The Shochet (Vol. 2): A Memoir of Jewish Life in Ukraine and Crimea

by Pinkhes-Dov Goldenshteyn, Michoel Rotenfeld (Translator)

Overview

“A fitting conclusion to a well-researched and meticulously edited memoir translation.” — Kirkus Reviews

“You have to read this book… It’s not like anything you read before.” — Tablet Magazine

Set in Ukraine, Crimea, and Israel, this unique two-volume autobiography offers a fascinating, detailed picture of life in Tsarist Russia and Israel during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Goldenshteyn (1848-1930), a traditional Jew who was orphaned as a young boy and became a shochet (kosher slaughterer) as a young man, is a master storyteller. Folksy, funny, streetwise, and self-confident, he is a keen observer of his surroundings. His accounts are vivid and readable, sometimes stunning in their intensity. 

The memoir is brimming with information. Goldenshteyn’s adventures shed light on communal life, persecution, family relationships, religious practices and beliefs, social classes, local politics, interactions between Jews and other religious communities, epidemics, poverty, competition for resources, migration, war, technology, modernity and secularization. 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 and in the Land of Israel.

Volume two begins in 1873, when Goldenshteyn obtains his first position as a shochet in Slobodze, and it follows him to the Crimea, where he endures 34 years  of vicissitudes. In 1913, he fulfills a dream of immigrating to the Land of Israel, hoping to find tranquility in his old age. Instead, he is met with the turbulence of the First World War, as battles rage between the retreating Ottoman Turks and the advancing British forces.

 

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798887196152
Publisher:	Academic Studies Press
Publication date:	12/10/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	500
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Michoel Rotenfeld is a historical researcher who has long been fascinated by Jewish memory in its myriad forms, especially the genre of Jewish autobiography. He is the director of Touro University Library’s Project Zikaron, a permanent collection of previously uncollated and undigitized historical material from Jewish communities across the world. He also coordinated the digitization of David Tidhar’s ninеtееn-volume Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel (www.tidhar.tourolib.org), which has received over three million page views.
Michoel Rotenfeld is a historical researcher who has long been fascinated by Jewish memory in its myriad forms, especially the genre of Jewish autobiography. He is the director of Touro University Library’s Project Zikaron, a permanent collection of previously uncollated and undigitized historical material from Jewish communities across the world. He also coordinated the digitization of David Tidhar’s ninеtееn-volume Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel (www.tidhar.tourolib.org), which has received over three million page views.

Table of Contents

Volume Two

       Part III: My Forty Years as a Shoykhet, and Moving to Palestine, 1873–1929

Chapter 22: As the Shoykhet of Slobodze, 1873–1875

Chapter 23: The Nobleman’s Attack and Moving to the Crimea, 1876–1880

Chapter 24: Corruption in Bakhchisaray and Ungrateful Relatives, 1880–1889

Chapter 25: The Threat of Banishment from Tsarist Russia, 1881–1884

Chapter 26: Persecution in Bakhchisaray, 1884–1889

Chapter 27: Raising My Children and My Wife’s Death, 1884–1897

Chapter 28: Remarrying and My Children’s Departure from Russia, 1896–1910

  Chapter 29: Preparing to Leave for Palestine, 1910–1914

       Part III—Addendum: My Life in Palestine, 1913–1928

Chapter 30: The World War and the Death of My Second Wife, 1913–1916

Chapter 31: Marrying Off My Niece and Writing a Torah Scroll, 1916–1917

Chapter 32: Exile to Kfar-Saba, 1917–1918

Chapter 33: Suffering in Exile and Returning to Petakh-Tikva, 1918

Chapter 34: Completing the Torah Scroll, the Arab Attack, and My Children Join Me in Palestine, 1919–1929

Appendices:

Appendix A: The Author and His Relatives

A1. The Author’s Final Years in Petakh-Tikva

His Houses, His Properties, and the Local Synagogues

Memories From Those Who Knew Him

His Demise

His Chabad Legacy

A2. The Author’s Children

His son Isruel (aka Israel Goldenshtein in France, 1873–1946)

His Daughter Nekhame Brakhtman (Noami "Nadya" Brockman, 1877–1955)

His Son Itskhok–Yosef "Yosl" (Joseph Edward "Joe" Goldeen, 1880–1954)

His Son Yankev :Yankl: (aka Jacon "James" Goldeen, 1882–1948)

His Son Shloyme Goldenshteyn (Shlomo, 1889–1962)

A3. His Nephew Itsl (Isaac Goldenshtein, 1862–1907)

A4. His Second Wife Feyge (ca. 1854–1916)

A5. Bashe's Tsores — The Story of the Author's Third Wife

A6. Salomon (Shlomo) Bernstein, Relative and Portraitist of the Author

A7. The Printing of the Autobiography

Appendix B: Translations of Documents Written by the Author

B1. Hebrew Engagement Contract for His Daughter Nekhame (1897)

B2. Hebrew Ethical Will (1920)

B3. Family Letters

January 23, 1914 Postcard from the Author's Son Isruel

June 1926 Letter from the Author

July 3, 1926 Letter from the Author

October 10, 1926 Letter from the Author

January 27, 1927 Yiddish Letter from the Author

March 14, 1929 Letter from the Author

April 1929 Letter from the Author

November 21, 1929 Yiddish Letter from the Author

July 15, 1930 Letter from the Author

October 30, 1930 Letter from the Author

August 28, 1939 Letter from the Author's Son Isruel in France

Appendix C: Translations of Additional Documents

C1. Hebrew Letter from Rabbi Medini (Sdei Khemed) Regarding the Author (1879)

C2. Episodes Related by the Author about Rabbi Medini (Sdei Khemed)

C3. Two Certificates in Sh’khita Obtained by the Author’s Son Refúel (1904 and 1906)

