Ms. Fitzsimmons Sent Some Pork and Beans: The Representation of the Irish in Tashrak's Works and the Shtetlization of New York City

• In Event: Jews and their Ethnic Neighbors in 20th Century New York:Images and Attitudes

Abstract

Gil Ribak’s examines the complex imagery of Irish-Americans that Yiddish humorist Tashrak (Yisroel Yoysef Zeven) presented in newspaper columns and feuilletons. Ribak notes that Tashrak’s readers could see depictions of the Irish as, on the one hand, American incarnations of the violent, wanton Slavic muzhik (peasant), clashing with Jews. But the writer also presented to his audience the Irish as down-to-earth, helpful to Jews and even amusing.

Author

• Gil Ribak, University of Arizona