Description

Published by Wayne State University Press

Author(s)

David Assaf is a professor of Jewish history at Tel Aviv University. His books include The Regal Way: The Life and Times of Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin (1997 [Hebrew], English edition forthcoming).

Reviews

“Kotik’s Memoirs has been published in meticulous academic edition.  Assaf in his comprehensive introduction informs about Kotik’s biography, history of his town, analyzes literary and academic aspects of the memoirs, and shows problematic moments(especially from the perspective of memoirs as historical source), history of manuscript, and reception of the book by its contemporary readers.  Large footnotes explain to the American reader details, which need Talmudic and historical knowledge.  Assaf is a specialist of the subject.”

— Kwartalnik Historii Zydw

"The memoir provides a detailed picture of shtetl life in the nineteenth century...The text is carefully annotated so that the descriptions are understandable to readers without any foreknowledge of East European Jewish life and there is a fine index- a rarity in autobiographies of this type. This delightful book is very useful for any exploration of traditional Jewish religious life in Eastern Europe as well as its institutions and the way it changed. It is very readable and should arouse interest among many readers."

— Religious Studies Review

"Kotik's memoir has been greeted since Sholem Aleichem hailed it in 1913 as 'a treasure, a paradise.' It is both the chronicle of a community and the story of a life told by a very witty and wise participant-observer. What a delight to have this book now in English, with a great introduction and exemplary notes."

— Ruth Wisse, Harvard University

"With these memoirs—adored by Sholem Aleichem—the reader can now enter and experience the real world of Eastern European Jewish life as it was lived for almost a millennium and just before modernity began to dribble in, bringing its disintegration of the collective vision of Ashkenazic Jewry. David Assaf's introduction and notes are thorough, illuminating and focus our attention on the value and treasure that are Kotik's unique memoirs."

— Seth L. Wolitz Gale, University of Texas at Austin

"I agree wholeheartedly with Sholem Aleichem, who said, 'The historical importance of this family chronicle cannot be exaggerated . . . I could not put it down!' Graced now by David Assaf's enlightening comments, Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl will be read eagerly by everyone interested in the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe."

— Gershon Hundert, McGill University

"The memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik are a unique and invaluable part of modern Yiddish literature and Jewish autobiographical/memoiristic literature. The lack of availability of this work has long been bemoaned by experts in Jewish literature and Jewish history, and David Assaf's translation and edition of Kotik was a most welcome, and appropriately well-received volume."

— Michael Stanislawski, Columbia University

"Not only is it the first time that this long-celebrated work will be available in English, but also Assaf has enhanced this important text with his outstanding introduction and notes. Readers will encounter an absorbing memoir and can read it as they would read literature. At the same time, Assaf has added immeasurably to the historical value of the memoir. A fine scholar, he places the memoir in its larger context and explains elements in the text that would otherwise baffle today's reader."

— Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, New York University