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Folklore (Jewish Studies)

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  1.  
  2. Introduction
  3. Four interrelated qualities distinguish Jewish folklore: (a) extended history depth, (b) continuous interdependence between orality and literacy, (c) national dispersion of the nation, and (d) linguistic diversity. The Hebrew Bible, the earliest Jewish written text, contains evidence of older oral tradition. Once canonized, its ritual reading spawned new oral exetical and metaphorical oral narratives and its retelling retrieved traditions that literacy excluded. The written records of Jewish traditions of Late Antiquity also include folklore of that era. With the rise of the Diaspora Jewish communities had their own regional folklore that synthesized local with Jewish traditions and was performed in new languages that were spoken in these communities, such as Judeo-Arabi, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Spanish, and Yiddish. During the long history of the Jewish Diaspora, geographically and linguistically distinct Jewish communities consolidated into three basic groups: Ashkenaz, located in central and eastern Europe; Sephardic Jews, primarily living in the Mediterranean basin; and Jews residing in Arab lands. Following migrations to the New World, South Africa, Australia, and Israel, new communities formed, and their experience generated new folklore themes and forms. In the land of Israel, during the Yishuv period and later after the establishment of the State of Israel, the emerging new folklore corresponded, in part, to the ideology of cultural revival and, in part, to the new cultural contacts of ingathered exiles and to the encounter with the Near Eastern Arab culture. The folklore of the Jews, like that of other peoples, is represented not only in words, but also in behavior, music, dance, and visual art. Modern scholarship on Jewish folklore started anew at least three times in the 19th century, in the recordings of Leopold Weisel (b. 1804–d. 1870), a non-Jewish country physician who recorded tales in the Old Jewish Town in Prague (J. Dolezelova, “Questions of Folklore in the Legends of the Old Jewish Town Compiled by Leopold Weisel, 1804–1870,” Judaica Bohemiae 12 (1976), 35–50), with the article of Moritz Steinschneider, “Über die Volkliterature der Juden, Archiv für Literaturgeschichte 2 (1872): 1–21, and with the circular letter that Max Grunwald (b. 1871–d. 1953), then a young rabbi in Hamburg, Germany, sent in 1896, together with a questionnaire, urging its recipients to engage in field collection of Jewish folklore (F. Talmage, ed., Studies in Jewish Folklore[Cambridge, MA: Association for Jewish Studies, 1980]).
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  5. General Overviews
  6. Steinschneider (Steinschneider 1872) was the first to introduce the term folk literature (Volkslitteratur) into Jewish studies, encompassing a wide range of religious and nonreligious books that were in popular circulation. Since this introduction, Jewish folklore studies have developed in different directions, and A. S. Rappoport wrote a comprehensive survey of many aspects of Jewish folklore ranging from myth, magic, medicine, and demonology to customs, folktales, proverbs, and rituals (Rappoport 2007 [originally published in 1937]). Written after the Holocaust, Bergmann 1953 surveys the same subjects in a more popular fashion. Noy 2007 is an encyclopedic essay that relates to all fields of Jewish folklore as they are represented in diverse Jewish ethnic groups. It discusses some aspects, such as songs, for example, that previous surveys missed. Patai (Patai 1983) takes an anthropological approach to folklore in essays he wrote over thirty years, and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 2008 takes a similar approach in the discussion of eastern European Jewish folklore. Jason 1975 and Jason 1990 apply ethnopoetic methodology in the studies of Near Eastern Jewish folklore, and Ben-Amos 1999 concentrates on folk literature in its historical, ethnic, and generic representations.
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  8. Ben-Amos, Dan. “Jewish Folk Literature.” Oral Tradition 14 (1999): 140–274.
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  12. The transition from orality to literacy is not an automatic process that the invention of new communication media generates. It involves social control and ideological, religious, literary, and commercial goals. The documenters of oral traditions are cultural mediators who shape traditions for future generations. Therefore, part of the Jewish oral tradition was preserved and another part became extinct. In Hebrew: Ha-sifrut ha-′amamit ha-yehudit (Jerusalem: Magnes, 2006).
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  16. Bergmann, Y. Ha-Folḳlor ha-Yehudi: Yediʻat ʻam Yiśraʼel, emunotaṿ, tekhunotaṿ u-minhagaṿ ha-ʻamamiyim. Sifriyat Dani le-madaʻ populari 43. Jerusalem: R. Mas, 1953.
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  20. Historical and ethnical examination of basic issues in Jewish folklore such as life-cycle rituals, annual holiday cycle, folk literature, folk belief, veneration of the tombs of saints, folk medicines and customs, folk heroes and scholars, and material culture. Translated as “Jewish folklore: The lore of the Jewish people, its beliefs, features, and folk customs.”
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  24. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. “Jewish Folklore and Ethnography.” In The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies. Edited by Martin Goodman, Jeremy Cohen, and David Sorkin, 956–974. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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  27.  
  28. Folklore is a unique form of cultural expression in Jewish societies. Proverbs, riddles, narrative motifs, and customs are available in the Bible; the rabbinical literature, which includes also hagiography and even poetic fragments; and folktales that have become available in the medieval and the modern periods from diverse sources and communities. An extensive scholarship deals with all of these manifestations of folklore.
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  32. Jason, Heda. Studies in Jewish Ethnopoetry: Narrating, Art, Content, Message, Genre. Taipei, Taiwan: Orient Cultural Service, 1975.
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  36. The ethnopoetry of the Near Eastern Jews is multidimensional, consisting of formal, thematic, and social aspects. Its analysis is concerned with generic principles, narrative structure, and its temporal and spatial dimensions, and it is illustrated by a study of the sacred legend and the numbskull tale and their social functions.
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  40. Jason, Heda. “Study of Israelite and Jewish Oral and Folk Literature: Problems and Issues.” Asian Folklore Studies 49 (1990): 69–108.
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  42. DOI: 10.2307/1177950Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
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  44. The issues in the study of Israelite and Jewish oral and folk literature concern the distinction between folk and learned literature, the interrelations between various cultural traditions, and the use of multilingualism. These issues are also general in nature and are applicable elsewhere.
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  48. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, B. “Folklore, Ethnography, and Anthropology.” In The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Edited by Gershon D. Hundert, 521–526. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
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  51.  
  52. The study of Jewish folklore, ethnography, and anthropology in eastern Europe began as early as 1823 with a programmatic essay by Leopold Zunz (b. 1794–d. 1886) and it was continued by scholars and institutions in eastern Europe and America during the 19th and 20th centuries when scholarly attention turned to Jewish immigrant communities in the United States and Canada.
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  55.  
  56. Noy, Dov. “Folklore.” In Encyclopaedia Judaica Vol. 7. 2d ed. Edited by Fred Skolnik and Michael Berenbaum, 95–113. Detroit: Macmillan, 2007.
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  59.  
  60. A comprehensive presentation of Jewish folklore and its scholarship that includes folk literature and its different genres, such as narrative, song, proverb, riddle, and drama from Antiquity to modern times as well as folk art, customs, magic and folk medicine, life-cycle and annual holiday rituals and celebrations.
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  63.  
  64. Patai, Raphael. On Jewish Folklore. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1983.
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  67.  
  68. A collection of essays written over a period of thirty-five years by the founder of the Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology. Patai addresses fundamental issues of Jewish folklore and ethnography, ranging from programmatic essays to biblical and Talmudic subjects, the Jews of Meshhed, Sephardim and Oriental Jews, and peripheral Jewish communities.
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  72. Rappoport, A. S. The Folklore of the Jews. Kegan Paul Library of Jewish Studies. London: Kegan Paul, 2007.
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  75.  
  76. Jewish cosmology, demonology, magic, medicine, life-cycle rituals, together with a collection of annotated folktales drawn from traditional literary sources, are the subject of this introduction that concludes with a chapter on proverbs and a discussion concerning the influence of folklore on religion in Jewish society.
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  79.  
  80. Steinschneider, M. “Über die Volkslitteratur der Juden.” Archiv für Litteraturgeschichte 2 (1872): 1–21.
  81.  
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  83.  
  84. The first essay in Jewish studies that includes the concept of “folk literature” in its title, encompassing not only oral works, but also a broad range of literature in popular use, from religious texts to popular publications. Translated in Hebrew as “′Al ha-sifrut ha-′amamit shel ha-yehudim” (translated by N. Ben-Ari and U. Ben-Ari, edited by E. Yassif, Pe′amim 129 [2011], 161–199) and in English as “About the folk literature of the Jews.”
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  87.  
  88. History of Jewish Folklore Scholarship
  89. Most studies in Jewish folklore include information about previous scholarship, yet since the 1980s, the history of folklore scholarship has itself become a subject of analytical examination. Daxelmüller 1988 chronicles the beginning of systematic folklore research in Hamburg, Bar-Itzhak 2010 and Gottesman 2003 study the history of Yiddish folklore scholarship in eastern Europe, and Hasan-Rokem and Yassif 1990 surveys the study of folklore in Israel. Yet, the position of folklore among the disciplines of Jewish studies was marginalized. Nevertheless, as Baumgarten and Trautmann-Waller 2014 demonstrates, scholars and rabbis laid the foundation for systematic study of Jewish folklore in Europe, and, as Ben-Amos 1990 suggests, current scholarship is changing this situation for the better.
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  91. Bar-Itzhak, Haya. Pioneers of Jewish Ethnography and Folkloristics in Eastern Europe. Studia Mythologica Slavica supplementa 2. Lublin, Poland: Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2010.
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  94.  
  95. Surveys Jewish folklore and ethnography scholarship in eastern Europe; includes key articles and essays on the lives of S. An-Ski [S. Z. Rappoport] (b. 1863–d. 1920), Y. L. Cahan (b. 1881–d. 1937), Alter Druyanow (b. 1870‑d. 1938), Regina Lilienthan (b. 1857–d. 1942), Meir Bałaban (b. 1877–d. 1942), and Itzik Manger (b. 1901–d. 1969) are in this volume.
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  98.  
  99. Baumgarten, Jean, and Céline Trautmann-Waller, eds. Les rabbins et savants au village: L’étude des traditions populaires juives, xix–xx siècles. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2014.
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  102.  
  103. Scholars of Wissenschaft des Judentums marginalized Jewish folklore research. Nevertheless, in the 19th and 20th centuries, until the break occasioned by World War II, scholars and rabbis, such as Grunwald, Jellinek, Löw, Heller, An-sky, and others, conducted major folklore studies, and they laid the foundation for Jewish folklore research in Europe, establishing museums, conducting field research, and teaching.
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  106.  
  107. Ben-Amos, Dan. “Jewish Studies and Jewish Folklore.” In Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 16–24, 1989, Division D. Vol. 2, Art, Folklore and Music. Edited by David Assaf, 1–20. Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1990.
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  110.  
  111. Historically, Jewish studies marginalized Jewish folklore. This unfortunate situation has historical, ideological, methodological, and social dimensions. However, current research and mutual developments in folklore and the disciplines that make up Jewish studies raise hopes for incorporation of folklore as a peer discipline of Jewish studies.
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  114.  
  115. Daxelmüller, C. “Vergessene Geschichte: Die ‘Gesellschaft für jüdische Volkskunde’ in Hamburg.” In Sichtweisen der Volkskunde: Zur Geschichte und Forschungspraxis einer Disziplin. Edited by Albrecht Lehrmann and Andreas Kuntz, 11–31. Lebensformen 3. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1988.
  116.  
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  118.  
  119. Max Grunwald (b. 1871–d. 1953) founded in Hamburg in 1898 the Gesellschaft für jüdische Volkskunde, the Museum für jüdische Volkskunde, and the Mitteilungen zur jüdische Volkskunde, initiating thereby the systematic study of Jewish folklore. The association attracted Jewish rabbis and scholars. In 1935, the SS ransacked the museum and, in 1938, Dr. Grunwald moved to Jerusalem, ending Jewish folklore research in Germany.
