Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl : Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America
ISBN: 9780253012074
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Indiana University Press
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: Literature; Language/ Linguistics;

Nakhimovsky, professor of Russian and Jewish Studies at Colgate, and Newman, a director at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, offer a fascinating look at a phenomenon all but forgotten today: the use of "brivnshtelers," anthologies of "letters for business and private correspondence." These manuals enabled Eastern European Jews who lacked the skills to compose important letters from scratch to make use of a template to communicate in writing. Brivnshtelers were especially important at the start of the 20th century, as Jews continued to grapple with the changes to their identity, culture, and religion wrought by increased exposure to modern secular society. The authors trace the origin of such books to ancient Sumer and Egypt, where scribes were trained by copying texts; they began to be written in Hebrew in the 16th century, at the outset of publishing in that language. 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. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

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.

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