  
|
*The Yiddish word for letter is “briv”
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
|
|
In the age of Twitter, Facebook and Whatsaap, it seems almost “narish” (silly) to write letters and wait a week or so to receive a reply from the receiver. After all, you can communicate via Skype. So why wait so long to get your “vort” (word) across?
When you write a letter, it will be preserved in a manner that communication through the invisible internet super highway never can ever achieve. Parents and grandparents (“zeyde-bobe”) should place all handwritten letters in a bank vault; they're priceless!
A recent headline read:
GIRL'S DELIGHTFULLY OLD-FASHIONED LETTER GETS HER
DAD A WEEK OFF FROM WORK AT GOOGLE
Yes, a Google employee is getting a week off to spend with his “tokhter” (daughter) thanks to an impassioned letter she wrote to his “balebos” (boss).
“Dear google worker,” the letter reads. “Can you please make sure when daddy goes to work, he gets one day off. Like he can get a day off on Wednesday. Because daddy ONLY gets a day off on saturday.”
The little girl's pleas didn't stop there.
“P.S. It is daddy's BIRTHDAY! she wrote. “P.P.S. It is summer, you know.”
Daniel Shiplacoff, the father's boss, apparently saw the letter and responded with a letter of his own.
June 17, 2014
Dear Katie,
Thank you for your thoughtful note and request.
Your father has been hard at work designing many beautiful and delightful things for Google and millions of people across the globe.
On the occasion of his Birthday, and recognizing the importance of taking some Wednesdays off during the summer, we are giving him the whole first week of July as vacation time.
Enjoy!
Daniel Shiplacoff
Other young children have written to God.
Dear God,
Please change the taste of asparugus its gross. Thanks.
Sarah
Dear God,
Are you a Ninja? Is that why I can't see you?”
Jacob
Dear God,
I want to be just like my Daddy when I get big but not with so much
hair all over.
Sam
Daniel D. received a letter from a 5-year-old while he was stationed in Iraq. One of the lines was, “If you are reading this you are not dead, good job.”
And, in 1907, a young reader wrote to Abraham Cahan, the Editor of “The Bintel Brief” (The Jewish Daily Forward) this letter:
Worthy Editor,
Allow me a little space in your newspaper and, I beg you, give me some advice as to what to do.
There are seven people in our family--parents and five children. I am the oldest child, a fourteen-year-old girl. We have been in the country two years and my father, who is a frail man, is the only one working to support the whole family.
I go to school, where I do very well. But since times are hard now and my father earned only five dollars this week, I began to talk about giving up my studies and going to work in order to help my father as much as possible. But my mother didn't even want to hear of it. She wants me to continue my education. She even went out and spent ten dollars on winter clothes for me. But I didn't enjoy the clothes, because I think I am doing the wrong thing. Instead of bringing something into the house, my parents have to spend money on me.
I have a lot of compassion for my parents. My mother is now pregnant, but she still has to take care of the three boarders we have in the house. Mother and father work very hard and they want to keep me in school.
I am writing to you without their knowledge, and I beg you to tell me how
to act. Hoping you can advise me, I remain
Your reader,
S.
What answer did the Editor give this “meydl” (girl)?
The advise to the girl is that she should obey her parents and further her education, because in that way she will be able to give them greater satisfaction than if she went out to work.
The hunger for education was very great among the East Side Jews from Eastern Europe. Immigrant mothers who couldn't speak English went to the library and held up the fingers of their hand to indicate the number of children they had. They then would get a card, give it to each of their children and say, “Go, learn, read.”
I graduated from P.S. 20 with George Gershwin, Edward G. Robinson,
Paul Muni and Senator Jacob Javits, all sons of immigrants.
(Source: “A Bintel Brief - Letters From The World Of Our Fathers”
by Isaac Metzker)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Re: The letters written to The Bintel Brief: Many of the letters
Abraham Kahn received were poorly written and needed to be corrected
or rewritten. There also appeared signs that read, “Here letters are written
to the ‘Bintel Brief.'” (The prices for this service ranged from twenty-five
to fifty cents.) And from time to time men and women came to the editorial
“byuro” (office) to ask that “emetser” (someone) write a letter for them
about their problems.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | Y | Z |
| Yiddish
Stuff Jewish Humor Schmooze News More Majorie Wolfe |
Principle Jewish Stories All Things Jewish Jewish Communities of the World |