How to Become Jewish Americans?

The study analyzes the first decades of the Yiddish advice colum A Bintel Brief. Created by Abraham Cahan, it ran as the most enduring feature in the New York Yiddish newspaper Forverts. The early letters and responses in A Bintel Brief reveal the hardships of uprooted Eastern European Jews in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century.

Created by Abraham Cahan in 1906, the advice column A Bintel Brief ran as the most enduring feature of the New York Yiddish newspaper Forverts for over seven decades. This study takes a closer look at the letters and responses to A Bintel Brief thereby revealing the hardships of uprooted Eastern European Jews. In an uncharted environment they turned to the column for guidance. In his answers, the editor of The Bintel Brief was always sympathetic, yet pragmatic, encouraging assimilation and ethnic group solidarity, thus paving the way for the readers to become accepted Jewish Americans.

Autorentext

Magdalena Ewa Bier studied American Studies and Mass Communication in Mainz and Louisville (USA). She completed her PhD in Mainz and is currently working at the Faculty of Philosophy and Philology. Eastern European Jewish culture in the US remains a special interest.

Inhalt

Contents: Characteristics and content of the advice column A Bintel Brief in the Yiddish newspaper Forverts in New York - Critical analysis of the language used in A Bintel Brief - Americanization of Yiddish/American mainstream culture and Eastern European traditions in the American Jewish community - Changing roles and values in Jewish family life - Personal relationships in the Eastern European Jewish community in the USA - Labor market, unionism and socialism in the Eastern European Jewish community in the United States - Religious performance of Eastern European Jews in the United States.