Michoel Rotenfeld is a historical researcher who has long been fascinated by Jewish memory in its myriad forms, especially the genre of Jewish autobiography. He is the director of Touro University Library's Project Zikaron, a permanent collection of previously uncollated and undigitized historical material from Jewish communities across the world. He also coordinated the digitization of David Tidhar's ninеtееn-volume Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel (www.tidhar.tourolib.org), which has received over two million page views.

"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. 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."

-Ben Rothke, The Times of Israel

"Writ-ing about his life, which was shaped by death, pover-ty, finan-cial dif-fi-cul-ties, and strug-gles against cor-rup-tion, Gold-en-shteyn does not present read-ers with easy top-ics. Yet his vivid, read-able prose is full of resilience, nuance, and humor. It invites us into the world of a crit-i-cal thinker, a pious Jew, and a thought-ful observ-er of Jew-ish life."

--Katha-ri-na Hadas-sah Wendl, Jewish Book Council

Publisher: Academic Studies Press

Pub date: 2025-01-28

Length: 532 pages