The Shochet Vol. 2

"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 andearly 20th centuries. Goldenshteyn (1848-1930), a traditional Jew who wasorphaned as a young boy and became a shochet (kosher slaughterer) as ayoung man, is a master storyteller.Folksy, funny, streetwise, andself-confident, heis a keen observer of his surroundings. His accounts are vivid and readable, sometimes stunning in theirintensity.

The memoir is brimmingwith information. Goldenshteyn's adventures shed light on communal life,persecution, family relationships, religious practices and beliefs, socialclasses, local politics, interactions between Jews and other religiouscommunities, 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 themassive Russian Empire and in the Land of Israel.

Volume two begins in1873, when Goldenshteyn obtains his first position as a shochet in Slobodze, and it follows him to the Crimea, where heendures 34 years of vicissitudes. In1913, he fulfills a dream of immigrating to the Land of Israel, hoping to findtranquility in his old age. Instead, he is met with the turbulence of the FirstWorld War, as battles rage between the retreating Ottoman Turks and theadvancing British forces.

Informed by research inUkrainian, Israeli and American archives and personal interviews with the fewsurviving individuals who knew Goldenshteyn personally, The Shochet is a magnificent new contribution to Jewish and EasternEuropean history.