Awakening to Radical Islamist Evil

“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 and early 20th centuries. Goldenshteyn (1848-1930), a traditional Jew who was orphaned as a young boy and became a shochet (kosher slaughterer) as a young man, is a master storyteller. Folksy, funny, streetwise, and self-confident, he is a keen observer of his surroundings. His accounts are vivid and readable, sometimes stunning in their intensity. 

The memoir is brimming with information. Goldenshteyn’s adventures shed light on communal life, persecution, family relationships, religious practices and beliefs, social classes, local politics, interactions between Jews and other religious communities, 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 the massive Russian Empire and in the Land of Israel.

Volume two begins in 1873, when Goldenshteyn obtains his first position as a shochet in Slobodze, and it follows him to the Crimea, where he endures 34 years  of vicissitudes. In 1913, he fulfills a dream of immigrating to the Land of Israel, hoping to find tranquility in his old age. Instead, he is met with the turbulence of the First World War, as battles rage between the retreating Ottoman Turks and the advancing British forces.

 

Informed by research in Ukrainian, Israeli and American archives and personal interviews with the few surviving individuals who knew Goldenshteyn personally, The Shochet is a magnificent new contribution to Jewish and Eastern European history.

Piety and Rebellion examines the span of the Hasidic textual tradition from its earliest phases to the 20th century. The essays collected in this volume focus on the tension between Hasidic fidelity to tradition and its rebellious attempt to push the devotional life beyond the borders of conventional religious practice. Many of the essays exhibit a comparative perspective deployed to better articulate the innovative spirit, and traditional challenges, Hasidism presents to the traditional Jewish world. Piety and Rebellion is an attempt to present Hasidism as one case whereby maximalist religion can yield a rebellious challenge to conventional conceptions of religious thought and practice.

ENG:

The Russian aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 shook the world and caused immense suffering and destruction in the invaded country.

Up to now, the conflict has been highly dynamic: militarily and politically. Ambitions, objectives, and achievements have been as dynamic as the policy of the stakeholders involved. While not a military player itself, the EU has appeared as a significant actor by aiding the Ukrainian war effort, supporting refugees, sanctioning Russia, and turning Ukraine into one of the candidates for EU membership.

Our ambition with this reader is to track these developments concerning the key aspects of the war from a European perspective. Beyond the causes and consequences of the war, we should explore how Europe, and more specifically, the EU perform in the conflict, which will determine the future of our continent in many ways.

UKR:

Російська агресія проти України в лютому 2022 року сколихнула світ і спричинила величезні страждання та руйнування в окупованій країні. Війна дотепер має високу динаміку – і військову, і політичну. Амбіції, цілі та досягнення були такими ж динамічними, як і політики зацікавлених сторін. Хоча ЄС сам по собі не є військовим гравцем, він виявився значним актором, допомагаючи українським військовим зусиллям, підтримуючи біженців, запроваджуючи санкції проти Росії та перетворюючи Україну на одного з кандидатів на членство в ЄС. Мета цієї збірки — відслідковувати події щодо ключових аспектів війни з європейської точки зору. Крім причин і наслідків війни, ми повинні дослідити, як Європа, а точніше, ЄС виступить у конфлікті, який багато в чому визначить майбутнє нашого континенту.

Worlds fail when words fail. Catastrophe— KATASTROPHĒ, in the sense of an intense turn—invites encounters with new languages, new stories, and new strategies against nihilism and obliteration. Books like this one are tools to reinforce memory and integrity.

The contributors to Both Sides Face East see a portion of their world that is often invisible. Translation across languages and cultures may bridge the gap between the seen and the unseen, the speakable and the unspeakable. Responding to the urgent demand for translation and understanding raises an important question: What will endure? This book answers with poetry, stories, documentation, and evidence of resilience from Ukraine and beyond.

Worlds fail when words fail. Catastrophe— KATASTROPHĒ, in the sense of an intense turn—invites encounters with new languages, new stories, and new strategies against nihilism and obliteration. Books like this one are tools to reinforce memory and integrity.

The contributors to Both Sides Face East see a portion of their world that is often invisible. Translation across languages and cultures may bridge the gap between the seen and the unseen, the speakable and the unspeakable. Responding to the urgent demand for translation and understanding raises an important question: What will endure? This book answers with poetry, stories, documentation, and evidence of resilience from Ukraine and beyond.