{"product_id":"bad-rabbi-9780804797610","title":"Bad Rabbi","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Eddy Portnoy's \u003ci\u003eBad Rabbi\u003c\/i\u003e is an extraordinary thing: a gateway to the lost world of Jewish street life in pre-World War II New York and Warsaw. The Yiddish newspapers Portnoy mines were free from piety and light on decorum; instead they present a vast, roiling canvas of human behavior in all its extremes, from comedy to horror, with fiercely unbuttoned characters declaiming eloquently as stoopside choruses annotated their rants. Portnoy's book is undomesticated history; it is a time machine to an eradicated past; it is pure pleasure.\" -- Luc Sante * author of \u003ci\u003eLow Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"Having devoted his misspent youth to combing the Yiddish press for seedy, shady, and shocking stories, Portnoy, the bad boy of Yiddish studies, brings bad rabbis and other miscreants into the light in this erudite and thoroughly entertaining book.\" -- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett * author of \u003ci\u003eDestination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"This fascinating book contains the strangest Jews I've ever met in my life. It should appeal to every history buff out there—Jewish, gentile or otherwise. What's Yiddish for 'Buy this book, or may all your teeth fall out except one to give you a toothache'?\" -- A.J. Jacobs * author of \u003ci\u003eThe Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"Only a historian with the wit and comic sensibility of Eddy Portnoy could succeed in resurrecting these dead and forgotten Jews of New York and Warsaw. Through his painstaking research, we can vicariously experience their desperation and lack of self-control, their strange passions and their various forms of mental illness – predicaments we're just one step away from ourselves.\" -- Ben Katchor * comic artist and creator of \u003ci\u003eJulius Knipl: Real Estate Photographer\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eBad Rabbi\u003c\/i\u003e is a masterful set of finely-tuned scholarship and critical zingers that brings detailed archival history of 'downwardly mobile' nineteenth- and twentieth-century Jews alive through vivid, erudite, and spit-take funny storytelling. Portnoy heads straight for the urban immigrant underbelly, opens up the newspapers, and uses portraits of a vanished people and a vanished culture to not just deliver a bygone way of life, but to explode some of our most dominant conceptions of modern Jewish culture.\" -- Josh Kun * author of \u003ci\u003eAudiotopia: Music, Race and America\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"Exuberantly vulgar, blithely unconcerned with gentile opinion, these nuggets of low-class Yiddishism won't let us forget how rough-and-tumble life in Yiddishland really was.\" -- Michael Wex * author of \u003ci\u003eBorn to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"In the staid world of academic Yiddishists, Eddy Portnoy is a live wire, a funny guy, a mischief-maker, what they used to call in the Catskills, a \u003ci\u003etummler\u003c\/i\u003e...\u003ci\u003eBad Rabbi\u003c\/i\u003e is a succession of outlandish misadventures, a wild panorama populated by an astonishing array of characters... Yiddish journalists were showboats, garnishing tabloid sensationalism with literary jokes and religious references. (Given this high-low style, as well as its caustic attitudinizing and internal feuds, the Yiddish press seems like a flamboyant forerunner to the old Village Voice.) Such zesty informality carries over into Portnoy's own writing, which, in blending the erudite and vernacular, regularly tilts toward the latter.\" -- J. Hoberman * \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"Don't feel guilty chuckling your way through \u003ci\u003eBad Rabbi\u003c\/i\u003e as you read about the crazy deeds and commonplace misfortunes of marginal Jews from a century ago. \" -- Renee Ghert-Zand * \u003ci\u003eThe Times of Israel\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"Endlessly interesting and entertaining with stories that range from the macabre to the hilarious.\" -- \u003ci\u003eSouthern Jewish Life Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"...Portnoy's rollicking chronicle of Jewish newspaper scandal is an entertaining plunge into unexamined corners of the Jewish past. It is a necessary intervention into Jewish historiography, reorienting the historian's gaze to segments of the newspaper, and of history, that tend to get overlooked in the search for items significant to global politics and literary history. It is also an exemplar of scholarship aimed at lay audiences, with titillating and fast-paced storytelling that nevertheless offers historical depth and grounding.