Appendix D: Genealogical Charts

D1. The Author’s Ancestors and Siblings

D2. The Extended Family of Ershl Teplitsky, the Author’s Brother-in-Law

D3. The Author’s Children and Grandchildren

D4. The Extended Hershkovitsh Family, the Family of the Author’s Wife Freyde 

Bibliography

Introduction to the Glossaries and the Romanization/Transliteration Schemes

Glossary 1: Words and Phrases

Glossary 2: Jewish Personal Names

Glossary 3: Geographic Places in Eastern Europe

Index 

Editorial Reviews

The second volume of Goldenshteyn’s memoir continues to captivate, brimming with the same dazzling color and detail that defined the first. The author’s fluid writing style, combined with his knack for capturing nuance and subtlety, makes this volume difficult to put down…. Particularly worthy of celebration is the exceptional work of translator and presenter Michoel Rotenfeld…. This is yeoman’s work of the highest order and sets a gold standard for future presentations of memoir literature.”

—Rabbi Moshe Maimon, SeforimChatter

“Goldenshteyn, a traditional Jew who was orphaned as a young boy and became a shochet (kosher slaughterer) as a young man, is a master storyteller. His accounts are vivid and readable, sometimes stunning in their intensity. 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 and in the Land of Israel. With great self-sacrifice and acumen, he overcomes tremendous adversity time after time by following his belief that justice will prevail if one acts with integrity.

The translator, Michoel Rotenfeld, spent decades on the research and translation, traveling to Ukraine, Crimea, and Israel to explore archives and interview the last remaining individuals who knew Goldenshteyn. The results are self-evident: the footnotes are concise and illuminating, providing the reader with a thorough understanding of what Jewish life was like in his era.”

— Jewish Link

“Rabbi Goldenshteyn wrote his life story as a guide to his children. But in this fascinating work, he leaves us with a unique record of what life was like in Eastern Europe and Israel for all of us, and it’s not a pretty story by any stretch of the imagination. Goldenshteyn endured trials and travails sufficient for 50 people. Yet, in this work, we see him not just as a scholar but as a man of deep faith. Like Volume 1, Volume 2 is an exceptionally interesting first-hand account of life in Eastern Europe and Israel. Rotenfeld has done a remarkable translation and research to bring this most important volume to print.”

— Ben Rothke, The Times of Israel

“Writ­ing about his life, which was shaped by death, pover­ty, finan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties, and strug­gles against cor­rup­tion, Gold­en­shteyn does not present read­ers with easy top­ics. Yet his vivid, read­able prose is full of resilience, nuance, and humor. It invites us into the world of a crit­i­cal thinker, a pious Jew, and a thought­ful observ­er of Jew­ish life.”

— Katha­ri­na Hadas­sah Wendl, Jewish Book Council

From the Publisher

2024-12-31
The second volume of the memoir of a kosher animal slaughterer, accompanied by historical researcher Rotenfeld’s commentary.

The first volume of Ukrainian-born Goldenshteyn’s life story offered a unique glimpse into late 19th and early 20th century Jewish history. Although Goldenshteyn (1848-1930), a Hasidic Jew, doesn’t rank among the leading intellectuals or theologians of his day, his work as a shochet, with specialized training in slaughtering animals in accordance with Jewish dietary laws, provides a unique perspective on turn-of-the-century Judaism from a devout, working-class perspective. Originally written in Yiddish, Goldenshteyn’s memoir has been carefully translated into English by Rotenfeld, who offers readers ample footnotes that help to contextualize the work. Picking up where the first volume left off, this book begins after Goldenshteyn’s meandering journey through Eastern Europe, including Ukraine and the Crimea, and his arrival in Palestine in 1913, where he would live for 17 years. Like many Zionists, his faith included both religious piety and political engagement. Although the history of Zionism is well known, what stands out in this remembrance is the author’s perspective as a rank-and-file observer of Zionist organizations. Religion, of course, also takes center stage, as the shochet approached life’s difficulties with an earnest belief in God’s divine plan: “I struggled to earn my daily bread,” he writes, adding, “but I accepted these difficulties with love.” Written chronologically, the book’s timeline often blends multiple themes into single chapters. One, for instance, discusses the marriage of his niece and the writing of a Torah. This stream-of-consciousness approach can be disorienting at times, but it also offers a wealth of details and the thoughts of a transnational Jewish man on topics that range from observations on the Ottoman Empire during World War I to complexities in the lives of Jewish families dispersed throughout Europe.

Goldenshteyn’s dizzying prose style is tempered by Rotenfeld’s useful analysis. However, because this edition picks up immediately where the first ends, newcomers may become lost in the intricacies of characters, events, and references. The lack of a contextualizing introduction gives this volume an abrupt beginning, but it concludes with more than 200 pages of appendices, comprised of family trees and genealogies, primary source documents, and a glossary of Jewish names, geographic locations, and transliteration schemes. This is clearly not a work designed to be standalone, but the concluding edition of a two-book set. Rotenfeld’s background as the director of Touro University Library’s collection of archival Jewish diasporic material offers readers an unparallel intellectual resource regarding the nuances of early 20th century Jewish history. The book’s learned footnotes make an otherwise arcane memoir, full of references to long-dead Jewish figures, obscure family members, and antiquated terminology, accessible to a general audience. It also includes dozens of photographs, diagrams, maps, and other images, and more scholarly minded readers will appreciate the 12-page bibliography and discussion of the translation methodology. Working closely with Goldenshteyn’s descendants, Rotenfeld also provides readers with supplementary information on the lives of the shochet's children and those of extended family members mentioned throughout, providing closure on storylines that postdate the narrative.

A fitting conclusion to a well-researched and meticulously edited memoir translation.

Kirkus Reviews