Imagine you are an Eastern European immigrant who has just arrived in New .
York City at the end of the 19th Century. You are perplexed by daily .
dilemmas, such as your daughter wanting to marry a non-Jew, which you .
consider a shanda. You want to study English in night school, which your .
husband considers a shanda. Where do you turn for advice? .
You turn to the daily advice column, "A Bintel Brief," in the Yiddish .
Daily Forward. .
Welcome to America: Memories of "A Bintel Brief," by Barbara Lesser, opened .
the Steisand Festival of New Jewish Plays on June 3 at the Lawrence Family .
Jewish Community Center. By basing its content on letters from "A Bintel .
Brief," it imaginatively transports us back to the issues and history of .
Jewish immigrant life in America. .
More than two million Eastern European Jews settled in America from 1880 to .
1925, and a key to their understanding American life was the Yiddish .
newspapers, the Forward being one of the most popular. Abraham Cahan, editor .
of the Forward and frequent editor of "A Bintel Brief," explained that new .
immigrants needed "to pour out their heavy-laden hearts" because many were .
"torn from their homes and their dear ones, were lonely souls who thirsted .
for expression, who wanted to hear an opinion, who wanted advice in solving .
their weighty problems." .
Playwright Lesser faced a huge challenge to convert a group of letters into .
a three-dimensional theatrical production. Lesser creatively achieves this .
by centering the play on three generations of one immigrant family and their .
hopes and despair in this new land. Though much of story, revealed through .
dialogue and letters to and from "A Bintel Brief," deals with fairly typical .
issues of the day -- interdating and intermarriage, socialist pros and cons, .
how much observance is enough observance -- .
In 7th century BC, Celts started inhabiting British Isles. Those Celtic tribes of the La Tene culture were Gaels, Britones and Belgae. Britones inhabited the biggest part of Great Britain and that's one of the reasons why the island got that name. Around 55 BC, Romans came to the Britain for the first time. One century later, conquered part of the island became Roman province of Britannia. ...
The social problem I would like to discuss in this paper is government and corporate abuse of power. Leaders in the government and in corporations help each other for their own gain instead of joining forces to improve society as a whole. This problem is evident in the movie "The Pelic...
Texas and United States Constitution A constitution is the fundamental law by which a state or nation is organized and governed. The United States Constitution is the fundamental law of the United States of America. It establishes the framework of government, assigns the powers and duties of gov...
A Brief History of Time is a fascinating book which describes the theories presented by the greatest scientists of the past hundred years concerning space and our existence. Stephen Hawking also poses timeless questions such as how did the universe begin and how big is our universe? Stephen Hawki...
Briefly explain and discuss the meanings of the term "common law". This essay will endeavour to briefly describe the term "common law" which does not have just one clear definition but three separate meanings for the same phrase, making it confusing for those unfamiliar with the law and it's terminology. ...
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HMONG The Hmong are a very ancient people who have their origins in China. When the Han Chinese invaded their territory a few thousand years ago, the Hmong began historic travels down the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. About two hundred years ago, Hmong entered Indochina wher...
A Brief Analysis of "The Ugly American" "The Ugly American", written by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, is a book that portrays and describes corruption, scandal, manipulation, and in some cases violence, with American foreign policy in Southeast Asia. There are many examples where this bo...
A Brief Definition of Friendship Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." My personal opinion is that a friend is someone that will be there at anytime and is person that I can share my inner thoughts with. Many people ar...
