Bodies and Souls: The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced into Prostitution in the Americas

Type

Book

Authors

Vincent, Isabel

ISBN 10

0679311629

ISBN 13

9780679311621

Tags

Americas, Jewish, Women in History, Women's Studies

Abstract

Journalist Vincent reveals for the first time the forced slavery and prostitution of thousands of Jewish women from the 1860s to the beginning of World War II. Young and poor, they were sold or duped into slavery, forced to become prostitutes by the Zwi Migdal, a notorious gang of Jewish mobsters. They left behind the grinding poverty and anti-Semitism of Eastern Europe's urban ghettos and rural shtetls to find themselves in brothels in South America, Latin America, South Africa, India, and New York. Though these women were forced into this, the Jewish community deemed them unclean. Barred from synagogues and shunned by their coreligionists, they were also forbidden from partaking in Jewish burial. Eventually they formed The Society of Truth, a religious order of love, honor to God, and faith in one another that established women-only synagogues, kosher kitchens, and cemeteries.--From publisher description.

Biblio Notes

Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Isabel Vincent
ISBN: 0060090235 9780060090234
OCLC Number: 58599849
Description: xii, 276 pages ; 24 cm
Contents: Chapter 1 Gentlemen from America 17 --
Chapter 2 End of the World 47 --
Chapter 3 Streets of the Women 78 --
Chapter 4 Queen 108 --
Chapter 5 Work of Sisyphus 139 --
Chapter 6 Miracle 169 --
Chapter 7 "Burning Ground" 199 --
Epilogue: "The Jews of the Jews" 220.
Responsibility: Isabel Vincent.

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