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The essays collected in this volume, some of which are presented for the first time in English translation, provide a rich harvest of Jewish customs and traditional beliefs, gathered from all over the world and from ancient to modern times. On Jewish Folklore spans a half-century of scholarly inquiry by the noted anthropologist and biblical scholar Raphael Patai. He essays collected in this volume, some of which are presented for the first time in English translation, provide a rich harvest of Jewish customs and traditional beliefs, gathered from all over the world and from ancient to modern times. Among the subjects Dr. Patai investigated and recorded are the history and oral traditions of the now-vanished Marrano community of Meshhed, Iran; cultural change among the so-called Jewish Indians of Mexico; beliefs and customs in connection with birth, the rainbow, and the color blue; Jewish variants of the widespread custom of earth-eating; and the remarkable parallels between the rituals connected with enthroning a new king as described in the Bible and as practiced among certain African tribes.
The tribulations experienced by the five Patais (Raphael, his father, mother, brother, and sister), as well as their interactions with many well-known Jewish leaders, authors, and scholars of the 1930s both in Hungary and Palestine, spring to life in fascinating detail in the letters presented in Between Budapest and Jerusalem. Rich in source material, this book provides rare insight into the life of one of the first families of Hungary and Palestine, the twilight of the Hungarian Jewish community, the initial phase of Jewish nation-building in Palestine, and the Arab-Jewish struggle for that much-contested and much-loved land.
This Festschrift celebrates the multifaceted career of Raphael Patai, presenting twenty-two articles on Jewish folklore and mythology, Jewish and Middle Eastern ethnology and anthropology, the social psychology of Arabs and Jews, Jewish cultural history, and Zionism. All of these are fields in which Raphael Patai has made major contributions.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, Jewish nationalism developed in Europe. One vital form of this nationalism that took root at the beginning of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe was the Yiddishist movement, which held that the Yiddish language and culture should be at the center of any Jewish nationalist efforts. As with most European concepts of folklore, the romantic-nationalist ideas of J. G. Herder on the volk were crucial in the formulation of the study and collection of Yiddish folklore. Herder's volk, however, denoted the peasantry, whereas Polish Jewry were an urban population. This difference determined the focus and pioneering work that this group of collectors ac...
This frank autobiography covers the first twenty-two years of the life of Raphael Patai, famous anthropologist and biblical scholar. Patai shares meticulously researched genealogical narratives and historical and sociological observations, mixed freely--and with engaging frankness--with portions of an intensely personal and intimate nature. He paints a critical yet affectionate picture of Hungarian Jewry in the years preceding 1933--a world that is no more.
The first annotated English edition of a classic early-twentieth-century Yiddish memoir that vividly describes Jewish life in a small Eastern European town. Originally published in Warsaw in 1913, this beautifully written memoir offers a panoramic description of the author’s experiences growing up in Kamieniec Litewski, a Polish shtetl connected with many important events in the history of nineteenth-century Eastern European Jewry. Although the way of life portrayed in this memoir has disappeared, the historical, cultural, and folkoric material it contains will be of major interest to historians and general readers alike. Kotik’s story is the saga of a wealthy and influential family thro...
The first appearance of Jews in Poland and their adventures during their early years of settlement in the country are concealed in undocumented shadows of history. What survived are legends of origin that early chronicles, historians, writers, and folklore scholars transcribed, thus contributing to their preservation. According to the legendary chronicles Jews resided in Poland for a millennium and developed a vibrant community. Haya Bar-Itzhak examines the legends of origin of the Jews of Poland and discloses how the community creates its own chronicle, how it structures and consolidates its identity through stories about its founding, and how this identity varies from age to age. Bar-Itzha...
Without Bounds illuminates the life of the mysterious Rabbi Ya'aqov Wazana, a great Jewish healer who worked in the Western High Atlas region in southern Morocco and died there in the early 1950s. Wazana is remembered by Moroccan Jews now living in Israel's urban and rural peripheries. Impressed by his healing powers and shamanic virtuosity, they are intrigued by his lifestyle and contacts with the Muslim and the demonic worlds that dangerously blurred his jewish identity. Based on interviews with Moroccan Jews conducted in the late l980s, Without Bounds proposes multiple readings of Wazana's life. Yoram Bilu recreates the influences and important moments in Wazana's life and evaluates his character from psychological and anthropological perspectives. Human and demon-bound, holy and impure, Jew and Muslim, old and young, Rabbi Ya'aqov Wazana dissolved the boundaries of the major social categories in Morocco and integrated them into his identity. Without Bounds will fascinate the lay reader interested in mysticism as well as scholars of anthropology, comparative religion, Judaism, and contemporary Jewish and Israeli history.
Goldish has edited an extremely important collection of essays that promises to radically transform the way many people view Judaism. One of the volume's most useful features is its wide historical scope. This collection explores different forms of possession, including dybbuk (malevolent possession), the best-known phenomenon; and lesser-known types such as ibbur (impregnation), gilgul (reincarnation), and maggid (angelic mentor).