Book review -The Shochet: A Memoir of Jewish Life in Ukraine and Crimea, Volume 2

Last year, I included The Shochet: A Memoir of Jewish Life in Ukraine and Crimea, Volume I, in my list of the Five Best Books of 5784.

Translated by Michoel Rotenfeld, associate Director of Libraries at Touro University, The Shochet, volume 1, is one of the finest historical autobiographies I have read.

Rabbi Pinkhes-Dov Goldenshteyn (1848-1930) was a shochet in Ukraine and Crimea and witnessed many historical events. He wrote this book as an ethical will to his children, hoping they would carry on Jewish observance.

Volume 1 detailed his early years in Tsarist Russia and the endless trials and tribulations he endured. I don’t think Goldenshteyn had a photographic memory, but his ability to recount details of countless events is mesmerizing.

Volume 2 covers his life in Israel, where he made aliya in 1913. He resided in Petach Tikva, and the situation there was just as difficult as in Crimea. He writes that no one earned anything, and everyone lived on funds sent from overseas by children and relatives. Food was often difficult to come by, such that once wealthy owners of vineyards and orchards died of hunger.

During World War 1, the Ottoman Turks exiled the 1,500 Jews of Petach Tikva to shacks in Kfar Saba, which was on the front line fighting between the Ottoman and British forces. Life in Kfar Safa was a hellish landscape where people died of exposure, malaria, typhus, and other diseases rampant there.

Things became particularly difficult during Ottoman rule. The Turks required everyone to become Turkish subjects and then nationalized all possessions. Entire families were left bereft of anything. Many men and boys were conscripted into the Turkish army.

An interesting side note: in both volumes, Goldenshteyn mentions being in Uman quite a few times but never mentions making a pilgrimage to Rebbe Nachman’s grave.

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. Through countless tribulations, he never once blamed God or took his anger out on him.

As a Chasid, Goldenshteyn shows the reader what it really means to serve God with joy, without worry or fear. That is how he led his entire life.

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.