The Shochet: A Memoir of Jewish Life in Ukraine and Crimea by Pinkhes-Dov Goldenshteyn (Author), Michoel Rotenfeld (Translator)

• This book is conceivably the first time that a halachically-informed Jew offers a full picture of his life with the trials, tribulations, and difficulties that he encountered. It also describes the difficulties that rabbis and other Jewish religious professionals, particularly those who were impoverished, experienced in dealings with their communities.

It is one of the earliest pre-Zionist descriptions of Jewish life in Ukraine in a world before the word antisemitism began to be used as a descriptive term.

The events in this book take place in Ukraine of the nineteenth century and is tremendously informative in understanding this currently beleaguered part of the word. The author describes something which is remarkably useful in understanding today's conflict by contrasting Ukraine and Crimea.