Book was on the life of a young Jewish girl (possibly named Rifka) in either the late nineteeth or early twentieth-century Russia. She either took care of, or had a family/pet goat that she tended. I remember descriptions of the family/villagers going to the river to bathe and wash clothes; all the men would go to one area and the women to another so that they would not see each other.
Another part of the book described a non-Jewish peasant friend warning the family of an impending pogrom, and the family boarded themselves up into their house and waited it out, frightened of the noises they heard outside. This is not “Letters From Rivka.” I thought the book might be called “Rivka” but I can’t find any info! I read this in the 1970’s, and it was a softcover book.
If there is a possibility it could have been set in Armenia rather than Russia you might check out “The Road from Home: The Story of an Armenian Girl” by David Kherdian.
A possibility: Rivka’s way / Teri Kanefield / 2001
Fiction : Elementary and junior high school 137 p. ; 22 cm.
Chicago, IL : Front Street/ Cricket Books, ; ISBN: 0812628705 9780812628708
“Unsure about her upcoming marriage and eager to see what lies beyond the walls of Prague’s Jewish quarter in 1778, fifteen-year-old Rivka Lieberman takes great risks to venture outside, where her many new experiences include friendship with a Christian boy.”
Sounds a bit like “Call Me Ruth” by Marilyn Sachs, though the main plot line is the character’s experiences when she immigrates to the United States. But the book begins when she is still living in Russia and those descriptions you mention do sound very similar to what I remember from this book.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts! I really appreciate your taking the time to add your posts, but unfortunately none of the books you have mentioned are the one I am looking for. Any more, new thoughts are welcomed!