English majors will be familiar with the term explication de texte, and with Maureen Dowd’s claim in the New York Times that “one top Democrat” said, “I’m telling you, man, it’s something about our party, the shtetl mentality,” we once again require an explication.

What is a shtetl, besides riddled with consonants? A shtetl is a 19th-century Ea...

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