THE SHOCHET VOL. 2

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.