Reb ((http://www.newhopeconnection.com/images/library/israel_connection_pics/orthodox_jew.jpg))

As models for our analysis of cultural change, the mother and father of the family, Shena and Reb Smolinsky are perfect. They are a traditional Jewish couple where the wife serves her husband supports him in his studies, even after arrival to the United States. She does not expect him to contribute to their income although she often complains about the poverty and having to fight for every penny at the market. However, as the author of Life is With People clearly states, women were expected to complain about the burdens they were carrying. At the end of the day, however, she is still in awe of his husbands “holiness” and urges her daughters to obey their father.

Reb himself sees himself as the innocent scholar, expert when it comes to his Talmudic studies, but blind to his incompetence in the real world. He lack common sense and caution, things needed in the real world but completely irrelevant to Reb’s lifestyle. After Bessie, the primary breadwinner of the family gets married, he decides to buy a business from a man who is leaving New York in a day. The store seems popular and the price for the place is very low, so Reb buys it without consulting his wife. At the end, the joke is on him since the store is a complete fake. All the shelves are empty behind the first row and the sugar sacks are filled with sand. Even after such a grave mistake Reb refuses to acknowledge his responsibility. He considers himself head of the family, without ever really being one.

Shena ((http://www.jerusalemcollection.com/jer04/JER04_18.jpg))