Unwanted Item

Condoms in the Shtetl

A strange exhibit in the Lost Shtetl Museum: packages of Bon-Ton condoms. We can't tell you any lurid tales about them. Nor can we convey intimate details of the secret lives of Šeduva residents. We don't know any.

All we know is that some Jewish residents of Šeduva sold condoms in 1924. This highly displeased the administrators and PTA of the Lithuanian high school there. They didn't want their children who were still minors to be tempted by such an "indecent" purchase. So they forbade all students to shop at Jewish shops. It's also possible the teachers wanted to avoid uncomfortable "dirty" questions from their students which happened occasionally during class.