Description
Book SynopsisIn 1936, Joseph Margoshes (1866-1955), a writer for the New York Yiddish daily "Morgen Journal", published a memoir of his youth in Austro-Hungarian Galicia entitled "Erinerungen fun mayn Leben". In this autobiography, he evoked a world that had been changed almost beyond recognition as a result of the First World War and was shortly to be completely obliterated by the Holocaust. In telling his story, Margoshes gives the reader important insights into the many-faceted Jewish life of Austro-Hungarian Galicia. We read of the Orthodox and the Enlightened, urban and rural life, Jews and their gentile neighbours, and much more. This book is an important evocation of an entire Jewish society and civilisation and bears comparison with Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk's masterful evocation of Jewish life in Poland, Poyln.
Trade Review"This delightful memoir, written in Yiddish in the 1930s (and published in Yiddish in 1936), evokes life in Galicia and the author’s own personal saga. Eliezer Margoshes (1866-1955) was born in Lemberg (Lvov) and came to America at the turn of the century. In the States, he wrote for Yiddish newspapers. The book is rich in descriptions of traditional education, famous (and not so famous) rabbis, the process or modernization and change, as well as many topics relevant to social and cultural history. The picture Margoshes offers is honest, detailed, and with a little romanticization or sentimentality. The book is very well translated and preserves the flavor of the Yiddish original without sacrificing readability. The vivid descriptions of religious life make this a useful primary source, especially on Hasidic life, for students who are limited to English, and it can easily be used to illustrate more abstract theories and models. The index adds to the usefulness of the book." -- Shaul Stampfer, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem * Religious Studies Review, June 2009 *
"A World Apart is an absorbing and entertaining work as well as a matter-of-fact narrative full of gripping detail. It could doubtless also serve as a historical source although, like many memoirs, it has no scholarly apparatus. It is to be hoped that this historical narrative will find many readers eager to plunge into the rich and colourful cultural and ideological worlds of Eastern European Jewry before the Shoah." -- Desanka Schwara, University of Bern, * East European Jewish Affairs *
Table of ContentsIntroduction by Ira Robinson and Simcha Fishbane. 1. Family Memoirs. 2. My Mother’s Family. 3. My Father. 4. Reb Mordecai Peltz. 5. the Belzer Rabbi. 6. Ignatz Deutsch. 7. The Krakow Rabbi. 8. The Newspaper. 9. Hospitality. 10. The Talner Rebbe. 11. My Father’s Death. 12. YaHa”Sh. 13. Jacob Werber, the Master of Haivri. 14. My Childhood. 15. Melamdim. 16. Gemara Melamdim. 17. My Two Girlfriends. 18. Haskalah. 19. Reb vovtshi’s Kloyz. 20. In Tornow. 21. The Tarnow Kloyz. 22. Kloyz-boys. 23. Reb Naftoli Reb Pesakh’s. 24. Shidukhim. 25. I Become a Khosn (Groom). 26. My Wedding. 27. After the Wedding.28. Village Work. 29. I Get “Shot”. 30. I Get “Bound”. 31. Riding a Horse. 32. I Become a Merchant. 33. Yozefov. 34. Velvele Damask. 35. Radomishla. 36. A Fallen “Takef”. 37. At the Rebbe’s in Dembitz. 38. A Strike in the Zgursk Manor. 39. Jews and Peasants. 40. Pritsim, Gendarmes and Priests. 41. Pritsim, Gendarmes and Priests (continued). 42. The “Wedding”. 43. Shimshen Asheim. 44. Theft. 45. Shtsutsin (Szczuczyn). 46. The Sold-Off Estate. 47. Wet and Dry Years. 48. The Wet Year. 49. The Dry Year. 50. Uncle Moshe Lind. 51. Out of Yozefov. 52. The Shtsutsin Meadows. 53. Oshitz. 54. Uncle Khazkl. 55. Yitzhok Mordkhe Bernstein. 56. My Business Ventures in the Shtsutsin Meadows. 57. My Father-in-law and His Enemies. 58. Criminal Proceedings. 59. Pikolovka. 60. The Takeover of Pikolovka. 61. Punishment or Coincidence? Margoshes Family Genealogy. Glossary. Index.