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  122.  
  123. Gottesman, Itzik N. Defining the Yiddish Nation: The Jewish Folklorists of Poland. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003.
  124.  
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  126.  
  127. The early study of Yiddish folklore developed in three circles: the Warsaw group led by Noyekh Prilutski (b. 1882–d. 1941), the Jewish Historical-Ethnographic Society in Vilnius, led by S. Z. An-sky (b. 1863–d. 1920), and the YIVO Ethnographic Commission, headed by Y. L. Cahan (b. 1881–d. 1937). In their work they sought to use folklore to construct Jewish national culture on the basis of past traditions.
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  130.  
  131. Hasan-Rokem, Galit, and Eli Yassif. “Jewish Folkloristics in Israel: Directions and Goals.” In Proceedings of the Tenth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, August 16–24, 1989, Division D. Vol. 2, Art, Folklore and Music. Edited by David Assaf, 33–62. Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1990.
  132.  
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  134.  
  135. The first comprehensive survey of the folklore scholarship in Israel that describes studies, scholars, journals and institutions that carry out research in folk literature, folk art, and traditional folk beliefs.
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  139. Bibliographies and Encyclopedias
  140. Lewinsky 1970 is an encyclopedic dictionary of Jewish tradition, while Bar-Itzhak 2013 provides extensive information about folklore scholarship. Weinreich and Weinreich 1959 is an exclusive bibliography on Yiddish folklore, while Yassif 1986 is an inclusive bibliography of folklore scholarship about all Jewish ethnic groups and in all historical periods.
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  142. Bar-Itzhak, Haya, ed. Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions. 2 vols. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2013.
  143.  
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  145.  
  146. A diverse range of articles deal with both the substance of Jewish folklore and its scholarship. Includes essays about folk narratives, legends, songs, proverbs, riddles, jokes, customs, festivals, rituals, ceremonies, dances, artifacts, folk art, material cultures, and Jewish ethnic groups from around the world as well as entries about leading folklorists, research directions and issues, and valuable bibliographies. Raphael Patai is the founding editor.
  147.  
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  149.  
  150. Lewinsky, Yom-Tov. Entsiklopedyah shel havai u-masoret ba-Yahadut: Otzar yediʽot al ʽarkhei-yesod, halikhot ḥayyim, matbeʽot lashon, nimusim u-minhagei ha-ʽedot be-Yisrael. 2 vols. Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1970.
  151.  
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  153.  
  154. A comprehensive reference to Jewish folklore with entries relating to the breadth and depth of traditional life in Jewish communities. Translated as “Encyclopedia of folklore, customs and tradition in Judaism: A treasury of information about basic values, practices, idioms and conventions in Jewish ethnic groups.”
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  157.  
  158. Wahrmann, N. Ḥage Yisrael u-moʽadav: Minhagehem ve-simlehem. Tel Aviv: Achiasaf, 1976.
  159.  
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  161.  
  162. The history and evolution of the celebration, in religion and custom, of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, the Rejoicing of the Law, Hanukkah, Fifteenth in Shevat, Purim, Passover, Thirty three of the Omer, Pentacost, Sabbath, Memorial Days, and Independence Day. First published in 1959. Translated as “The holidays and festivals of the Jewish people: Their customs and symbols.”
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  165.  
  166. Weinreich, Uriel, and Beatrice Weinreich. Yiddish Language and Folklore: A Selective Bibliography for Research. Janua Linguarum 10. The Hague: Mouton, 1959.
  167.  
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  169.  
  170. Part 2 of the bibliography lists studies and texts of Yiddish folklore in general and material about folksongs, folktales, proverbs, humor, riddles, folk drama, games, folk medicine and magic, cookery, dress, folk art, and life cycles and annual cycles.
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  173.  
  174. Yassif, Eli. Jewish Folklore: An Annotated Bibliography. Garland Folklore Bibliographies 10. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 450. New York: Garland, 1986.
  175.  
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  177.  
  178. A basic bibliography of 1,356 entries published during a period of slightly more than one hundred years, starting with the classical essay “Über die Volksliteratur der Juden” by Moritz Steinschneider (b. 1816–d. 1907) (originally published in Archiv für Literaturgeschichte 2 [1872]: 1–21), and concluding with publications from the 1980s.
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  182. Collected Studies
  183. Collected studies offer historical perspectives on the dynamics of scholarship itself by focusing on the works of individual scholars or on volumes in their honor, found in conference proceedings and occasional publications of research institutes and centers. Alexander and Hasan-Rokem 1992 and Ben-Ami and Dan 1983 are volumes honoring the late Professor Dov Noy (b. 1920–d. 2013), who introduced the study of Jewish folklore into higher education, and Salamon and Shinan 2013 honors Professor Galit Hasan-Rokem, who followed Noy at the Hebrew University. Sadan 1990, Schwarzbaum 1989, and Schwarzbaum 1993 are written by two self-taught scholars, Dov Sadan (b. 1902–d. 1989) and Haim Schwarzbaum (b. 1911–d. 1983), who each made major contributions to Jewish folklore research. Löw 1975 and Scheiber 1985 are written by two Jewish-Hungarian rabbis, Immanuel Löw (b. 1854–d. 1944) and Sándor Scheiber (b. 1913–d. 1985), who research Jewish folklore. Alexander, et al. 1994 and Talmage 1980 (both cited under Conference Proceedings) are two volumes of papers from conferences in Israel and the United States, respectively, that give evidence of accelerated folklore research. Now editors assemble essays not only for celebratory purposes but as part of the regular work of scholarship, as Alexander and Harari 2009 shows.
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  185. Alexander, T., and Y. Harari, eds. Special Issue: European Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (2009).
  186.  
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  188.  
  189. Collected essays on Jewish folklore by T. Alexander, Y. Harari, G. Hasan-Rokem, E. Yassif, P. Díaz-Mas, I. Rosen, and S. Sabar on folklore and ethnic identity, folklore as a cultural category in Late Antiquity, intertextuality in folklore, folklore of Sephardic women, personal narrative, and Torah and magic.
  190.  
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  192.  
  193. Alexander, T., and Galit Hasan-Rokem, eds. Li-khvod Dov Noy. Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore 13–14. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992.
  194.  
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  196.  
  197. Essays in Hebrew honoring Professor Dov Noy on his seventieth birthday on subjects in Jewish folklore that he explored in his scholarship, ranging from the Midrash and the Aggadah to contemporary issues in Jewish folklore. Translated as “For Dov Noy.”
  198.  
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  200.  
  201. Ben-Ami, I., and J. Dan, eds. Meḥkarei ha-merkaz le-ḥeker ha-folklor. Folklore Research Center Studies 7. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983.
  202.  
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  204.  
  205. Essays in Hebrew and English honoring Professor Dov Noy upon his sixtieth birthday, written by his students and colleagues on themes and forms in the Aggadah, Jewish folktales, songs, and magic.
  206.  
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  208.  
  209. Cahan, J. L. Jewish Folklore. Publications of the Yiddish Scientific Institute 9. Philological Series 5. Vilnius, Lithuania: Yiddish Scientific Institute, Department of Philology, Folklore Committee, 1938.
  210.  
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  212.  
  213. The Folklore Commission of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, headed by J. L. Cahan (b. 1881–d. 1937), initiated in 1926 a collection of Yiddish folklore. A selection of 203 songs, 134 tales, 80 jokes, 16 Purim plays, and 318 omens are included here drawn from the 6,000 texts that were on deposit by 1934.
  214.  
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  216.  
  217. Löw, Immanuel. Studien zur jüdischen folklore. Edited by A. Scheiber. Collectanea 16. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlag, 1975.
  218.  
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  220.  
  221. Previously published articles by Immanuel Löw (b. 1854–d. 1944) on fingers, kisses, and tears in folklore, and the stained-glass windows of the synagogue in Szegendin.
  222.  
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  224.  
  225. Sadan, Dov. Sh”Y ′olamot: y“b meḥkarei folklore. Edited by Dov Noy. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1990.
  226.  
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  228.  
  229. A selection of the articles that Dov Sadan (b. 1902–d. 1989), a prolific writer, literary critic, and folklorist, wrote about eastern European Jewish folklore. He documented folklore, analyzed his texts comparatively, paid particular attention to creativity on the margins, and profoundly studied the heritage of Ashkenazi Jewry. Translated as “Shay olamot: Three hundred and ten worlds: Twelve folkloristic studies.”
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  233. Salamon, Hagar, and Avigdor Shinan, eds. Mirkamim: Tarbut, sifrut, folklor le-Galit Hazan-Rokem. Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore 28; Jerusalem Studies in Hebrew Literature 25. Jerusalem: Mandel Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2013.
  234.  
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  236.  
  237. Thirty-eight essays about a broad historical, generic, thematic, ethnic and theoretical spectrum of Jewish folklore ranging from the Bible and the Midrash to modern time and concerning proverbs, folksongs, folktales, material culture, modern literature, onomastics, and anthropological and cultural studies, reflecting the scholarly range of the honoree, Professor Galit Hasan-Rokem. Translated as “Textures: Culture, literature, folklore: For Galit Hasan-Rokem.”
  238.  
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  240.  
  241. Scheiber, Sándor. Essays on Jewish Folklore and Comparative Literature. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1985.
  242.  
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  244.  
  245. Essays in English, French, German, and Hebrew on a broad range of themes in Jewish and comparative folklore, such as the wandering Jew in Hungary, the location for the building of the Temple, and many more.
  246.  
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  248.  
  249. Schwarzbaum, Haim. Jewish Folklore between East and West: Collected Papers. Edited by E. Yassif. Beersheba, Israel: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 1989.
  250.  
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  252.  
  253. The collection of the major essays of Haim Schwarzbaum (b. 1911–d. 1983) spans many topics and deal with biblical and post-biblical legends, the diffusion of Jewish folklore motifs, animal tales and fables, and studies in medieval folk books, such as “Disciplina Clericalis,” “Sefer Shaʽashuʽim.” Included are his essays about theodicy legends, Jewish Aesopic fables, the Falasha creation myth, and the death of the bridegroom.
  254.  
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  256.  
  257. Schwarzbaum, Haim. Shorashim ve-nofim: Mivḥar ktavim be-ḥeker ha-folklor. Edited by Eli Yassif. Beersheba, Israel: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 1993.
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  260.  
  261. Articles about the historically recurrent themes in Jewish folklore, parallel subjects in Jewish and medieval Arab and international folklore, history of folklore studies, and literary rendition of folklore themes. Translated as “Roots and landscapes: Studies in folklore.”
  262.  
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  264.  
  265. Conference Proceedings
  266. Conferences and their proceedings can provide evidence of scholarly trends and turns. Alexander, et al. 1994 and Ben-Ami 1982 marked the rise in scholarship of Sephardic and Oriental Jewish folklore in Israel. Yet, this is not always the case. In 1977 a conference devoted to studies in Jewish folklore remained an isolated event in the United States (Talmage 1980), though Jewish folklore studies continue in other venues.
  267.  
  268. Alexander, Tamar, Abraham Haim, Galit Hasan-Rokem, and Ephraim Hazan, eds. History and Creativity in the Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Communities: The Third International Congress for Research on Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Heritage, Jerusalem, 1988. Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim, 1994.
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  271.  
  272. The English part of the proceedings includes a collection of six articles about Folk Arts and Literature (pp. 177–300) that deals with the medieval Judeo-Spanish tales of Ben-Sira, comparison between two Sephardic chronicles, possibly the first Judezmo play, Spanish motifs in Jewish Moroccan dress, changes in the music of Sephardic Jews in Yugoslavia, and Sephardic folklore in the Balkans.
  273.  
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  275.  
