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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Culture How Does Olympic Ice Dancer Charlie White Balance Gold Medal and Judaism?
At the recently completed Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Americans Charlie White and Meryl Davis thrilled audiences with their gold medal victory in ice dancing. Jewish Americans, in particular, celebrated Charlie White as a new breed of Jewish sports hero, following in the footsteps — or, in his case, skate marks — of Benny Leonard,…
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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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Fast Forward 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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News Was Charlie Kirk a martyr? Here’s why Christians are divided and Jews should care
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Culture Sam Sussman fashions a mother-son love story with a side helping of Bob Dylan
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Fast Forward Palestinian Authority arrests suspect in 1982 attack on Paris Jewish restaurant
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Fast Forward Netanyahu says Israel did not kill Charlie Kirk, rejecting an idea circulating on the far right
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