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Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America
Alice Nakhimovsky
€ 78.59
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Description for Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America
Hardback. At the turn of the 20th century, Jewish families scattered by migration could stay in touch only through letters. Jews in the Russian Empire and America wrote business letters, romantic letters, and emotionally intense family letters. This book deals with this topic. Num Pages: 248 pages, 6 b&w illus. BIC Classification: DSB; JFSR1. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 5817 x 3887 x 16. Weight in Grams: 554.
At the turn of the 20th century, Jewish families scattered by migration could stay in touch only through letters. Jews in the Russian Empire and America wrote business letters, romantic letters, and emotionally intense family letters. But for many Jews who were unaccustomed to communicating their public and private thoughts in writing, correspondence was a challenge. How could they make sure their spelling was correct and they were organizing their thoughts properly? A popular solution was to consult brivnshtelers, Yiddish-language books of model letters. Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl translates selections from these model-letter books and includes essays and annotations that illuminate their role as guides to a past culture.
Product Details
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2014
Publisher
Indiana University Press United States
Number of pages
248
Condition
New
Number of Pages
248
Place of Publication
Bloomington, IN, United States
ISBN
9780253011992
SKU
V9780253011992
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About Alice Nakhimovsky
Alice Nakhimovsky is Professor of Russian and Jewish Studies at Colgate University, where she directs the program in Russian and Eurasian Studies. She has written extensively on Russian-Jewish literature and everyday life and served on the editorial board of The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Roberta Newman is an independent scholar living in New York City. She is Director of Digital Initiatives at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and was Illustrations Editor and Director of Archival Research for The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe.
Reviews for Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America
Reproductions of brivnshtelers form the core of the book and comprise the majority of the text, providing a ground-level window into a largely obscured past.
Publishers Weekly
Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl delivers more than one would expect because it goes beyond a linguistic study of letter-writing manuals and explicates their genre and social function. It is appropriate for students of Jewish life generally and Yiddishists of any age.
Slavic Review
...[C]overs a neglected aspect of Jewish popular culture and deserves a wide readership. For all serious readers of Yiddish and immigrant Jewish culture and customs.
Library Journal
A great deal of history is covered in this book as the authors discuss the social and economic stresses that Jews faced on both sides of the ocean throughout this time period. Each section begins with an explanation of a particular issue, but the real delight of the book is in reading the letters themselves. . . . Highly Recommended.
AJL Reviews
...These manuals provide us with a lens to better understand Jewish life at the time, as they mirror many of the challenges and concerns that Russian and American Jews were experiencing, and as they resonate with the emotional registers found in Yiddish literature and letters more generally.
Jewish Book Council
Publishers Weekly
Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl delivers more than one would expect because it goes beyond a linguistic study of letter-writing manuals and explicates their genre and social function. It is appropriate for students of Jewish life generally and Yiddishists of any age.
Slavic Review
...[C]overs a neglected aspect of Jewish popular culture and deserves a wide readership. For all serious readers of Yiddish and immigrant Jewish culture and customs.
Library Journal
A great deal of history is covered in this book as the authors discuss the social and economic stresses that Jews faced on both sides of the ocean throughout this time period. Each section begins with an explanation of a particular issue, but the real delight of the book is in reading the letters themselves. . . . Highly Recommended.
AJL Reviews
...These manuals provide us with a lens to better understand Jewish life at the time, as they mirror many of the challenges and concerns that Russian and American Jews were experiencing, and as they resonate with the emotional registers found in Yiddish literature and letters more generally.
Jewish Book Council