  276. Ben-Ami, Issacher, ed. The Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Heritage Studies. First International Congress on the Sephardi and Oriental Jewry. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1982.
  277.  
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  279.  
  280. Studies of the heritage of the Sephardi and Oriental communities that treat songs, ballads, romanceros, folktales, legends, jokes, music, and rituals as well as general historical, literary, and ethnographic analyses.
  281.  
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  283.  
  284. Talmage, Frank, ed. Studies in Jewish Folklore: Proceedings of a Regional Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies Held at the Spertus College of Judaica, Chicago, May 1–3, 1977. Cambridge, MA: Association for Jewish Studies, 1980.
  285.  
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287.  
  288. Max Grünwald (b. 1871–d. 1953) initiated Jewish folklore studies in November 1896 with a circular letter and a questionnaire, urging the recipients to collect Jewish folklore. Celebrating the eightieth anniversary of that event, the conference addresses issues in Jewish folk literature, music, and material culture, ranging historically from Late Antiquity to modern times and concerning the Sephardic, Ashkenazic, and Oriental Jewish communities. The conference coordinator was Dov Noy.
  289.  
  290. Find this resource:
  291.  
  292. Research Institutes and Centers
  293. The hubs of folklore research, as with other disciplines, are the journals published by associations, institutes, and research centers. The first Jewish folklore journal was founded by Max Grunwald (Grunwald 1898–1922), followed by Druyanow, et al. 1918–1930, which was set to launch in 1914 but was postponed for four years because of World War I. A new series was published by a new editorial team, Lewinski and Schtok 1946–1953. After the Holocaust, Jewish folklore research shifted from Europe to Israel. The Palestine Institute for Folklore and Ethnology that was founded by Raphael Patai (b. 1910–d. 1996) and J. J. Rivlin (b. 1889–d. 1971) was the first modern folklore research institute that published a journal, Edoth (Patai and Rivlin 1945–1948) and a handful of monographs. In 1948, the Israel Folklore Society was founded and its journal (Yeda-ʽAm) was edited by Y.-T. Lewinski. When folklore began to be studied academically, Alexander and Hasan-Rokem 1981–2007 was founded as the folklore journal of the Institute of Jewish Studies of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. At the initiative of Dov Noy, who studied at the Indiana University Folklore Institute, Patai, et al. 1960 was published. Since then folklore scholarship has been published by folklore research centers, such as Ben-Ami 1972, Noy and Ben-Ami 1970, and Noy and Ben-Ami 1975, and such scholarship has appeared in general venues for Jewish studies, such as Yassif 2007 and Alexander and Harari 2009 (cited under Collected Studies).
  294.  
  295. Alexander, Tamar, and Galit Hasan-Rokem, eds. Meḥkare Yerushalayim be-folklore Yehudi 1–25 (1981–2007).
  296.  
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  298.  
  299. The only academic journal of Jewish folklore includes articles about a broad range of themes, theories and methods. Subsequently edited by H. Salamon and S. Sabar. Translated as “Jerusalem studies in Jewish folklore.”
  300.  
  301. Find this resource:
  302.  
  303. Ben-Ami, Issacher. Meḥkarei ha-merkaz le-ḥeker ha-folklor. Folklore Research Center Studies 3. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1972.
  304.  
  305. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  306.  
  307. Studies in Hebrew and English on Eliakim Zunser; Arabic wedding greetings; ethnography of Polish Jews; Midrash Vayisa’u; Jewish-Iraqi proverbs about family life; night prayers by the dead; humor; the legend of Beruriah, rabbi Meir’s wife; the lion in proverbs; the Baha’i community in Acre; rhythmic prose in Romanian funeral recitations; wedding dances; and others.
  308.  
  309. Find this resource:
  310.  
  311. Druyanow, A. A., J. Ch. Rawnitzki, and H. N. Bialik, eds. Reshumot: Meʼasef le-divrei Zikhronot, ethnograpfiay ve-folklor be-Yisrael. 6 vols. Odessa, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv: Moriyah/Dvir, 1918–1930.
  312.  
  313. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  314.  
  315. Planned as a publication that would include essays concerning Jewish life not only in European communities, but also in “remote lands” such as the Caucasus, Bukharah, Iran, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Tripolis, Abyssinia, Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Yemen, India, and China. In fact, most of the publications relate to Jewish European communities. Translated as “Notes of Jewish memoirs, ethnography and folklore.”
  316.  
  317. Find this resource:
  318.  
  319. Grunwald, M., ed. Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für jüdische Volkskunde 1–23 (1898–1922).
  320.  
  321. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  322.  
  323. The editor, who was the founder of the Gesellschaft für jüdische Volkskunde, served as a rabbi in Hamburg and moved to Vienna in 1903, from where he continued to edit the journal. This publication is a treasure throve of Jewish folklore studies. Followed by Jahrbuch für jüdische Volkskunde 25, 26–27 (1923, 1925) and Mitteilungen 29 and 30 (1926–1927). Continued publication as special issues of Menorah 30 (1926), 551–606; 31 (1927), 1–54, and the last issue was part of Menorah (1929).
  324.  
  325. Find this resource:
  326.  
  327. Lewinski, Y. -T., and D. Schtok, eds. Reshumot: Meʼasef le-divrei Zikhronot, ethnograpfiay ve-folklor be-Yisrael. 5 vols. Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1946–1953.
  328.  
  329. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  330.  
  331. Under the impact of the Holocaust, memoirs and testimonies of eastern European Jewry outnumber ethnographic descriptions and folklore texts from other communities, though in the later volumes, with the beginning of mass immigration to Israel from Arab lands, there is an increase in the number of articles about the folklore of these communities. Translated as “Notes of Jewish memoirs, ethnography and folklore.”
  332.  
  333. Find this resource:
  334.  
  335. Noy, Dov, and Issacher Ben-Ami, eds. Meḥkarei ha-merkaz le-ḥeker ha-folklor. Folklore Research Center Studies 1. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1970.
  336.  
  337. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  338.  
  339. Articles in Hebrew and English on Jewish humor, the image of the Jews in Polish folklore, mythic aspect of ethnic folktales, family confrontations in Jewish folktales, the Hundred Gates neighborhood, birth blessings in Arab dialects, immigration songs in traditional poetry, Jewish onomastic in North Africa, the number seven, the “evil eye,” and Jewish-Moroccan proverbs.
  340.  
  341. Find this resource:
  342.  
  343. Noy, Dov, and Issacher Ben-Ami, eds. Meḥkarim be-ḥayei ha-tarbut shel yehudei angliyah. Folklore Research Center Studies 5. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1975.
  344.  
  345. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  346.  
  347. Studies in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish on Jewish folklore research in England, Yiddish fiction, theater, and street songs in England, the pictorial stereotype of the Jew in England, Jewish education, and other aspects of Jewish cultural life in England. Translated as “Studies in the cultural life of the Jews in England.”
  348.  
  349. Find this resource:
  350.  
  351. Patai, Raphael, and J. J. Rivlin. Edoth. 3 vols. Jerusalem: Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology, 1945–1948.
  352.  
  353. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  354.  
  355. The journal expanded the scope of folklore thematically and methodologically, including a growing number of articles on the folklore and culture of Jews in Sephardic communities and from Arab lands. Translated as “‘Communities’: A quarterly for folklore and ethnology.”
  356.  
  357. Find this resource:
  358.  
  359. Patai, Raphael, Francis L. Utley, and Dov Noy, eds. Studies in Biblical and Jewish Folklore. Indiana University Folklore Series 13; Memoir Series of the American Folklore Society 51. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1960.
  360.  
  361. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  362.  
  363. In the past Jews served as agents of international folklore transmission, but with the establishment of the State of Israel they bring with them to the Near East international folklore . Major scholars in folklore studies explore specific cases in folk narrative, humor, ritual, and music.
  364.  
  365. Find this resource:
  366.  
  367. Yassif, Eli, ed. Studies in Hebrew Literature: Studies in Jewish Folklore in a Changing World. Sadan 6. Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2007.
  368.  
  369. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  370.  
  371. Twelve essays on personal narratives, interdisciplinary studies in folklore, literature, therapy, and education and traditional performances in new channels.
  372.  
  373. Find this resource:
  374.  
  375. Yeda- ʽAm. 1948–.
  376.  
  377. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  378.  
  379. The journal of the Israel Folklore Society Yeda-ʽAm, includes both academic and non-academic scholarly articles on a broad spectrum of folklore subjects. The founding editor is Y. T. Lewinski and the current editor is Y. Ganuz.
  380.  
  381. Find this resource:
  382.  
  383. Studies of Folksongs
  384. Scholarship in Jewish studies has successfully demonstrated that biblical, Talmudic, and midrashic tales and proverbs circulated orally before their inclusion in manuscripts and books. In contrast, documentation is meagre on folk poetry in these texts, and therefore they were not available to scholarship. The study of Jewish folksongs concentrates primarily on the modern period during which they were composed and recorded in the ethnic Jewish traditions as they evolved in communities in Arab lands, in European countries, in Israel, the latter with the purported aim to become the folksongs of a revived nation, and in America, where there is a revival of eastern European vocal and instrumental music.
  385.  
  386. Overviews
  387. Scholarship on Jewish traditional music in the 20th century was initiated by, and reached its culmination in, the work of Abraham Zevi Idelsohn (b. 1882–d. 1938) (see Idelsohn 1924), who conducted ethnomusicological research in Palestine in the first two decades of the 20th century, and Amnon Shiloah (b. 1928–d. 2014). Shiloah 1992 sums up research to the turn of the 21st century. Diversified studies were conducted in the intervening years. Adler, et al. 1994 includes interdisciplinary studies of Jewish music drawing upon linguistics, musicology, literature, and folklore, while Avitsur, et al. 2012 is a collection of essays that follows a phenomenological approach to Jewish music, including theoretical issues and studies of the music of specific communities from the eastern to the western Mediterranean.
  388.  
  389. Adler, I., F. Alvarez-Pereyre, E. Seroussi, and L. Shalem, eds. Jewish Oral Traditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach: Papers of a Seminar Initiated and Directed by Frank Alvarez-Pereyre, 1982–1986. Yuval 6. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1994.
  390.  
  391. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  392.  
  393. The oral aspect of Jewish traditions requires a well-defined interdisciplinary basis. Its theory and methodology draw upon linguistics, history, musicology, and anthropology, and it is applied to the study of multivocality in the liturgical music of the Jews of San’a, typology of Judeo-Spanish folksongs, Hasidic ritual dance, and the Aleppo tradition of the oral transmission of the Mishnah.
  394.  
  395. Find this resource:
  396.  
  397. Avitsur, Etan, Marina Ritzarev, and Edwin Seroussi, eds. Levush ve-tokh: Ha-musikah be-ḥavayat ha-yahadut. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2012.
  398.  
  399. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  400.  
  401. In Hebrew and English, the articles, taking a phenomenological approach, explore the ways in which Jews experienced and conceived music as individual and as isolated communities living in Diaspora conditions, negotiating the constitution of the Jewish self through music, as represented in their thoughts and ideas about music and in its performances in Mediterranean, European, and Asian communities. Translated as “Garment and core: Jews and their musical experience.”
  402.  
  403. Find this resource:
  404.  
  405. Idelsohn, A. Z. Toldot ha-neginah ha-ʻIvrit: Mahutah yesodoteha ve-hitpatḥutah. Tel Aviv: Devir, 1924.
  406.  
  407. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  408.  
  409. Jewish national music was transmitted in oral tradition for thousands of years, and it was preserved without prescriptive rules, naturally and freely. Neither religion nor the Torah forced Jews to sing; rather, they sang when they desired, and this is the secret of the oral preservation of Jewish music. Each of the Jewish ethnic groups has its own musical system. Translated as “The history of the Jewish music, its essence, fundamentals, and development.”
  410.  
