The Shochet: A Memoir of Jewish Life in Ukraine and Crimea: Vol. 1 by Pinkhes-Dov Goldenshteyn. Presented and translated by Michoel Rotenfeld. Published by Touro University Press.
From the Publisher:
This unique autobiography offers a fascinating, detailed picture of life in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Tsarist Russia, obtainable nowhere else. Goldenshteyn (1848-1930), a traditional Jew who was orphaned as a young boy, is a master storyteller. Folksy, funny, streetwise, and self-confident, he is a keen observer of nineteenth-century Eastern Europe. His accounts are vivid and captivating, sometimes stunning in their intensity.
The memoir is brimming with information; his adventures shed light on communal life, persecution, family relationships, religious practices and beliefs, social classes, local politics, interactions between Jews and non-Jews, epidemics, poverty, competition for resources, migration, war, modernity and secularization, holy men and charlatans, acts of kindness and acts of treachery. In chronicling his own life,
Goldenshteyn inadvertently tells a bigger story—the story of how a small, oppressed people, among other minority groups, struggled for survival in the massive Russian Empire. Born in Tiraspol, Ukraine, his life experiences took him throughout Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and Lubavitch and Shklov in Belarus. He was hired as a shochet in the Crimea in 1879, and finally, after working there for decades, he immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1913. Extensive footnotes make this book easily readable for both
the scholar and the layman, for those very familiar with Judaism, and for those who know little.
the scholar and the layman, for those very familiar with Judaism, and for those who know little.
A 75-page introduction places the book in historical and literary context. Informed by research in Ukrainian, Israeli, and American archives and personal interviews with the few surviving individuals who knew Goldenshteyn personally,
The Shochet is a magnificent new contribution to Jewish and Eastern European history. Vol. 2, which covers Goldenshteyn’s years in Crimea and the Land of Israel, will be out in September 2024.
Available for purchase on Amazon, from Academic Studies Press
(https://www.academicstudiespress.com/9798887193557), and where better books are sold.
Available for purchase on Amazon, from Academic Studies Press
(https://www.academicstudiespress.com/9798887193557), and where better books are sold.
Michoel adds:
I put in a lot of genealogical research in the book, which is apparent in the copious footnotes and the appendices (which will appear in vol. 2). Like no other book, it really gives the reader a picture of what life was like for Jews in the 19th century in Tsarist Russia. Extensive footnotes make this book easily readable for both the scholar and the layman, for those very familiar with Judaism, and for those who know little.
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