Journey to a Nineteenth-Century Shtetl
Subtitle: The Memoirs of Yekhezkel Kotik (Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology)
Contributors: David Assaf (Editor)
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Published: August 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 512
ISBN-13: 9780814328040
Subjects: Biography: general; European history: c 1750 to c 1900; History of specific racial & ethnic groups; Jewish studies; c 1800 to c 1900; Biography/Autobiography; Yiddish Prose; Social life and customs; Biography & Autobiography; Biography / Autobiography; Yiddish; Poland; Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union; Historical - General; Jewish - General; 19th century; Russia; 1847-1921; Biography; Jews; Kotik, Yekhezkel,
Description: "Kotik's story is the saga of a wealthy and influential family through four generations. Masterfully interwoven in this tale are colorful vignettes featuring Kotik's family and neighbors, including rabbis and zaddikim, merchants and the poor, hasidim and mitnaggedim, scholars and illiterates, believers and heretics, matchmakers and informers, teachers and musicians.

Stories of personal warmth and despair intermingle with descriptions of the rise and decline of Jewish communal institutions and descriptions of the relationships between Jews, Russian authorities, and Polish lords. Such events as the brutal decrees of Tsar Nicholas I, the abolishment of the Jewish communal board known as the Kahal, and the Polish revolts against Russia are reflected in the lives of these people."--BOOK JACKET.