The Shochet

A Memoir of Jewish Life in Ukraine and Crimea

“An impressively researched and surprisingly accessible portrait of Jewish life in the mid-19th century.” — Kirkus Reviews

Set in Ukraineand Crimea, this unique autobiography offers a fascinating, detailed picture oflife in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Tsarist Russia.Goldenshteyn (1848-1930), a traditional Jew who was orphaned as a young boy andbecame a shochet (kosher slaughter) as a young man, is a masterstoryteller. Folksy, funny, streetwise, and self-confident, he is a keenobserver of nineteenth-century Eastern Europe, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Hisaccounts are vivid and readable, sometimes stunning in their intensity. 

Thememoir is brimming with information. Goldenshteyn’s adventures shed light oncommunal life, persecution, family relationships, religious practices andbeliefs, social classes, local politics, interactions between Jews and otherreligious communities (including Muslims, who formed the majority of Crimea’spopulace), epidemics, poverty, competition for resources, migration, war,modernity and secularization, holy men and charlatans, acts of kindness andacts of treachery. In chronicling his own life, Goldenshteyn inadvertentlytells a bigger story—the story of how a small, oppressed people, among otherminority groups, struggled for survival in the massive Russian Empire.

Untilnow, only a small circle of Yiddish-speaking scholars had access to thisextremely significant primary source. This translation is a game-changer,making the treasure trove of information contained in these pages accessible toacademics and ordinary readers alike. Informed by research in Ukrainian,Israeli, and American archives and personal interviews with the few survivingindividuals who knew Goldenshteyn personally, The Shochet is amagnificent new contribution to Jewish and Eastern European history.

Contributor: Michoel Rotenfeld (Edited and translated by)

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