Temple Beth Emet Book Club

Conducted by Fran Bourne-Johnson

Where: Blum Hall at Temple Beth Emet of Burbank

When: August 27, 2019  7:00PM to 8:30 PM

What is the book we will read and discuss:    A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward, by Isaac Metzker (editor)

For more than eighty years the Jewish Daily Forward‘s legendary advice column, “A Bintel Brief” (“a bundle of letters”) dispensed shrewd, practical, and fair-minded advice to its readers. Created in 1906 to help bewildered Eastern European immigrants learn about their new country, the column also gave them a forum for seeking advice and support in the face of problems ranging from wrenching spiritual dilemmas to petty family squabbles to the sometimes hilarious predicaments that result when Old World meets New. Isaac Metzker’s beloved selection of these letters and responses has become for today’s readers a remarkable oral record not only of the varied problems of Jewish immigrant life in America but also of the catastrophic events of the first half of our century.

Where to get the book:  The book is available on Kindle and in print at Amazon.com and other retailers.  Please read the book and be prepared to discuss it.

Cost of Participating:  Free!

See you August 27!

*Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads.com