Eddy Portnoy

Bad Rabbi

And Other Strange But True Stories from the Yiddish Press

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Eddy Portnoy is Senior Researcher and Director of Exhibitions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 280
• Erscheinungstermin: 24. Oktober 2017
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 236mm x 156mm x 27mm
• Gewicht: 544g
• ISBN-13: 9780804797610
• ISBN-10: 0804797617
• Artikelnr.: 47777610

Autorenporträt

Eddy Portnoy is Senior Researcher and Director of Exhibitions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction: A Brief and Not Entirely Uncomplicated History of the Yiddish
Press
chapter abstract
This section provides a brief history of the modern Yiddish press of New
York and Warsaw. It discusses the cultural, political and social contexts
in which it appeared and why its development was a necessary and important
phenomenon in Jewish life. Additionally, the chapter describes why and how
the Yiddish press became a vehicle for drastic upheaval in Jewish life.
Also discussed are the beginnings and nature of Yiddish journalism as a
distinctly ethnic literary form and how a variety of journalistic
occupations developed. The nature of its audience and elements of its
subject matter is considered, as are the reasons for the importance of said
subject matter for Jewish historiography in general. The introduction gives
the reader an understanding of modern Yiddish culture while setting the
stage for the subsequent chapters, which provide primary source data from
the Yiddish press.
1Jewish Abortion Technician
chapter abstract
This chapter considers the story of Jacob Rosenzweig, a Jewish immigrant
abortionist active in New York City during the late 1860s and early 1870s.
In 1871, a patient died in his care. Rosenzweig stuffed her body in a trunk
and attempted to ship it to Chicago, but the decaying body was discovered
in a baggage depot and police were alerted. New York City Police
investigating the case were eventually led to Rosenzweig, who was caught,
placed on trial, and convicted.
2The Hebrew Girl Murderer of East New York
chapter abstract
This chapter details the story of Pesach Rubenstein, an eastern European
Jewish immigrant in New York City who murdered his cousin/lover whom he had
accidentally impregnated. Rubenstein's 1876 court case, reports of which
appeared in nearly every newspaper in the United States, was the most
significant interface between American media and Jews in the history of the
country.
3The Jewish Mahatma
chapter abstract
This chapter presents a brief biography of Naphtali Herz Imber, a poet best
known for writing "Hatikva," which became the Israeli national anthem.
While Imber has been the subject of biographical studies, what official
narratives ignore is Imber's work as a performance psychic during the late
19th century and a mercurial alcoholic during the early 20th.
4The Great Tonsil Riot of 1906
chapter abstract
This chapter details an event that took place on New York City's Lower East
Side in which rumors that children were having their throats slashed in
public schools spread throughout immigrant Jewish neighborhoods. Upon
hearing these rumors, tens of thousands of Jewish mothers rioted, besieging
the area's public schools and demanding to see if their children were
alive.
5Rivington Street's Wheel of (Mis)Fortune
chapter abstract
This chapter provides a biographical sketch of Professor Abraham Hochman,
one of the Lower East Side's best known psychics. Famed, among other
things, for finding husbands who had abandoned their wives, Hochman engaged
in all manner of dubious stunts in order to generate publicity for his
business.
6Yom Kippur Battle Royale
chapter abstract
This chapter details the history of anti-religious behavior on the solemn
holiday of Yom Kippur and the reaction those activities engendered.
Typically anarchist or socialist-oriented Jews would engage in acts of
public eating on Yom Kippur, a holiday that requires a 25 hour fast. Such
activity would enrage religious Jews and pitched battles would typically
ensue.
7Attack of the Yiddish Journalists
chapter abstract
This chapter tells the story of Hillel Tseytlen, a famed journalist who
broke away from a leading Yiddish paper in Warsaw to join a competing
newspaper. Doing so provoked the ire of Tseytlen's original editor, who
initiated an ugly smear campaign against him. Tseytlen and his new editors
fought back and a war of words broke out between two daily papers with a
third and fourth chiming in.
8Suicide Jew
chapter abstract
This chapter considers the phenomenon of suicide among Jews in Warsaw.
During the interwar period, suicides were so common that reports of them
appear nearly every day in the Warsaw Yiddish press. While doubtlessly a
tragic and unpleasant issue, many of the suicide stories reported in the
dailies contain odd and humorous twists. Such reportage revealed the
delicate and difficult line Warsaw's Jews walked as an impoverished
minority.
