Mervyn Rothstein
By Mervyn Rothstein
-
Culture How a poor Jewish immigrant made a fortune as a madam — and why we’re still uncomfortable talking about it
On Dec. 10, 1913, a 13-year-old Yidishe meydl arrived alone and almost penniless at Ellis Island. She was to have traveled to America from Eastern Europe with a cousin, who decided to abandon the journey. The new immigrant’s name was Pearl Adler. The oldest of at the time eight siblings, she hailed from Yanow, a…
-
Culture How Tony Kushner changed ‘West Side Story’ and ‘Change’ itself
The Broadway musical “Caroline, or Change” is set in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1963, in the early years of the civil rights movement, in the home of a Jewish family with an 8-year-old son, Noah and a Black maid, Caroline Thibodeaux. The Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner, who wrote the musical’s book…
Explore
Most Popular
- 1
News Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes admits ‘at least 6 million’ Jews were killed in Nazi Germany
- 2
Opinion Americans are waking up to right-wing antisemitism. We’re still ignoring the root problem
- 3
Opinion Israel has a crucial lesson to learn from apartheid South Africa. It isn’t what you think
- 4
Politics Anti-BDS order will test Mamdani on day one
In Case You Missed It
-
BINTEL BRIEF Can Jewish tradition help you stay sane when all your bosses are ‘idiots’?
-
Opinion This Hanukkah, my synagogue is illuminating our walls with relics of our Jewish immigrant stories
-
Fast Forward Nanny on trial for allegedly poisoning Jewish family in France ‘because they have money’
-
Yiddish World When roast goose was a Hanukkah delicacy, and latkes were fried in its schmaltz
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