  411. Find this resource:
  412.  
  413. Shiloah, Amnon. Jewish Musical Traditions. Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992.
  414.  
  415. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  416.  
  417. The study of Jewish musical traditions requires research into its diachronic as well as its synchronic dimensions, its orality and aurality, cultural multiplicity and the influences of non-Jewish musical cultures, its diverse contexts ranging from synagogues to dance halls and from family homes to ritual celebrations, ranging from composed to folkloristic melodies as they are represented throughout the Diaspora and in Israel.
  418.  
  419. Find this resource:
  420.  
  421. Bible
  422. The formulaic oral theory revolutionized research in the study of epic poetry of the classical and medieval periods as well as in the research of non-European epic poetry. Culley 1967 is an application of the formulaic theory to the biblical psalms, demonstrating their roots in oral composition and performance.
  423.  
  424. Culley, Robert C. Oral Formulaic Language in the Biblical Psalms. Near and Middle East Series 4. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967.
  425.  
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427.  
  428. A stylistic analysis of the biblical psalms uncovers formulas that point to their oral composition and performance, according to the Parry-Lord formulaic theory.
  429.  
  430. Find this resource:
  431.  
  432. America
  433. Jewish eastern European music traditions were transferred to the United States with the waves of immigrants who arrived in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Hasidic movement is a Jewish ecstatic religion in which music plays a major part, and Koskoff 2001 is a study of music in the social life of the Lubavitch Hasidim. The klezmer music was the instrumental music that was played in Jewish eastern European family celebrations and it was transferred to the United States by a select group of musicians during the early decades of the 20th century. It was revived in the 1970s and since then has become popular in American Jewish society, as Sapoznik 1999, Slobin 2000, Slobin 2002, and Strom 2002 demonstrate.
  434.  
  435. Koskoff, Ellen. Music in Lubavitcher Life. Music in American Life. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2001.
  436.  
  437. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  438.  
  439. Ethnomusicological study reveals that music among the Lubavitcher Hasidim, a community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, centers on nigunim, paraliturgical, folk, and popular melodies that are regarded as the primary form of spiritual communication with the divine. Foreign music must be stripped from its coarse outer shell (kelipah) before it can be integrated into the musical corpus of the community.
  440.  
  441. Find this resource:
  442.  
  443. Sapoznik, Henry. Klezmer! Jewish Music from Old World to Our World. New York: Schirmer, 1999.
  444.  
  445. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  446.  
  447. The klezmer music and its musicians moved from Jewish small towns in Europe into urban popular culture there and even more so in the United States, where they found a place in Yiddish concert halls and resorts as well as in the record industry and where they enjoyed a resurgence in public culture during the last quarter of the 20th century.
  448.  
  449. Find this resource:
  450.  
  451. Slobin, Mark. Fiddler on the Move: Exploring the Klezmer World. American Musicspheres. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  452.  
  453. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  454.  
  455. Yiddish Klezmer music had a revival in America with young musicians in the 1970s and it has spread globally. It has become a heritage music that has its own community, music bands, and an audience, and it is sustained by its seductive power that draw into its circle younger people. CD attached.
  456.  
  457. Find this resource:
  458.  
  459. Slobin, Mark, ed. American Klezmer: Its Roots and Offshoots. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
  460.  
  461. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520227170.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  462.  
  463. Klezmer, the Yiddish term for the music and the musician, of Jewish eastern European popular and folk music, reached the United States with Jewish immigrants at the end of the 19th century. In America it experienced a period of decline and resurgence, which is explored in these essays that are written by scholars and musicians.
  464.  
  465. Find this resource:
  466.  
  467. Strom, Yale. The Book of Klezmer: The History, the Music, the Folklore. Chicago: Cappella, 2002.
  468.  
  469. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  470.  
  471. Music in Jewish society dates back to biblical times. The term klezmer initially meant musical instruments. It was transferred to refer to the musicians in the 18th century. In eastern Europe the klezmer musicians played in small groups at wedding celebrations, and beginning in the 1970s klezmer music was revived in the United States, where it mixed with jazz and rock music.
  472.  
  473. Find this resource:
  474.  
  475. Arab Lands
  476. Idelsohn 1973 is a summative study of ethnomusicological research among Jewish ethnic groups that began in 1905; it is a fundamental work in this field. Robert Lachmann, a Jewish-German ethnomusicologist, conducted his field research among the Jewish community of Djerba, Tunisia (Lachmann 1940). He escaped from Germany to Palestine with the rise of Nazism, but, his scholarly distinction notwithstanding, he did not become a faculty member at the Hebrew University, as documented and narrated in Katz 2003.
  477.  
  478. Idelsohn, A. Z. Thesaurus of Oriental Melodies. 4 vols. New York: Ktav, 1973.
  479.  
  480. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  481.  
  482. Recorded primarily from immigrants to then Palestine before World War I, these thousands of examples of liturgical, religious, and folk music document the music of Asian, North African, and European Jewish communities; 10 volumes reprinted in four. They include: Vol. 1: “Songs of the Yemenite Jews”; Vol. 2: “Songs of the Babylonian Jews”; Vol. 3: “Songs of the Jews of Persia, Bukhara, and Daghestan”; Vol. 4: “Songs of the Oriental Sephardim”; Vol. 5: “Songs of the Moroccan Jews”; Vol. 6: “The Synagogue Songs of the German Jews in the 18th Century”; Vol. 7: “The Traditional Songs of the South German Jews”; Vol. 8: “The Synagogue Song of the East European Jews”; Vol. 9: “The Folk Song of the East European Jews”; Vol. 10: “Songs of the Chasssidim.” Originally published in 1922–1932 (Berlin: B. Harz).
  483.  
  484. Find this resource:
  485.  
  486. Katz, Ruth. “The Lachmann Problem”: An Unsung Chapter in Comparative Musicology, Including Unpublished Letters and Lectures of Robert Lachmann. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2003.
  487.  
  488. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  489.  
  490. An historical study of Robert Lachmann (b. 1892–d. 1939), his ethno-musicological research and his relations with the Hebrew University.
  491.  
  492. Find this resource:
  493.  
  494. Lachmann, Robert. Jewish Cantillation and Song in the Isle of Djerba. Jerusalem: Archives of Oriental Music, Hebrew University, 1940.
  495.  
  496. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  497.  
  498. Liturgical cantillation, festival songs, and women’s songs were recorded on the Isle of Djerba, Tunisia, in 1929, in which performance with musical instruments was prohibited. Contrary to previous assumptions, its Jewish music does not belong to a stratum older than the Jewish music on the mainland. The Oriental Sephardic Piyyutim belong musically to the sphere of Arab urban music.
  499.  
  500. Find this resource:
  501.  
  502. Ashkenaz
  503. With the exception of Beregovski 1982, whose author studied ethnomusicological aspects of Jewish music in Ukraine during the Soviet era, this music was studied as a memory culture, as shown in Grözinger, 2004, Feldman 2003, Stutschewsky 1958, and Stutschewsky 1959. A unique study is Flam 1992, which explores the recollections of street songs in the Lodz ghetto. Geffen 1991, Rubin 1963, and Tahir-Ul-Haq 1978 emphasize folksongs in these studies.
  504.  
  505. Beregovski, Moshe. Old Jewish Folk Music: The Collections and Writings of Moshe Beregovski. Edited and translated by M. Slobin. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.
  506.  
  507. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  508.  
  509. The papers and the song and music collection of Moshe Beregovski (b. 1892–d. 1961), a leading scholar of Jewish music in Soviet Russia, who was imprisoned for his work, deal with the interaction of Ukrainian and Jewish folk music, Jewish instrumental music, the altered Dorian scale in Jewish music, and songs and scores of Jewish folk music.
  510.  
  511. Find this resource:
  512.  
  513. Bohlman, Philip Vilas, and Otto Holzapfel, eds. The Folk Songs of Ashkenaz. Recent Researchers in the Oral Traditions of Music 6. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 2001.
  514.  
  515. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  516.  
  517. These folksongs circulated in those parts of Europe where Jews spoke German and Yiddish as vernacular languages. In spite of the differences between the Jewish and the German societies, the folksongs evidence a rapprochement between them, a common culture shared by Germans and Jews and complex rather than diachotomous relations between them.
  518.  
  519. Find this resource:
  520.  
  521. Feldman, W. Z. “Remembrance of Things Past: Klezmer Musicians of Galicia, 1870–1940.” Polin 16 (2003): 29–59.
  522.  
  523. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  524.  
  525. Yermye Hescheles (b. 1910–d. 2010), originally from Gline (Glina), was the best source for information about klezmer music in Galicia. He was a poet, journalist, and former klezmer musician. In Gline, klezmer musicians retained the older social organization and the instrumental combination of the group well into the 20th century. Yet the absence of distinguished composers and performers is indicative of a lackluster tradition.
  526.  
  527. Find this resource:
  528.  
  529. Flam, Gila. Singing for Survival: Songs of the Lodz Ghetto, 1940–1945. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
  530.  
  531. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  532.  
  533. Thirty-six songs from the Lodz ghetto, which existed from 1939 to 1944, are recorded from survivors. They were sung in the ghetto on the street, at home, in the theater, and in the workplace. They express social satire and humor as well as pain and despair. Methodologically, the songs are grouped and studied in terms of the context of their performance in the ghetto.
  534.  
  535. Find this resource:
  536.  
  537. Geffen, Menashe. Gilgulei motivim be-folklor u-ve-sifrut. Jerusalem: Reuben Mas, 1991.
  538.  
  539. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  540.  
  541. Twenty-four essays about international themes and motifs that recur in Yiddish folksongs. They deal with, among subjects, broken hearts, broken marriage promises, riddles, and formulaic songs. Preface by Dov Noy. Translated as “Transformation of motifs in folklore and literature.”
  542.  
  543. Find this resource:
  544.  
  545. Grözinger, Karl-Erich, ed. Klesmer, Klassik, jiddisches Lied: Jüdische Musikkultur in Osteuropa. Jüdische Musik: Studien und Quellen zur jüdischen Musikkultur 1. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2004.
  546.  
  547. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  548.  
  549. Thirteen articles in German and three in English on the study of Jewish music and folksongs in East Europe. They deal with the history of Jewish music, pioneers in the study of music, musical analysis, relation of music to culture, and the documentation and teaching of music and folksongs.
  550.  
  551. Find this resource:
  552.  
  553. Rubin, Ruth. Voices of a People: the Story of Yiddish Folksongs. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1963.
  554.  
  555. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  556.  
  557. Includes Yiddish cradle, children, love and courtship, wedding, religious, underworld, humorous, Hasidic, working-class, and Holocaust ghetto and concentration camp songs, as well as songs of immigration to America and Zionistic songs in Yiddish and English translation together with cultural, thematic, historical, and musical analysis by Ruth Rubin (b. 1906–d. 2000); offers a panoramic view of Yiddish folksongs in eastern European Jewish life.
  558.  
  559. Find this resource:
  560.  
  561. Stutschewsky, Joachim. Folklor musikali shel yehudei mizraḥ-eiropa. Tel Aviv: Educational and Cultural Center Music Library, 1958.
  562.  
  563. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  564.  
  565. Written in response to a “scientific” anti-Semitic article claiming the absence of authentic folksongs among the dispersed Jewish tribes, Stutschewsky provides an overview of Jewish folksongs that reveals them to be emotional and sentimental, concerned with religion, peoplehood, and family, expressing sorrow and hope, escapism and optimism, irony and skepticism. Songs on topics such as religion, Hasidism, children, cradle, love, wedding, wine, recruitment, and burglary are included. Translated as “Musical folklore of eastern European Jews.”
  566.  
  567. Find this resource:
  568.  
  569. Stutschewsky, Joachim. Ha-kleizemerim: Toldotehem, ʹoraḥ-ḥayhem ve-ytzirotehem. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1959.
