Excerpt from The Samurai of Vishogrod: The Notebooks of Jacob Marateck, retold by Shimon and Anita Wincelberg (Philadelphia, 1976)
1) Why might Jacob's father have believed that his son would have more of a "future" in Warsaw?
2) What were evidently some of the measures which the Polish authorities employed to control travel to and from the city?
3) Why might the bakery customer have been particularly outraged by finding tefillin in her loaf of bread?
4) How did Jacob cope with the hardships he encountered?
5) Do urbanization and modernization, in general, create new needs as they at the same time meet or alleviate old ones?
6) What role did religion or religious practice appear to have played in the lives of the individuals in the story? Was Jacob very religious?
7) Can one to some extent deduce the tenor of relationships between the Jewish and non-Jewish Poles in the story?