The Echenbergs of Sherbrooke and Ostropol: A Tale of Two Shtetls

More than 80 members of the Echenberg family migrated to Sherbrooke near the turn of the 20th century. They all came from a remarkably similar small town called Ostropol in what was then the Russian Empire and now is a part of Ukraine. In Sherbrooke, they and other migrants from Ostropol were able to replicate much of the shtetl life they had left in the Old Country and very quickly began to thrive.Using the archives of the Russian Empire we tell the story of the family from the early 1700s, through the years of the Russian Naming Edit of 1804 when the family chose the name, then through 19th century Russia when the family expanded and flourished in the Jewish shtetl of Ostropol. Beginning in the 1880s the family began to migrate. They tried out various places in the new world from New York to frontier towns like Denver before eventually choosing Sherbrooke. Like many similar smaller Jewish communities in North America they thrived. By mid-century, among the many Jewish-owned stores on the main commercial street of Sherbrooke, 5 carried the name Echenberg. Then, as the 20th century came to a close and the older generations died off, the younger generations moved to larger cities. Eventually, the synagogue was sold and only the cemetery remained.We tell the story of this cycle that occurred in hundreds of similar small-town Jewish communities of North America, through the details of one large family, The Echenbergs of Sherbrooke and Ostropol. Read more