9Battle at the Bris
chapter abstract
This chapter details the story of a Warsaw-based Hasidic Rabbi who
attempted to reconcile with another Hasidic Rabbi who had been his blood
enemy by giving him a special duty at his son's circumcision ceremony. The
problem was that the first rabbi's followers refused to accept the
reconciliation. The ceremony, a joyous but also solemn affair, was rocked
when a brawl exploded among the guests, nearly all Hasidim.
10Urke Nakhalnik: Fine Young Criminal
chapter abstract
This chapter tells the story of Urke Nachlnik, a yeshiva student who fell
in with a bad crowd and who wound up becoming a professional criminal.
After writing a prison memoir that became the best selling book in Poland
in 1933, Nachalnik turned to literature and playwriting as a profession,
churning out intense stories of the Yiddish criminal underworld that
riveting readers throughout the country. Also included is a sample story
that appeared in 1938, "Passover in the Joint."
11The Strange Case of Gimel Kuper, Mystery Journalist
chapter abstract
This chapter offers the story of Gimel Kuper, a journalist for the
Forverts, the largest Yiddish newspaper in the world, who wrote popular
human interest stories that were typically based in Poland. It turns out
that Gimel Kuper was the pseudonym of the famous Yiddish writer Israel
Joshua Singer, whose brilliant reportage revealed many hidden corners of
Jewish life. Includes a sample story from 1927 about Jewish beggars and
drunks in Warsaw.
12Semitic Beauty Drives Jews Wild: Film at Eleven
chapter abstract
This chapter details the story of the Miss Judea Pageant, a contest to
crown the most beautiful Jewish girl in Poland in 1929. After the pageant
was complete, the winner, one Ms. Zofia Oldak, was carted around Warsaw for
photo-ops with important Jewish celebrities, politicians, and cultural
figures. One of these events was a banquet at the Jewish Community Council,
where its president lauded her beauty and sang to her. Upset at his antics,
ultra-orthodox members of the community protested. In the end, the pageant
became the impetus behind a massive riot in Warsaw's biggest Jewish
cemetery.
13Ever Fallen in Love with Someone (You Shouldn't Have Fallen in Love
With)?
chapter abstract
This chapter tells the story of a failed relationship that results in one
of the partners biting off the penis of the other.
14My Yiddishe Divorce
chapter abstract
This chapter describes the public divorce court that existed as part of the
Warsaw Rabbinate. Newspaper editors frequently sent writers to observe
divorce cases because of the prevalence of violence. A popular feature in
Yiddish papers, divorce reportage provide a lurid look into private
affairs. Numerous examples are provided.
15Shomer Fucking Shabbos
chapter abstract
This chapter details the phenomenon of "Shabbos Enforcers," religious Jews
who take it upon themselves to ensure that all Jews observe the laws of the
day of rest. Because their activity involves insinuating themselves into
people's personal business, their entreaties were often rebuffed. Violence
often broke out between those who were trying to ensure that the laws of
Shabbos were not being broken and those who either didn't know or didn't
care that they were breaking such laws.
16625-Pound Jews and Other Oddities
chapter abstract
This chapter tells the story of Blimp Levy, a 625 pound Jewish professional
wrestler. Although a morbidly obese novelty, Levy was a popular and
successful wrestler from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. An unknown
figure among Jewish sports heroes, he deserves his place in the pantheon.
17Bad Rabbi: Bigamy, Blackmail and the Radimner Rebbetzin
chapter abstract
This chapter tells the story of a bigamist Hasidic Rabbi and his antagonist
second wife, Zlate Rubin. After marrying her in a fraudulent ceremony in
New York for a large sum of cash, the Rabbi returned to Poland. Zlate,
however, subsequently demanded that he divorce his first wife and marry her
in a traditional Jewish ceremony or he had to return the money. Zlate
showed up in Poland demanding her money. He returned what he still had, but
it wasn't enough. She told him if he didn't give her the money, she would
tell everyone he was a bigamist. He had her arrested for blackmail. She had
him charged with bigamy. Even if it was a huge communal embarrassment, her
1927 trial riveted the Jews of Poland.
18You Think You've Got Troubles? Stories from Warsaw's Yiddish Crime
Blotter
chapter abstract
Beginning with a brief description of the nature of Warsaw's Yiddish crime
blotter, the section of Yiddish papers that focused on crime and deviance,
this chapter provides dozens of examples of articles that delve into the
Jewish underworld, as well as into the realm of poverty and insanity. These
small articles function as explosive examples of a troubled and downwardly
mobile Jewry, one that will be totally unfamiliar and surprising to readers
- even those who have some familiarity with pre-WWII Warsaw.