A World Apart: A Memoir of Jewish Life in Nineteenth Century Galicia (Judaism and Jewish Life)
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 Hebrew University Published in the 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, reviewed in East European Jewish Affairs