Living Beyond the Pale | What and Why?

My mother's mother, the only of my grandparents I ever knew, died in January 1971. Years later I found her husband's WWII Draft Registration online. The writing on the form was not his except for the signature. This man who had always been a figure in fairy tales suddenly became real.

Old Man's Registration form for my grandfather, Adolph 

Sauer, from April 1942. The family's address at the time is

 now the site of The Experimental Station, a non-profit

 organization focusing on building just and sustainable

 infrastructure in Hyde Park. He would have liked that.

 Researching family history hooked right at that moment.
 We are descendants of Jews who lived in Imperial Russia. Law set the boundaries of every aspect of their lives whether religious or secular. Under the tsars, not only was owning property forbidden to them, from 1791-1917 they were restricted to living within the Pale of Settlement.
 The Pale was a large area. It also happened to be a belt of land that lay along the frontier between potential enemies and the Russian aristocracy in the capitols. Whether by chance or design, nearly any invading army would have to plow through the inhabitants of the Pale who had not fled at their advance in order to confront the armies of the tsar.
 Moscow offered shelter and safety when enemies approached for all classes of citizens — not all religions.