The Rabbi on Forty-Seventh Street

by Ann Birstein

The rabbi came from the Slobodka Yeshiva; his congregation came from Broadway. The synagogue was a modest brick building a block from Broadway in the middle of that colorful New York neighborhood known fifty years ago as Hell's Kitchen. Between prayers on Yom Kippur you could hear a chorus of would-be Ruby Keelers tap-dancing in the rehearsal hall next door. This is the exuberant story of Bernard Birsteinhis immigrant travels and travails in America, his ever-increasing family of five children and countless poor relations, and his adventurous rabbinical life. The narrator is his youngest daughter, Ann, the blond-haired enfant terrible who grew up to write six novels and now this captivating book.

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1982

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn]

This is an easy to read book which feels like a cross between a novel and a memoir- it is about Rabbi Burstein's life but it was written by his daughter, who was not alive when many of the events described in the book occurred.

It was written by and for the first generation of American Jews- Jews who mostly fled the traditionalist religion of their immigrant parents. Because I am part of the second generation and am much more traditional, I found this book more sad than quaint.

[Ronn]

This was a very enjoyable if short read about a particular part of the Jewish immigrant experience in the early part of the last century. So enjoyable that I would have been happy if it had been another 100 pages longer. If you have an interest in that experience, or an interest in Broadway in the vaudeville era, you would find a lot to like here.