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Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press (Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture)

Name: Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press (Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture)
Price: 17.32 USD
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4.2 of 5 Stars: Communication & Journalism - Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press (Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture)

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Book Synopsis: Stories abound of immigrant Jews on the outside looking in, clambering up the ladder of social mobility, successfully assimilating and integrating into their new worlds. But this book is not about the success stories. It's a paean to the bunglers, the blockheads, and the just plain weird—Jews who were flung from small, impoverished eastern European towns into the urban shtetls of New York and Warsaw, where, as they say in Yiddish, their bread landed butter side down in the dirt. These marginal Jews may have found their way into the history books far less frequently than their more socially upstanding neighbors, but there's one place you can find them in force: in the Yiddish newspapers that had their heyday from the 1880s to the 1930s.

Disaster, misery, and misfortune: you will find no better chronicle of the daily ignominies of urban Jewish life than in the pages of the Yiddish press. An underground history of downwardly mobile Jews, Bad Rabbi exposes the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, the two major centers of Yiddish culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With true stories plucked from the pages of the Yiddish papers, Eddy Portnoy introduces us to the drunks, thieves, murderers, wrestlers, poets, and beauty queens whose misadventures were immortalized in print. There's the Polish rabbi blackmailed by an American widow, mass brawls at weddings and funerals, a psychic who specialized in locating missing husbands, and violent gangs of Jewish mothers on the prowl—in short, not quite the Jews you'd expect. One part Isaac Bashevis Singer, one part Jerry Springer, this irreverent, unvarnished, and frequently hilarious compendium of stories provides a window into an unknown Yiddish world that was.

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Looking for a captivating read that gives you a glimpse into a world rarely explored? Look no further than Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press. This book, part of the esteemed Stanford Studies in Jewish History and Culture, delves into the untold tales of marginalized Jews who didn't quite fit into the societal norms of their time.

Forget the predictable success stories – this book celebrates the eccentric, the oddballs, and the downright bizarre individuals who found themselves tossed from poverty-stricken European towns into the vibrant urban shtetls of New York and Warsaw. Through the pages of the Yiddish newspapers, the chronicles of their unusual lives come alive, painting a vivid picture of the daily struggles and misfortunes of urban Jewish existence.

Discover the stories of drunks, thieves, wrestlers, poets, and even beauty queens that made waves in the Yiddish culture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These aren't the well-behaved Jews you'd expect – these are the rebels, the troublemakers, and the outliers who defied the conventions of their time.

Immerse yourself in an underground history seldom explored by mainstream publications. Written by Eddy Portnoy, Bad Rabbi uncovers the hidden underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, shining a light on the lesser-known aspects of Yiddish culture. With a mix of irreverence and dark humor, this collection of true stories is reminiscent of the works of Isaac Bashevis Singer and the drama of Jerry Springer.

If you're seeking a captivating journey into an unknown world, order Bad Rabbi: And Other Strange but True Stories from the Yiddish Press today and experience the hidden side of urban Jewish life like never before.

Order now and embark on an unforgettable reading adventure!

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