Opening Lines: Yentl the Yeshiva Boy

John Yorke explores the themes and impact of Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story Yentl. Written in the 1950s but set in the orthodox Jewish community of late 19th century Poland, it tells the story of a young orthodox woman who rebels against the constraints of a woman's life and disguises herself as a man in order to study at a religious college. It was famously made into a Hollywood movie starring Barbra Streisand in 1983