  570.  
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  572.  
  573. Jewish folk musicians, klezmers, could be found in Italy, Germany, Silesia, Bohemia, Hungary, Romania, Spain, and North Africa as well as in modern Jerusalem. Low in social status in eastern European Jewish society, but the subject of legends, they played in small bands in weddings and on violin, dulcimer, double bass, flute, clarinet, and drum. They employed their own slang, and their melodies expressed the Jewish spirit. Translated as “‘Klezmorim’: Jewish folk musicians: History, folklore, compositions.”
  574.  
  575. Find this resource:
  576.  
  577. Tahir-Ul-Haq, Ilona. Das Lied der Juden im Osteuropäischen Raum: Seine Funktionen im Prozeß der Erhaltung und Veränderung des sozialen und kulturellen Normensystems und in der Bewältigung aktueller Lebenssituautionen. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1978.
  578.  
  579. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  580.  
  581. Cultural-historical description and analysis of the eastern European Yiddish folksong, with a particular emphasis on the lullaby, examining its function in culture maintenance and overcoming troubling life situations drawn from history.
  582.  
  583. Find this resource:
  584.  
  585. Israel
  586. More than any other genre, songs played a vital role in the creation of a new cultural identity that the pioneers sought to foster in Eretz-Israel, and their children considered them to be their own, as they acquired knowledge of them in the educational institutions of the society prior to independence. The melodies of the songs were composed locally, and also they were brought from Diaspora countries from Jewish and non-Jewish folk and popular singing traditions or were adapted from the Arab musical tradition or that of exotic Jewish ethnic groups. Inspirational songs dealing with biblical texts, rural life, and farming the land sought to promote an ideal culture and an ideal folk life.
  587.  
  588. Transference of Musical Tradition
  589. Smoira-Roll 1963 offers a general framework for the transference of musical traditions to Israel, while Bohlmann 1989 examines the contribution of German-Jewish musicians and composers to musical life in Israel.
  590.  
  591. Bohlmann, Philip Vilas. “The Land Where Two Streams Flow”: Music in the German-Jewish Community in Israel. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.
  592.  
  593. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  594.  
  595. The German Jewish community in Israel contributed to the musical life of modern Israel through dynamic interaction with other immigrant groups, and they helped to make the new musical culture truly national in scope. Influenced by contradictory forces such as orthodoxy and emancipation and religion and secularism, they created a world center for Jewish music in Israel and an urban musical culture in Israel itself.
  596.  
  597. Find this resource:
  598.  
  599. Smoira-Roll, Michal. Folk Song in Israel: An Analysis Attempted. Tel Aviv: Israel Music Institute, 1963.
  600.  
  601. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  602.  
  603. Four factors contribute to the special character of Israeli musical culture: antiquity of tradition, national renewal, ethnic diversity, and the dominance of Western culture in an eastern country.
  604.  
  605. Find this resource:
  606.  
  607. The Eretz-Israel Songs
  608. The musical and song culture that developed during the “Yishuv” period in what was then Palestine embodied the Zionistic ideals in music and words and became the musical culture of the second generation of Jewish immigrants to the country. Cohen and Katz 1977 is a computer-aided analysis of this music, while Hirshberg 1995 examines the social and cultural context of this music. Eliram 2006, Eliram 2010, and Reshef 2004 establish the genre in musical and literary terms, and Nathan 1994, Shahar 1993, and Shahar 1994 examine this song tradition politically in terms of the institutions that promoted the music, while Shahar 2006 proposes a periodization of this music. Regev and Seroussi 2004 offers a sociological and historical analysis.
  609.  
  610. Cohen, Dalia, and Ruth Katz. The Israeli Folk Song: A Methodological Example of Computer Analysis of Monophonic Music. Yuval Monograph Series 6. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1977.
  611.  
  612. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  613.  
  614. Computer-aided stylistic analysis of Israeli folk music whose composers sought by means of tonal organization to reflect both the people’s attachment to the land and the ingathering of the exiles. The songs are connected with festivals and folk dancing, and the analysis examines the uniqueness of their melodic aspects.
  615.  
  616. Find this resource:
  617.  
  618. Eliram, Talila. Bo shir ʽivri: Shirei eretz israel, hebetim muzikalyim ve-ḥevratim. Haifa, Israel: Haifa University Press, 2006.
  619.  
  620. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  621.  
  622. “Shirei Eretz Israel” (songs of the Land of Israel), or “Israeli folksongs,” are a defining feature of Israeli culture. From Israeli perspectives they are considered indigenous, authentic, and unique musical language, foreign influences upon it notwithstanding. Musically, 80 percent are in minor mode. Land, history and heroism are the dominant themes. Performed in public gatherings, they foster communal cohesiveness and nostalgia. Translated as “‘Come, Thou Hebrew Song’: The songs of the land of Israel: Musical and social aspects.”
  623.  
  624. Find this resource:
  625.  
  626. Eliram, Talila, ed. Special Issue: Ha-Zemer Ha-Yisraeli. Panim: Quarterly for Society, Culture and Education. No 52–53 (December 2010).
  627.  
  628. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  629.  
  630. The Israeli song is one of the prominent distinctive features of the culture that was created in Eretz-Israel in the 20th century. Introduced by pioneering immigrants and continued in the educational system, undergoing historical, ethnic, and social transformations, the song is still a significant defining feature of Israeli society. Twenty-four essays explore this tradition, historically, socially, and musically. Translated as “The Israeli song.”
  631.  
  632. Find this resource:
  633.  
  634. Hirshberg, Jehoash. Music in the Jewish Community of Palestine, 1880–1948: A Social History. Oxford: Clarendon, 1995.
  635.  
  636. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  637.  
  638. The social history of music in the Jewish community in Palestine involves folksongs and dances, vested in Zionistic ideology, that extol the spirit of the pioneer settlers, romanticize the scenery of the land, enhance the revival of Hebrew, and, through communal singing, promote social and national cohesion.
  639.  
  640. Find this resource:
  641.  
  642. Nathan, Hans, ed. Israeli Folk Music: Songs of the Early Pioneers. Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music 4. Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1994.
  643.  
  644. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  645.  
  646. The invention of the Israeli folk song and music occurred through the discovery and transformation, first, of Yiddish and, then, of Palestinian music, representing the spirit of Zionism. The Jewish National Fund had distributed postcards with folksongs written and composed by immigrant eastern European artists in the 1920s and 1930s. These were arranged by modern composers. “Forward” and “Afterword” by Philip Vilas Bohlman.
  647.  
  648. Find this resource:
  649.  
  650. Regev, Motti, and Edwin Seroussi. Popular Music and National Culture in Israel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
  651.  
  652. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  653.  
  654. A sociologist and an ethnomusicologist explore popular music in the Israeli context as an arena of contest and struggle among several musical genres and styles. They relate popular music to national ideology as it emerged historically in “Shirei Eretz Yisrael,” the Yishuv, and early statehood period, the army ensembles, the popular song festivals, and in Israeli rock and musiqa mizrahit.
  655.  
  656. Find this resource:
  657.  
  658. Reshef, Yael. Ha-zemer ha-ʽivri bereshito: Perek be-toldot ha-ʽivrit ha-ḥadashah. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2004.
  659.  
  660. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  661.  
  662. The song was a major component in Yishuv culture, language, and values, and therefore the language used in songs had a central role in their development. The genre is described in the context of a holistic description of language in society. Translated as “The early Hebrew folksong: A chapter in the history of modern Hebrew.”
  663.  
  664. Find this resource:
  665.  
  666. Shahar, Natan. “The Eretz Israeli Song and the Jewish National Fund.” In Modern Jews and Their Musical Agendas. Edited by Ezra Mendelsohn, 78–91. Studies in Contemporary Jewry Annual 9. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
  667.  
  668. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  669.  
  670. The Jewish National Fund promoted the Eretz Israeli songs in two ways: production of songbooks and phonograph records and of festivals that conformed with modern Zionist ideology. The songs had characteristic features of the Eretz Israeli songs: pastoral motifs, augmented second that evoked a Middle Eastern sound, and epic intervals.
  671.  
  672. Find this resource:
  673.  
  674. Shahar, Natan. Ha-shir ha-eretz-yisraeli ve-keren kayemet l-yisrael. Research Series 1. Jerusalem: Research Institute for the History of the Keren Kayemeth Leisrael Land Settlement, 1994.
  675.  
  676. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  677.  
  678. The Eretz-Israeli song was used as an instrument of propaganda and to raise funds in two main spheres of action: (1) commissioning and disseminating in print and sound records of songs expressing Zionistic ideology, and (2) giving form and content to holidays, festivals, and days of commemoration. Translated as “The Eretz-Israeli song and the Jewish National Fund.”
  679.  
  680. Find this resource:
  681.  
  682. Shahar, Natan. Shir shir ʽaleh-na: Toldot ha-zemer ha-ʽvri. Moshav Ben-Shemen, Israel: Modan, 2006.
  683.  
  684. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  685.  
  686. Historical, social, literary, and musical description of five periods in the history of the Hebrew song: 1(1882–1903); 2 (1904–1923); 3 (1924–1948); 4 (1949–1967); 5 (1968–1990). Translated as “Song O song rise and soar.”
  687.  
  688. Find this resource:
  689.  
  690. Oriental Music in Israel
  691. The oriental music in Israel emerged as a counter-culture movement performed and produced by musicians who were first-generation and second-generation immigrants from Arab lands and whose performance was initially rejected by the Yishuv establishment (see Horowitz 1999, Horowitz 2010, Regev 1996, and Regev 2000). Shiloah and Cohen 1983 offers a typology of oriental music in Israeli society.
  692.  
  693. Horowitz, Amy. “Israeli Mediterranean Music: Straddling Disputed Territories.” Journal of American Folklore 112.445 (1999): 450–463.
  694.  
  695. DOI: 10.2307/541372Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  696.  
  697. Israeli Mediterranean music is a contemporary hybrid music genre created by oriental, African, and Asian Jews. First sold in cassette form in Tel Aviv’s outdoor marketplaces, it was rejected by the Eurocentric Israeli music industry, yet in the 1990s it infiltrated the Israeli mainstream music and created a hybrid sound that has challenged its marginalization and reset the boundaries of national identity.
  698.  
  699. Find this resource:
  700.  
  701. Horowitz, Amy. Mediterranean Israeli Music and the Politics of the Aesthetic. Raphael Patai Series of Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010.
  702.  
  703. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  704.  
  705. Between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s Mediterranean Israeli music emerged countering the music of Shirei Eretz Yisrael (Regev 2000) (see also Eliram 2006, Eliram 2010, Hirshberg 1995, Nathan 1994, Regev and Seroussi 2004, Reshef 2004, Shahar 1993, Shahar 1994, and Shahar 2006, all cited under the Eretz-Israel Songs) with multiple ethnic voices, employing new recording technologies, and setting folklore within the frameworks of nationalism, ethnicity and the politics of aesthetics.
  706.  
  707. Find this resource:
  708.  
  709. Regev, Motti. “Musica Mizrakhit, Israeli Rock and National Culture in Israel.” Popular Music 15 (1996): 275–284.
  710.  
  711. DOI: 10.1017/S0261143000008278Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  712.  
  713. “National” music is basically a constructed phenomenon. Popular music has become one of the “ideoscapes” that characterize the current global musical scene. Processes of hybridization and creolization make the existence of “pure” authentic, ethnic, or national music culturally impossible. After the historical articulation of Russian song into Shirei Eretz Israel, the “Israeliness” of musica mizrakhit became an inherent trait of Israeli music.
  714.  
  715. Find this resource:
  716.  
  717. Regev, Motti. “To Have a Culture of Our Own.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 23.2 (2000): 223–247.
  718.  
