Mel Werbach at the entrance to the town, 2007 (photo courtesy of Mel Werbach)

A former synagogue, 2007 (photo courtesy of Mel Werbach)

The following images are of houses in the former Jewish district of Shumsk, 2007 (photos courtesy of Mel Werbach):

The Sosna Flour Mill (photo courtesy of Mel Werbach)

Horse-drawn carts are still a common sight on the streets of Shumsk in 2007. (photo courtesy of Mel Werbach)

Mel and Gail Werbach with Albert Shafir, 2007.  Mr. Shafir's late father, having survived the Holocaust by joining the Soviet Army prior to the Nazi occupation of the town, was the sole Jew to settle permanently in Shumsk after World War II.  Mr. Shafir, born in 1946, still resides there. (photo courtesy of Mel Werbach)

These following images are of typical older houses and streets that remain in the old Jewish district of Shumsk as taken by Howard Freedman in 1999:

This beautiful house has been abandoned for some time.

If you look very hard at this building, you can see a Magen David pattern in the bricks just under the corner of the roof.

This older house has been decorated recently with patterns typical of Ukrainians' homes in the region. The chickens in the foreground are also typical--they roam freely through the streets of Shumsk.

This former Jewish home now also stands empty and abandoned.

The building on the right, once a bakery, now houses Shumsk's museum of town history. There is little mention of Jews in the museum's exhibit.

Inside the town museum, I am standing with Albert Shafir.

It is still very common to see horse-drawn wagons riding alongside automobiles in the streets of Shumsk.