A Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology) [Hardcover]

David Assaf (Editor, Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0814328040 | ISBN-13: 978-0814328040 | Publication Date: April 2002

The first annotated English edition of a classic early-twentieth-century Yiddish memoir that vivdly describes Jewish life in a small Eastern European town.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Assaf has added immeasurably to the historical value of this 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 --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

A masterpiece of modern Yiddish literature, the first volume of memoirs by Yekhezkel Kotik, is now available in English. Originally published in Warsaw in 1913, this beautifully written memoir offers a panoramic description of the author's experiences growing up in Kamieniec Litewski, a Polish shtetl connected with many important events in the history of nineteenth-century Eastern European Jewry. Although the way of life portrayed in this memoir has disappeared, the historical, cultural, and folkoric material it contains will be of major interest to historians and general readers alike.

The English edition includes a complete translation of the first volume of memoirs and contains notes elucidating terms, names, and customs, as well as bibliographical references to the research literature. The book not only acquaints new readers with the talent of a unique storyteller but also presents an important document of Jewish life during a fascinating era.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Wayne State University Press (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814328040
• ISBN-13: 978-0814328040
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,051,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #67 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Yiddish

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BOLDLY GONE BEFORE, August 7, 2004

By 

Paul Kotik (Plantation, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology) (Hardcover)

Okay, so I Google myself. That's how I discovered this astonishing memoir, published (1913) in Warsaw in Yiddish, by a man who may or may not be my blood. I read the Hebrew translation in 2001 and corresponded a bit with Editor/Translator Dr. Assaf, a professor of Jewish History at Tel Aviv University. Assaf is a thorough and inspired scholar. The Hebrew edition was superb, and the English edition is, too.

Yekhezkel Kotik was born into one world and lived long enough to die in another, one in which nearly all physical remants of the old were vanished. An essentially medieval culture, on the periphery of the Russian Empire, unchanged for nearly a milleniuum, was in the course of Yekhezkel's adulthood swept away by the ripples of modernity which swept through the Russian Empire.Kotik was born in a small town in the Belarus -Lithuanian region of the Pale of Settlement, at a time when most men expected to spend their entire lives within a few kilometers of the spot where they came into the world. The 19th Century, however, did not end as it had begun. The emergence of industry, global commerce and the fundamental transformations of political economy which devolved from and fueled these tectonic shifts set people in motion to an unprecedented degree.
Kotik's adult life was strikingly modern. He resettled himself several times in different towns in Belarus and the Ukraine, operating ( with generally disappointing results) a series of businesses. He came to rest in cosmopolitan Warsaw, where he opened what turned into a thriving coffee house much favored by the city's Jewish intellectuals, artists, activists, bon pensants and bon vivants. Yekhezkel flourished in this milieu, and became locally famous as an organizer and promoter of all manner of cooperative societies.

Late in his life, Yekhezkel's socialist son Avraham urged him to write a memoir. It had become clear by this time, the early 20th Century, that the millenium of shtetl life in the Pale of Settlement would otherwise leave few traces of its existence. Yekhezkel, who had never before written anything but pamphlets and corporate by-laws, applied himself to the project and produced the first volume of a planned three. The book was made available to the leading Yiddish writer of the time, Sholom Aleichem, who declared it superior to anything he himself had written. Kotik's subsequent efforts were somewhat less well received, but now I'm giving away too much !

For me, Yekhezkel Kotik is an inventor, possibly the greatest of all time. He invented a time machine.


Paul Kotik
Plantation, FL USA

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Kamenets, February 18, 2007

By 

M. T. Greenberg (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology) (Hardcover)

My great great grandparents lived in Kamenets. Their children spread thruout that region before they and their children left for America, Israel, Moscow, and South Africa. This book's explanation of the 19th Century social and economic order of this town and its environs finally allows me to understand, interpret and to place into perspective the stories my grandfather told especially in regard to Jews, the Polish overlords, Belarussian serfs and Russian rulers. Anyone interested in Jewish "family history" of that area of Grodno will greatly appreciate this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, October 10, 2006

By 

John R. Wolberg - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology) (Hardcover)

My next-door neighbor raved about this book when he read the Hebrew translation. It was more recently translated into English and I received a copy as a birthday gift. There is a very long introduction that I suggest that readers read only after reading the actual memoir first. The intro then becomes much more meaningful.

The book was written in 1913 and describes what life was like in Kamenetz - the shtetel that he grew up in. It was a typical Eastern European shtetel and the period the book covers is the 1850's and 1860's. It is amazing how the author so clearly captures the spirit of that period. He wrote the memoir as a series of little vignettes - each one describing a different aspect of life in his village. Some of the stories are comical and some are sad. Relations with the non-Jewish population is discussed as well as the relations with the representatives of the Tsar.

My grandparents came from Eastern Europe and after reading this book I felt that I was given a rare treat - a glimpse into my own past.