  719. DOI: 10.1080/014198700329033Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  720.  
  721. Hebrewism, globalized Israeliness, and Mizrakhiut are three major variants of Israeliness, and they are engaged in a struggle over dominance in national culture. Each is committed, albeit in a different way, to the belief in the idea of “one nation, one culture” and to the construction of a single, unique “Israeli culture.”
  722.  
  723. Find this resource:
  724.  
  725. Shiloah, A., and E. Cohen. “The Dynamics of Change in Jewish Oriental Ethnic Music in Israel.” Ethnomusicology 27 (1983): 227–252.
  726.  
  727. DOI: 10.2307/851076Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  728.  
  729. A typology of stylistic dynamics in Jewish Oriental music in Israel considers four variables: Perpetuation versus innovation; orthogenesis versus heterogensis; internal versus external audience, and spontaneous versus sponsored musical production. A nine-fold cross-classification of these features represents an important development in ethnic music in Israel: (1) traditional, (2) conserved, (3) museum preserved, (4) neotraditional, (5) transitional, (6) pseudoethnic, (7) popular, (8) ethnic fine, (9) fine.
  730.  
  731. Find this resource:
  732.  
  733. Sepharad
  734. Judeo-Spanish folk poetry is one of the most dynamic subject in Jewish folklore studies. Armistead, et al. 1978 and Catalán, et al. 1982–1984 provide typological-thematic classification systems of this body of poetry, while Alexander, et al. 1994 and Romeralo, et al. 1979 are collections of essays addressing some of the basic issues in the study of Judeo-Spanish balladry. Salama 2009 deals with women’s spirituality and balladry, and Refael 1998 is an analytical survey of the scholarship in this field as it stood at the end of the 20th century.
  735.  
  736. Alexander, Tamar, Abraham Haim, Galit Hasan-Rokem, and Ephraim Hazan, eds. History and Creativity: In the Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Communities: The Third International Congress for Research on Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Heritage. Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim, Institute for Research on the Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Heritage, 1994.
  737.  
  738. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  739.  
  740. The English section of this volume includes six essays on Judeo-Spanish folk poetry (pp. 85–174) that deal with Sephardic romancero in the Iberian Peninsula, narrative themes in the romancero, feminine transgression and narrative structure of the romance, adultery and intermarriage in Judeo-Spanish ballads, a Passover copla, and a traditional Sephardic cancion.
  741.  
  742. Find this resource:
  743.  
  744. Armistead, Samuel G., S. Margaretten, P. Montero, and A. Valenciano. El romancero judeo-español en el Archivo Menendez Pidal: Catálogo-índice de romances y canciones). 4 vols. Madrid: Catedra-seminario Menendez Pidal, 1978.
  745.  
  746. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  747.  
  748. The standard classificatory system of Judeo-Spanish balladry and romances consists of twenty-four thematic categories into which all the Judeo-Spanish poems belonging to the Menéndez Pidal Archive are classified.
  749.  
  750. Find this resource:
  751.  
  752. Catalán, Diego, Samuel G. Armistead, and A. S. Romeralo, eds. El romancero en la tradición oral moderna: 1.er coloquio internacional: Cátedra-Seminario Menéndez Pidal y Rectorado de la Universidad de Madrid. Romancero y Poesía Oral 1. Madrid: Cátedra-Seminario Menéndez Pidal y Rectorado de la Universidad de Madrid, 1972.
  753.  
  754. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  755.  
  756. Essays and discussions about current research on the Judeo-Spanish romancero and its relation to Spanish oral tradition in general.
  757.  
  758. Find this resource:
  759.  
  760. Catalán, Diego, J. A. Cid, B. Mariscal, F. Salazar, A. Valenciano, and S. Robertson. Catálogo general del romancero. 3 vols. Madrid: Seminario Menéndez-Pidal, 1982–1984.
  761.  
  762. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  763.  
  764. The pan-Hispanic catalogue includes texts that were recorded from oral tradition during the 19th and the 20th centuries and includes eighty-two themes that are recurrent in the Hispanic tradition without consideration of their origin, presented in terms of their diffusion and popularity. Volumes include: (1) “A Teoría general y metodología del romancero pan-Hispánico catálogo general descriptivo,” (2) “El romancero pan-Hispánico catálogo general descriptive”, (3) “El romancero pan-Hispánico catálogo general descriptive.”
  765.  
  766. Find this resource:
  767.  
  768. Refael, S. Ha-abir ve-ha-raʽayah ha-shvuyah: Meḥkar ba-romansah shel dovrei ha-ladino. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University, 1998.
  769.  
  770. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  771.  
  772. An examination, in three parts, of the literary history of the Spanish and the Jewish-Spanish poetic romance, their respective research, with particular emphasis on the Judeo-Spanish romance in Salonika, Greece, and two female heroines who figure in this tradition, namely Helen of Troy and the biblical Dina, Jacob’s daughter. A valuable bibliography of 423 entries. Translated as “The knight and the captive lady: A study of the Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) romance.”
  773.  
  774. Find this resource:
  775.  
  776. Romeralo, Antonio S., Diego Catalán, and Samuel G. Armistead, eds. El romancero hoy: Nuevas fronteras. 2.˚ Coloquio Internacional, University of California, Davis. Romancero y poesía oral 2–4. Madrid: Catedra Seminario Menendez Pidal, 1979.
  777.  
  778. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  779.  
  780. Also see El romancero hoy: Poética and El romancero hoy: Historia, comparatismo, bibliografía critíca. A collection of seminal articles on the Hispanic ballad traditions: “The Sephardic Ballad After the Latest Diaspora,” “Narrative Poetry in Hispanic America and the United States,” “The Spanish Tradition: Prospects of a New Exploration,” and “Musical Transcriptions,” “The Creative Process in Traditional Discourse,” “Structural Patterns,” “Medieval and Renaissance Topics,” “Comparative Studies.” Valuable bibliographies.
  781.  
  782. Find this resource:
  783.  
  784. Salama, Messod. “Judeo-Spanish Romances as a Source of Women’s Spirituality.” In Languages and Literatures of the Sephardic and Oriental Jews. Proceedings of the Six International Congress for Research on the Sephardi and Oriental Jewish Heritage, Jerusalem, 2000. Edited by D. Bunis, 362–379. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute/Misgav Yerushalaim, 2009.
  785.  
  786. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  787.  
  788. Religious romances allowed women to expand their religious parameters and reflected a search for supplementary devotional material.
  789.  
  790. Find this resource:
  791.  
  792. Collections of Folksongs
  793. Collecting folksongs produced a musical and verbal dimension of Jewish culture that was represented neither in script nor in print until then, being performed orally in secular contexts in Jewish societies. While the musicians were primarily men, the singers were mostly women, who sang about a broad thematic range of personal and family affairs from lullabies to love songs, from marriage to separation, from undesired matching to longing for non-Jewish lovers. Economic hardship and communal tragedies also figure in these songs. The influence of non-Jewish traditions is apparent in the melodies and texts, which include translations and adaptations of popular songs in Europe and Arab lands and later in America. Collection of folk songs began toward the end of the 19th century in the communities of Ashkenaz and Sepharad, and it continued well into the 20th century, expanding to the Jewish communities in Arab lands.
  794.  
  795. America
  796. Eastern European Jewish immigrants to America continued creating, performing, and publishing songs in their new land as they had done in their towns of origin, as Slobin 1982 shows.
  797.  
  798. Slobin, Mark. Tenement Songs: The Popular Music of the Jewish Immigrants. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982.
  799.  
  800. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  801.  
  802. At the peak of the great Jewish emigration from eastern Europe, from approximately 1880 to 1920, a popular singing culture flourished in the New York tenements of the immigrants. Sheet music was the major medium for the transmission and dissemination of music and songs that expressed their frustrations and joys, longings and hopes. Composers and writers helped the community to adjust to life in its new surroundings.
  803.  
  804. Find this resource:
  805.  
  806. Arab Lands
  807. Jewish-Arab culture reflected Arab society: Women were the primary singers, as is evident in Avishur 1986, a collection from Iraq, and Gamlieli 1996, a collection from Yemen.
  808.  
  809. Avishur, Yitzhak, ed. and trans. Shirat ha-nashim: Shirei ʽam be-ʽaravit-yehudit shel yehudei Iraq. Or Yehudah, Israel: Iraqi Jews Traditional Culture Center, 1986.
  810.  
  811. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  812.  
  813. The songs from nineteenth century manuscripts and from oral traditions are lullabies, children songs, wedding songs, pilgrimage (ziyāra) songs, and lamentations and dirges. Translated as “Women’s folk songs in Judeao-Arabic from Jews in Iraq.”
  814.  
  815. Find this resource:
  816.  
  817. Gamlieli, Nissim B., ed. and trans. ʹAhavat teiman: ha-shirah ha-′amamit ha-teimanit, shirat ha-nashim. Tel Aviv: Afikim, 1996.
  818.  
  819. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  820.  
  821. Treats songs about love, pleasures, breakup and reconciliation, departure and farewell, sorrow, abusive husbands and escape, polygamy, mothers-in-law, weddings, and ballads and romances. Translated as “Folk poetry and songs of the Yemenite Jewish women.”
  822.  
  823. Find this resource:
  824.  
  825. Ashkenaz
  826. Ginzburg and Marek 1991 (originally published in 1901) is the first collection of Yiddish folksongs in eastern Europe. The publication of this volume set trend in Jewish folksong research, and field research and publications followed. Bastomski 1923 and Mlotek 1972 are collections with educational goals, while Cahan 1957 and Pipe 1971 were both published posthumously. The former is a summative anthology of Cahan’s lifetime folksong collecting, and the latter is a collection of one of his students in YIVO who perished in the Holocaust. Mlotek and Slobin 2007 and Vinkovetzky, et al. 1985 are collections that survived World War II, the first through oral transmission and the second as an archive.
  827.  
  828. Bastomski, S. Baym kval: Materialn tsum yidishn folklor: Yidishe folkslider. Vilnius, Lithuania: Naye Yidishe Folksshul, 1923.
  829.  
  830. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  831.  
  832. The introduction asserts a romantic attitude to folksongs in considering the folk to be their author and to reflect the folk’s soul. They have both historic and ethnographic value. Included are lullabies, children songs, school songs, love songs, ballads, wedding songs, family songs, soldier songs, historical songs, work songs, holiday songs, religious, national and Hasidic songs, parodies, satires, Jewish songs in other languages, and war songs. Translated as “At the source: Materials for Yiddish folklore: Yiddish folksongs.”
  833.  
  834. Find this resource:
  835.  
  836. Cahan, Y. L. Yidishe folkslider mit melodyes. Edited by Max Weinreich. New York: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, 1957.
  837.  
  838. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  839.  
  840. A collection of 560 folksongs, collected and previously published in two volumes and in journals in 1912, 1927–1928, and 1931, rearranged in fourteen chapters. Includes ballads and songs dealing with love, dance, weddings, the family, lullabies, children, conscripts and soldiers, workmen, religion, riddles, humor, and Purim as well as miscellaneous songs. Translated as “Yiddish folksongs with melodies.”
  841.  
  842. Find this resource:
  843.  
  844. Ginzburg, S. M., and P. S. Marek, eds. Yiddish Folksongs in Russian: Photo Reproduction of the 1901 St. Petersburg Edition. Edited by Dov Noy. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar Ilan University Press, 1991.
  845.  
  846. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  847.  
  848. Selected from 3,000 songs submitted in response to public request, these 376 songs, published in Yiddish and Latin transliteration, make up the first systematic collection of Yiddish folksongs. They are about holidays, history, lullabies, children, love, courtship, weddings, family, everyday life, soldiers, and miscellaneous. Includes translation of Russian original texts: Introduction by Lila Holzman; notes to introduction and songs by Galia Polanski.
  849.  
  850. Find this resource:
  851.  
