"Descendents of this immigrant woman, you do not grow up in America, you and your children and their children with the goyische names. You do not live in America. No such place exist. Your clay is the clay of some Litvak shtetl, your air the air of the steppes—because she carried the old world on her back across the ocean, in a boat, and she put it down on Grand Concourse Avenue, or in Flatbush, and she worked that earth into your bones, and you pass it to your children, this ancient, ancient culture and home." —Rabbi Isidore Chemelwitz, Act 1, Scene 1

"Rabbi, I'm afraid of the crimes I may commit." —Loius, Act 1, Scene 5

"You think you're the only one who hates sex; I do; I hate it with you; I do. I dream that you batter away at me till all my joints come...