This episode features a letter from “Grumpy Gifter,” a listener fed up with the “wedding-and-baby-etiquette industrial complex.” She asks whether she can opt out of the compulsory gift-giving that social norms mandate without offending her community. The episode features advice from Bintel, perspective from the past via the Forward’s archivist, Chana Pollack, and a special visit from Aviva Calmer, founder of the Adventure School.
Starting in 1906, the editors of the Forward answered reader questions in a column called “A Bintel Brief,” Yiddish for “a bundle of letters.” Now, we're bringing Bintel into a new era. Welcome to Season 2 of “A Bintel Brief,” the Jewish advice podcast. In “Grumpy Gifter,” a listener writes with a quintessentially mid-30s vexation: she can no longer tolerate the endless gifts required of her by the litany of weddings and babies. Bintel responds with wisdom, humor, and tasteful advice.