\" -- Jessica Kirzane * \u003ci\u003eH-Judaic\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"Portnoy often adopts the tone of the reportage in the Yiddish press within his own writing. His style is punchy, colorful, and fun to read, allowing his descriptions of news stories from the Yiddish press to intermingle seamlessly with his translations of the original articles that capture their vibrant, engrossing tone...By bringing these stories to light, and narrating them in such a vibrant way, Portnoy highlights the importance of illuminating an element of Yiddish mass culture that served an incredibly important function a century ago, and has been largely forgotten today.\" -- Ayelet Brinn * \u003ci\u003eIn Geveb\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"While \u003ci\u003eBad Rabbi\u003c\/i\u003e is a decidedly a work of scholarship, it is also—and fittingly—a surprising and sometimes shocking glimpse of the mishegoss that was eagerly reported in the Yiddish press....[A] book that took chutzpah to write but is a sheer pleasure to read.\" -- Jonathan Kirsch * \u003ci\u003eJewish Journal\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"This was a lot of fun....From forgotten front-page news to hidden nuggets in the crime blotter, \u003ci\u003eBad Rabbi\u003c\/i\u003e gives modern readers a taste of what urban Jews were gossiping about, challenging our romanticized notions of the shtetl. One hopes this volume will just be the tip of the iceberg and further explorations into the tabloid stories of the headline news that history has forgotten will be forthcoming.\" -- Daniel Scheide * \u003ci\u003eAssociation of Jewish Libraries Newsletter\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"I find \u003ci\u003eBad Rabbi\u003c\/i\u003e by Eddy Portnoy such an unwholesome, overdue joy, filled with uplifting tales of utter moral failure. The book, which began as the author's doctoral dissertation on cartoons in the early Yiddish press, became something else entirely: the revelation of a wonderful underbelly of decidedly imperfect human beings....[W]hat's happening here is the humanizing of a people, the telling of a history that others would rather not be told, a history so often sacrificed to stereotypes, schmalz and false piety.\" -- Shalom Auslander—\u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The 'two-bit nobodies' to whom Portnoy—a wickedly sparkling writer, by the way—dedicates \u003ci\u003eBad Rabbi\u003c\/i\u003e include out-and-out criminals, crazies, eccentrics, hopeless dreamers and aspirant intellectuals. But they all share one thing—failure. \u003ci\u003eLobbes\u003c\/i\u003e-dom is a wonderfully rich seam to mine, and mine it Portnoy does, using as excavating tools the unrestrained journalism of ancient file copies of Yiddish newspapers published in Warsaw and New York. I was enchanted by his accounts....Portnoy is a genius at putting the sting at the end of every chapter.\" -- Jonathan Margolis * \u003ci\u003eThe Jewish Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eContents and AbstractsIntroduction: A Brief and Not Entirely Uncomplicated History of the Yiddish Press chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 1Jewish Abortion Technician chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 2The Hebrew Girl Murderer of East New York chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 3The Jewish Mahatma chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 4The Great Tonsil Riot of 1906 chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 5Rivington Street's Wheel of (Mis)Fortune chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 6Yom Kippur Battle Royale chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 7Attack of the Yiddish Journalists chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 8Suicide Jew chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 9Battle at the Bris chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 10Urke Nakhalnik: Fine Young Criminal chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\"\u003c\/p\u003e 11The Strange Case of Gimel Kuper, Mystery Journalist chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 12Semitic Beauty Drives Jews Wild: Film at Eleven chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 13Ever Fallen in Love with Someone (You Shouldn't Have Fallen in Love With)? chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis chapter tells the story of a failed relationship that results in one of the partners biting off the penis of the other.\u003c\/p\u003e 14My Yiddishe Divorce chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 15Shomer Fucking Shabbos chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 16625-Pound Jews and Other Oddities chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 17Bad Rabbi: Bigamy, Blackmail and the Radimner Rebbetzin chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eThis 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.\u003c\/p\u003e 18You Think You've Got Troubles? Stories from Warsaw's Yiddish Crime Blotter chapter abstract\u003cp\u003eBeginning 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Stanford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405628023127,"sku":"9780804797610","price":62.9,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780804797610.jpg?v=1730493052","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/bad-rabbi-9780804797610","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}