Born in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, Maksim Goldenshteyn moved to the United States with his family in 1992. He grew up in the suburbs of Seattle, where thousands of Russian-speaking Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union would settle. Maksim studied journalism at the University of Washington and has written for regional newspapers including The Seattle Times.

His book, So They Remember, was published in January 2022 by University of Oklahoma Press. He is a member of the Society for Romanian Studies working group on the Holocaust and the Second World War.