishyshok But she used interviews and oral history and included detail about customs and religion although she is not an anthropologist She is a professor of Judaic studies at Brooklyn College Her Ph d is in Russian intellectual history Also her ancestors lived in Eishyshok I agree that this is not the place to push political views I have also noticed that this topic might spill over with information belonging to other articles It is a challenge