Description: This unique book is the memoirs of a kosher slaughterer, a Jewish functionary, who lived in Ukraine and Crimea from the middle of the nineteenth century until the First World War. For the first time, it gives us a snapshot of Jewish life from a functionary's point of view in the last century of Tsarist rule, and at the same time deals with the eternal questions of antisemitism, minority status, and the life of Jews in Ukraine.
Brief description: Michoel Rotenfeldis 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'sProject 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-volumeEncyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel(www.tidhar.tourolib.org), which has received over three million page views.
Review Quotes:
"I read The Shochet and was deeply moved by the way an apparently ordinary life opens into such a rich record of faith, struggle, and resilience. There's something powerful about how Goldenshteyn's steadiness, his daily work, his devotion, his honesty, becomes history in its own right. Rotenfeld's careful restoration and translation make that world feel both intimate and enduring."
--Ottessa Moshfegh, author of My Year of Rest and Relaxation
"Despite being an academic publication, it has found its way into virtually every ... [Jewish] bookstore, as readers eagerly snapped up this uniquely vivid account of a bygone world."
--Mottie Wilhelm, COLlive Magazine
"This is one of those rare books that once you start, it is very difficult to put down. You know you should put it down and go to sleep or go to work or make supper... but you can't! And once you finish it, you want everyone you know and love to read it too... The Shochet is written, edited, and footnoted beautifully. I am in awe of Michoel Rotenfeld's translation, which is not only precise but also eloquent.... I keep The Shochet on my desk just to remember the inspiration I gleaned from reading the life story of this remarkable 'simple Jew.'"
-- Rishe Deitsch, N'shei Chabad Newsletter
"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
"Writ-ing about his life, which was shaped by death, pover-ty, finan-cial dif-fi-cul-ties, and strug-gles against cor-rup-tion, Gold-en-shteyn does not present read-ers with easy top-ics. Yet his vivid, read-able prose is full of resilience, nuance, and humor. It invites us into the world of a crit-i-cal thinker, a pious Jew, and a thought-ful observ-er of Jew-ish life."
-- Katha-ri-na Hadas-sah Wendl, Jewish Book Council
"An ordinary Jew's extraordinary 800-page account of survival in the Pale...The translator Michoel Rotenfeld's substantial introduction and notes add considerably to helping us understand the memoir's many historical and linguistic nuances, which together provide a riveting panorama of a vanished world."
-- The Tablet, Lane Igoudin
"[R]emarkable for its depth of detail, vivid descriptions, and striking honesty and sincerity."
-- Derher, Rabbi Mendy Greenberg