  852. Mlotek, Ellen G. Mir Trogen a Gezang! Favorite Yiddish Songs of Our Generation with Yiddish Texts and Music. New York: Education Department of the Workmen’s Circle, 1972.
  853.  
  854. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  855.  
  856. A sampling of folk and popular songs from previous collections, rare publications, and unpublished manuscripts that were selected on the basis of popularity and historical significance, and they are about love and courtship, work, poverty and struggle, fantasies, and immigration to America. Included also are national songs and children and lyrical songs.
  857.  
  858. Find this resource:
  859.  
  860. Mlotek, Ellen, and Mark Slobin, eds. Yiddish Folksongs from the Ruth Rubin Archive. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007.
  861.  
  862. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  863.  
  864. Ruth Rubin (b. 1906–d. 1999) recorded these Yiddish songs from Holocaust survivors who arrived in New York. The songs, in Yiddish Roman transcription, English translation and musical scores, are love songs and ballads and lullabies about weddings, children, and work as well as dancing, soldier, Hasidic and anti-Hasidic, topical, and underworld songs. Published in cooperation with the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.
  865.  
  866. Find this resource:
  867.  
  868. Pipe, Shmuel Zanvel. Shirei-′am yehudiim mi-galitsiyah/ yidishe folkslider fun galitsye/”der arbiter le-David Edelstad/ David Edelshtates “deer arbiter”/ mikhtavim/briv. Edited by Dov Noy and Me’ir Noy. Folklore Research Center Studies 2. Jerusalem: Folklore Research Center, Hebrew University, 1971.
  869.  
  870. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  871.  
  872. This previously unpublished collection of texts of the folklorist Shmuel Zanvel Pipe (b. 1907–d. 1943) includes 187 folksongs that were recorded in Galicia, Poland, in the 1930s, accompanied by musical scores and comparative notes, a study of the poem “The Worker” by David Edelstadt, and 150 letters. Translated as “Yiddish folksongs from Galicia: The folklorization of David Edelstadt’s songs “der arbiter”: Letters.”
  873.  
  874. Find this resource:
  875.  
  876. Vinkovetzky, A., A. Kovner, and S. Leichter, eds. Anthology of Yiddish Folksongs. 4 vols. Jerusalem: Mount Scopus Publications, 1985.
  877.  
  878. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  879.  
  880. Songs of love, cradle, children, family, weddings and festivals, humor and satire, Hassidim, a variety of languages, poverty, soldiers, struggle, ghetto and partisans, religion, and Zionism, each with its musical score, Yiddish text, Hebrew and Roman transcription, Hebrew translation and brief English translation. The 340 songs are primarily from the collection that Vinkovetzky brought to Israel from St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) in 1979.
  881.  
  882. Find this resource:
  883.  
  884. Israel
  885. The Eretz-Israel song first appeared in print in locally published pamphlets, booklets, and educational publications. Now the songs are available in an archive online. It includes a comprehensive collection of the texts, musical notes, and sample performances of the Hebrew songs of Eretz Israel.
  886.  
  887. Sepharad
  888. The study of Judeo-Spanish folksongs, in general, and balladry and romances, in particular, grew greatly in the 20th century. The collections of these folksongs encompass the entire Sepharedic dispersions or focus on specific regions or countries, such as Morocco or the eastern Mediterranean.
  889.  
  890. The Sephardic Dispersion
  891. During the second half of the 20th century the team of Armistead, Silverman, and Katz was the most active in researching Judeo-Spanish folksongs. They recorded more than 1,400 songs in the United States, North Africa, the Balkan countries, Turkey, and Israel, and they inspired colleagues and students to carry out documentation and analysis of this oral tradition as it was available from aging singers. They planned a twenty-two volume series of comprehensive and comparative annotations of the songs they recorded, but they were able to publish only a small fraction of their collection (Armistead and Silverman 1971; Armistead, et al. 1979; Armistead, et al. 1986; Armistead, et al. 1994; Armistead, et al. 2005; Armistead, et al. 2008). Some works concentrate on singers (Benmayor 1979, Librowicz 1980, Pomeroy 2005) and others on ritual (Alvar 1971) or age groups (Weich-Shahak 2001).
  892.  
  893. Alvar, Manuel. Cantos de boda judeo-españoles. Publicaciones de Estudios Sefardíes 1. Madrid: Instituto arias Montano, 1971.
  894.  
  895. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  896.  
  897. A study and a collection of wedding songs exploring their literary and folkloric aspects and their versification, themes, and transmission, concluding with their linguistic analysis and their texts and musical notations. Musical notations by M. T. Rubiato.
  898.  
  899. Find this resource:
  900.  
  901. Armistead, Samuel G., and Joseph H. Silverman. The Judeo-Spanish Ballad Chapbooks of Yacob Abraham Yoná. Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews 1. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.
  902.  
  903. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  904.  
  905. The editor, a printer and a book peddler of ballad chapbooks, Yacob Abraham Yoná (b. 1847–d. 1922), was born in Monastir (former Yugoslavia), currently Bitola, and moved to Salonika, Greece. Twenty-seven ballads from eight of his chapbooks are transliterated and translated to English and accompanied by literary, linguistic, and historical analysis. Extensive bibliography concludes the volume.
  906.  
  907. Find this resource:
  908.  
  909. Armistead, Samuel G., Joseph H. Silverman, and Israel J. Katz. Tres calas en el romancero Sefardí: Rodas, Jerusalém, Estados Unidos. Prologue by Ramón Menéndez Pidal. Madrid: Editorial Castalia, 1979.
  910.  
  911. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  912.  
  913. Ten Sephardic romances from each of the Sephardic enclaves in Rhodes, Jerusalem, and the United States, available in manuscripts and oral tradition from elderly Sephardim singers who are part of the last generation to sing ballads faithfully and within the traditional chain of transmission. Comprehensive annotation, extensive bibliography, and classificatory index accompany the texts.
  914.  
  915. Find this resource:
  916.  
  917. Armistead, Samuel G., and Joseph H. Silverman, and Israel J. Katz. Judeo-Spanish Ballads from Oral Tradition: I: Epic Ballads. Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews 2. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.
  918.  
  919. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  920.  
  921. This volume is the second in the series and the first to include songs from the authors’ extensive project that began in 1957, consisting of 1,485 texts that they recorded in the United States, North Africa, the Balkan Peninsula, Turkey, and Israel. In the six epic ballads of this volume medieval Spanish occurs together with other languages of the Sephardic dispersion.
  922.  
  923. Find this resource:
  924.  
  925. Armistead, Samuel G., Joseph H. Silverman, and Israel J. Katz. Judeo-Spanish Ballads from Oral Tradition: II Carolingian Ballads, (1): Ronesvalles. Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews 3. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
  926.  
  927. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  928.  
  929. The third volume in the series, following the established format, consists of three chapters that include ballads on “Aymeri of Narbonne,” “The Battle of Roncevaux,” “The Wedding Feast in Paris,” “The Captivity of Guarinos,” “Lady Alda’s Dream,” and “The Death of Don Beltrán.”
  930.  
  931. Find this resource:
  932.  
  933. Armistead, Samuel G., Joseph H. Silverman, and Israel J. Katz. Judeo-Spanish Ballads from Oral Tradition: IV: Carolingian Ballads (3): Gaiferos. Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews 5. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2005.
  934.  
  935. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  936.  
  937. All three ballads: (1) “Gaiferos y Melisenda,” (2) “Melisenda insomme,” and (3) “Melisenda sale de los baños” share a Carolingian milieu, and the first two exhibit a strong epic underpinning. The third ballad, “Melisenda sale de los baños,” has an elusive connection with the song the false messiah Shabbethai Zevi sung in Izmir in 1665.
  938.  
  939. Find this resource:
  940.  
  941. Armistead, Samuel G., Joseph H. Silverman, and Israel J. Katz. Judeo-Spanish Ballads from Oral Tradition: III: Carolingian Ballads (2): Conde Claros. Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews 4. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2008.
  942.  
  943. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  944.  
  945. The fourth volume in the series, following the established format, consists of two chapters: “Conde Claros ye el emperador (á-e) + Conde Claros insomne (á) + La jactancia del conde Vélez (ó) (Count Carlos and the Emperor + Sleepless Count Claros + Count Vélez’s Boast” and ”El nacimiento de Bernardo del Carpio.”
  946.  
  947. Find this resource:
  948.  
  949. Benmayor, Rina. Romances judeo-españoles de oriente: Nueva recolección: Musical transcription, Judith H. Mauleón. Fuentes para el estudio del romancero series Sefardí (F. E. R. S.) 5. Madrid: Cátedra-Seminario Menéndez Pidal Editorial Greddos, 1979.
  950.  
  951. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  952.  
  953. Twenty-three romances recorded from women singers, residents of Los Angeles and Seattle, but native to Mediterranean countries.
  954.  
  955. Find this resource:
  956.  
  957. Librowicz, Oro Anahory, ed. Florilegio de romances sefardíes de la diáspora (una colección malaguñe). Fuentes para el Estudio del Romancero Serie Sefardi (F. E. R. S.) 6. Madrid: Cátedra-Seminario Menéndez Pidal, 1980.
  958.  
  959. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  960.  
  961. Thirty-three romances recorded from seven singers; however, most of them were sung by Simy Salama de Anahory from Málaga.
  962.  
  963. Find this resource:
  964.  
  965. Pomeroy, Hilary S. An Edition and Study of the Secular Ballads in the Sephardic Ballad Notebook of Halia Isaac Cohen. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2005.
  966.  
  967. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  968.  
  969. Halia Isaac Coen (d. 1948) from Tangier, Morocco, copied into her notebook ballads of exceptional quality. They are from either written or oral sources. They link to early epic texts. Several of them are exclusive to the Moroccan tradition in which many ballads have positive endings. Each of the forty-six ballads in the collection is accompanied by analytical commentary.
  970.  
  971. Find this resource:
  972.  
  973. Weich-Shahak, Susana. Repertorio tradicional infantil sefardí: Retahilas, juegos, canciones y romances de tradición oral. Madrid: Compañía Literaria, 2001.
  974.  
  975. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  976.  
  977. Recorded from 1975 to 1999 in Israel, and in Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Macedonia, Morocco, Spain, and Turkey, the Sephardic children’s songs in this book are defined and classified and analyzed functionally and comparatively in relation to other traditions in Jewish and crypto-Jewish sources and in neighboring cultures. With critical studies by Ana Pelegrín.
  978.  
  979. Find this resource:
  980.  
  981. Morocco
  982. The recording of Moroccan Judeo-Spanish singing tradition was conducted in Israel (Weich-Shahak 1989, Weich-Shahak 1997) and in Morocco (Larrea Palacín 1952–1954). The recorded singing tradition expands generically into ritualistic songs (Larrea Palacín 1952–1954, Weich-Shahak 1989) and also includes romances that are at the core of the Judeo-Spanish tradition of folk poetry (Larrea Palacín 1952–1954 and Weich-Shahak 1997).
  983.  
  984. Larrea Palacín, Arcadio de. Concionero judio del Norte de Marruecos. 3 vols. Madrid: Instituto de Etudios Africanos, 1952–1954.
  985.  
  986. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  987.  
  988. Text and music, mostly from the oral tradition of the Jews of Tetuan, Morocco. Includes Vol. 1: “Romances de Tetuan”; Vol. 2: “Romances de Tetuan”; Vol. 3: “Canciones rituales hispano-judiás: Celebraciones familiares de transito y ciclo festivo annual.”
  989.  
  990. Find this resource:
  991.  
  992. Weich-Shahak, Susana. Judeo-Spanish Moroccan Songs of the Life Cycle: Cantares judeo españoles de Marruecos para el ciclo de la vida. Jerusalem: Jewish Music Research Center of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1989.
  993.  
