Since 1906, the Forward has been answering reader dilemmas about daily life in “A Bintel Brief,” Yiddish for a bundle of letters. Send your queries to [email protected], and listen to a podcast version of our signature advice column.
Bintel Brief
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News Matchmaker, Matchmaker: Jewish Dating Advice Isn’t Far Off From Yenta’s Heyday
In 1926, a distraught father wrote to the Forverts’s advice column, A Bintel Brief, with a problem: Where are all the Jewish men? With four daughters to marry off, and no Jewish husbands in sight, the man was considering moving to another city. “We live in a country town where we are the only Jewish…
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Breaking News Joyce Brothers, Jewish TV Psychologist and Advice Columnist, Dies at 85
Psychologist Joyce Brothers, who parlayed her 1955 victory on the TV game show “The $64,000 Question” into a nearly six-decade career as a television personality and columnist, died on Monday, her publicist said. She was 85. Brothers died of natural causes in New York, said Sanford Brokaw, her Los Angeles-based spokesman. She began dispensing advice…
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Life Dear Abby, You Were One Impressive Gal
I am not generally a fan of the term “gal,” but what other word can be used to describe Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips, the beloved creator and author of Dear Abby, who died last week at age 94? With a legion of fans worldwide — the column is carried by 1,400 newspapers and has a…
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Opinion ‘Dear Abby’ Dies — And Ab Cahan Weeps
Pauline Phillips, who wrote the ‘Dear Abby’ advice column, died yesterday at the age of 94. The daughter of Russian immigrants was born on the Fourth of July in Iowa and learned the lexicon of everyday middle American life growing up in the heartland. Her advice was always sharp, witty and sound — and her…
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News Good Advice for Malia and Sasha Obama
I’m a little embarrassed to admit it but I have a soft spot for commencement speeches. They provide a rare opportunity to hear people at the top of their game — actors, politicians, scientists, musicians, inventors — shelve their normal talking points and share a bit of wisdom they’ve acquired through their life. Since graduating…
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Life Emily Yoffe’s, Randy Cohen’s ‘Advice To Live By’
“I recently met a good girl but there is a problem. She has a dimple in her chin and people say that if someone has this, their husband will die early. So I don’t know if I should keep on seeing this girl — please help me.” … “A pogrom took place in Bialystok, where…
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Culture An Immigrant’s Life, Told Graphically
In 1906, Nasye Frug wrote to the Forverts about her life as a new wife and recent immigrant. Even before receiving unhelpful wedding gifts, she had realized that the Goldene Medina of the New World was not turning out to be quite the life she had imagined. Writing about her childhood in the Old Country…
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The Schmooze My Influences Are Showing
Earlier this week, Liana Finck let us peek behind the curtain at the source material for her comic based on A Bintel Brief. She showed us the first two pages and the second story. Her blog posts are being featured this week on The Arty Semite courtesy of the Jewish Book Council and My Jewish…
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Yiddish יוביליי־נומער פֿון „ביראָבידזשאַן“ באַערט אַמאָליקע מאָלערס און עטנישע פֿאַרשידנאַרטיקייטAnniversary issue of Birobidzhan features historic artists and ethnic diversity
דער זשורנאַל, גרויס ווי אַ גאַנץ בוך, נעמט אויך אַרײַן טײַגע־לידער און פֿאַקטאַזיע־ווערק.
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Fast Forward National Book Awards defends award for Ta-Nehisi Coates’ dad, a publisher who reissued antisemitic books
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