Rememberings

Pauline Wengeroff grew up in a traditional Jewish household in mid-nineteenth-century Russia, and lived to watch the foundations of that world give way. Her memoir records the faith, customs and daily rhythms of her girlhood, then follows the upheaval brought by the Jewish Enlightenment as new ideas swept through families and communities. What sets it apart is the vantage point: this is a woman's account of those years, a voice the historical record rarely preserves.

Translated from the German, this edition comes with a scholarly introduction and analysis, and appears as the ninth volume in the University of Maryland's Studies and Texts in Jewish History and Culture. It is a rich, rare source for anyone drawn to Jewish history, women's lives in the past, or the human cost of a tradition meeting modernity.