  994. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  995.  
  996. A total of thirty-two Judeo-Spanish songs (in fifty different versions) related to life-cycle rituals and celebrations, recorded from the oral traditions of Jews from Tetuan, Tangier, Arcila, Larache, and Alcazarquivir, Morocco.
  997.  
  998. Find this resource:
  999.  
  1000. Weich-Shahak, Susana. Romancero Sefardí de Marruecos: Antología de tradición oral. Madrid: Editorial Alpuerto, 1997.
  1001.  
  1002. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1003.  
  1004. Included among the eighty-four songs that were sung by women singers from Morocco, and were recorded in Israel, are epic, biblical, Carolingian and historical, and classical ballads, as well as different love songs, songs about captives and prisoners, and other traditional ballad themes.
  1005.  
  1006. Find this resource:
  1007.  
  1008. Eastern Mediterranean
  1009. The songs were recorded in Jerusalem mostly from immigrant singers (Attias 1972, Attias 1957, and Hemsi 1995), making the eastern Mediterranean an emerging cultural area of Judeo-Spanish folksongs.
  1010.  
  1011. Attias, Moshe. Romansero sefaradi: Romasnot ve-shirei bi-yehudit sefaradit. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 1957.
  1012.  
  1013. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1014.  
  1015. The Judeo-Spanish romances, which were recorded in Jerusalem during the period 1930–1940 from four singers from Salonika and Larissa, are divided into eight chapters, concerning Bible tales, holidays, ninth of Av, wedding songs, women-in-labor songs, and longing for Zion, and romances that were composed before and after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Translated as “Romancero Sefaradi: Texts in Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, and Spanish.”
  1016.  
  1017. Find this resource:
  1018.  
  1019. Attias, Moshe. Kansionero Yehudi-sefaradi: Shirei ʽam be-yehudit-sefaradit. Jerusalem: Centro de Estodios Sobre el Judaismo de Salónica, Tel Aviv, 1972.
  1020.  
  1021. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1022.  
  1023. Written down from memory, as sung by the author’s mother, and recorded in Jerusalem from old women who immigrated from Salonika, Sarajevo, and Smyrna and supplemented by poems sung by a blind girl in Jerusalem and by others from notebooks and manuscripts, the 148 canciones are a sample of Judeo-Spanish oral love poetry.
  1024.  
  1025. Find this resource:
  1026.  
  1027. Hemsi, Alberto. Cancionero sefardí. Edited by Edwin Seroussi. Jerusalem: Jewish Music Research Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1995.
  1028.  
  1029. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1030.  
  1031. A critical edition of the song collection from the eastern Sephardic traditional poetry of Alberto Hemsi (b. 1897–d. 1975) that includes 171 texts of romances (67), canciones (6 parida, 2 infantiles, 36 amor, 20 boda, 8 pasatiempo, 5 muerte), coplas (20), and oraciones en ladino (7), including sixty musical annotations. In collaboration with Paloma Díaz-Mas, José Manuel Pedrosa, and Elena Romero. Postscript by Samuel G. Armistead.
  1032.  
  1033. Find this resource:
  1034.  
  1035. Studies of Folktales and Fables
  1036. The folklore genres of prose narratives are available in Jewish culture from the earliest known documents to modern times, and they have been one of the most intensely studied forms of Jewish folklore. The texts occur in variable proximity to their oral performance, with thematic expansion, continuity, and transformation. Scholars of Jewish studies, in general, and folklorists, in particular, developed for their research standards research tools such as encyclopedias, bibliographies, and guide books, and they applied to their study relevant theories and methods, exploring the tales and fables in historical texts and in current oral traditions of Jewish ethnic groups. Hebrew was and is the core historical language of Jewish folktales. Yassif 1999 provides an analysis of the earliest documented folktales in Hebrew through their thematic, generic, structural, and functional transformations in subsequent periods. Alexander-Frizer 2008 (cited under Tales of Mortals and Demons: Sepharad) is a similar study of Jewish folktales in Judeo-Spanish, but the Jewish folktales in Yiddish and in the dialects of Judeo-Arabic still present a scholarly challenge.
  1037.  
  1038. Yassif, Eli. The Hebrew Folktale: History, Genre, Meaning. Translated by J. S. Teitelbaum. Folklore Studies in Translation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
  1039.  
  1040. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1041.  
  1042. A literary history of the Jewish folktale in Hebrew from the biblical through the Second Temple, rabbinical, medieval, and modern periods that analyzes its genres of myth, legend, fable, examplum, fairytales, novella, and humor in terms of their meanings, structure, and function.
  1043.  
  1044. Find this resource:
  1045.  
  1046. Encyclopedias, bibliographies, and Indexes
  1047. The entries in Elstein, et al. 2004–2013 consist of identifiable narrative themes that recur in the historical periods of Jewish traditions, listing all their known sources and analyzing their literary and thematic transformations.
  1048.  
  1049. Elstein, Y., A. Lipsker, and R. Kushelevsky, eds. Encyclopedia of the Jewish Story: Sippur Okev Sippur. Thema: A Series of Thematological Studies in the Literature of the Jewish People. 3 vols. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2004–2013.
  1050.  
  1051. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1052.  
  1053. An ongoing encyclopedia of Jewish folktales that includes, so far, a theoretical essay that introduces the method of thematological analysis and eighteen literary-historical studies of narrative themes that recur in Jewish folk and traditional literatures and nine shorter studies essays as encyclopedic entries, together with representative texts of the tales.
  1054.  
  1055. Find this resource:
  1056.  
  1057. Midrash and Aggadah
  1058. Rapeld and Tabory 1992 is an experimental and hence preliminary, selective bibliography of 20th-century scholarship about the narratives in the Talmud and Midrash.
  1059.  
  1060. Rapeld, M., and J. Tabory. Prakim mi-tokh: Madrikh bibliyography la-torah she-be-′al-peh, mahadura nisyonit. (a) midrashei halakhah (b) safrut ha-aggadah: Bibliographyah nivḥeret. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University, Department of Talmud, 1992.
  1061.  
  1062. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1063.  
  1064. The chapter on the aggadic literature (pp. 14–51) includes entries on general studies, poems, studies on specific aggadic books, the interpreters of the Aggadah, and the Aggadah as literature and the world of the Aggadah. Translated as “Chapters from a bibliographical guide to the oral Torah: An experimental edition: (a) halakhic midrashim (b) aggadic literature: A selective bibliography.”
  1065.  
  1066. Find this resource:
  1067.  
  1068. Modern Period
  1069. Jason 1965 and Jason 1975 provide a typological listing of the first 7,000 tales in the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA), following the international method of folktale classification that was developed by Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson (see The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography [Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1961]). Jason 1988 and Soroudi 2008, respectively, apply the same method to the Jewish folktales from Iraq and Iran. Noy 1976 deals with the types of animal tales in this classification system (tale types 1–299), both geared for research purposes. Elswit 2012 is a guide designed for storytellers and educators who wish to use the Jewish folktales available in English translations for their purposes.
  1070.  
  1071. Elswit, Sharon B. The Jewish Story Finder: A Guide to 668 Tales, Listing Subjects and Sources. 2d ed. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland, 2012.
  1072.  
  1073. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1074.  
  1075. A bibliographical listing of 668 folktales published in English and categorized thematically, with their summaries, keywords (“connections”), and references to other published versions in English, with an extensive bibliography, and “story title” and “subject” indexes.
  1076.  
  1077. Find this resource:
  1078.  
  1079. Haboucha, Reginetta. Types and Motifs of the Judeo-Spanish Folktales. Garland Folklore Library 6. New York: Garland, 1992.
  1080.  
  1081. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1082.  
  1083. A typology and motif analysis of published and archived Judeo-Spanish tales with substantial bibliography and type and motif indexes.
  1084.  
  1085. Find this resource:
  1086.  
  1087. Jason, Heda. “Types of Jewish-Oriental Oral Tales.” Fabula 7 (1965): 115–224.
  1088.  
  1089. DOI: 10.1515/fabl.1965.7.1.115Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1090.  
  1091. A typology of the tales nos. 1–4,999 in the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA) at the University of Haifa classified according to Aarne-Thompson.
  1092.  
  1093. Find this resource:
  1094.  
  1095. Jason, Heda. Types of Oral Tales in Israel: Part 2. Israel Ethnographic Society Studies 2. Jerusalem: Israel Ethnographic Society, 1975.
  1096.  
  1097. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1098.  
  1099. A typology of the tales nos. 5,000–6,999 in the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA) at the University of Haifa classified according to Aarne-Thompson.
  1100.  
  1101. Find this resource:
  1102.  
  1103. Jason, Heda. Folktales of the Jews of Iraq: Tale-Types and Genres. Studies in the History and Culture of Iraqi Jewry 5. Or Yehuda, Israel: Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center, Research Institute of Iraqi Jewry, 1988.
  1104.  
  1105. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1106.  
  1107. A narrative typology classified according to Aarne-Thompson and an index of ethnopoetic genres (fabulous, realistic, and symbolic), introduced with an essay on “Folk Literature in Early Modern Manuscripts and Chapbooks” in Iraq by Y. Avishur.
  1108.  
  1109. Find this resource:
  1110.  
  1111. Noy, Dov. Sippurei Baʹalei-ḥayim be-ʹedot Yisrael. Israel Folktale Archives (IFA). Publication 29. Haifa, Israel: Haifa Municipality, Ethnological Museum and Folklore Archives, Israel Folktale Archives (IFA), 1976.
  1112.  
  1113. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1114.  
  1115. A typology of Jewish animal tales classified following Aarne-Thompson and illustrated by texts. Translated as “The Jewish animal tale of oral tradition.”
  1116.  
  1117. Find this resource:
  1118.  
  1119. Soroudi, Sarah S. The Folktale of Jews from Iran, Central Asia and Afghanistan: Tale Types and Genres. Edited by H. Jason. Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte des Islamischen Orients 38. Dortmund, Germany: Verlag für Orientkunde, 2008.
  1120.  
  1121. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1122.  
  1123. A typology classified according to Aarne-Thompson of the tales from Iran, central Asia, and Afghanistan that are on deposit in the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA) and a catalogue of the ethnopoetic genres, with essays about the Jewish communities of Bukhara and Afghanistan, and about Jewish folktales in general, particularly in Iran. Includes contributions by H. Jason, U. Marzolph, S, Shaked, and B. D. Yehoshua.
  1124.  
  1125. Find this resource:
  1126.  
  1127. Overviews
  1128. The recording of folktales of Jewish ethnic groups in Israel, as analyzed in Hasan-Rokem 2004 and Shenhar 1982, inspired and made possible the extension of Jewish folktale scholarship into different directions, examining their own thematic histories (Lipsker and Kushelevsky 2006–2013 and Shenhar 1987), children’s literature and psychotherapy (Alexander 1993), the study of the aggadah (Heinemann and Noy 1971, Heinemann and Werses 1978), the study of the figure of Elijah the Prophet, the most popular figure in Jewish folktales (Wiener 1978, who was previously studied, among others, in Segal 1935 and the study of narrative performance and audience (Shenhar 1994 and Alexander 1993).
  1129.  
  1130. Alexander, T., ed. “ʽAd ʽetzem ha-yom ha-zeh: ʽAl ʾomanut ha-higud shel ha-mesaper ha-ʽamami” Tel Aviv: Ofir, 1993.
  1131.  
  1132. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1133.  
  1134. An anthology of previously published essays by leading Israeli folklorists on folklore, the folktale distinctive features, the folk roots of the Hebrew maqamah, a Jewish-Yemenite version of Cinderella, the semiotics of tale performance, the concept of childhood in folktales, folk tales and literacy education, folktales and biblio-therapy, and the lost world of the storyteller. Translated as “Forever after . . . On the art of the folk narrator.”
  1135.  
  1136. Find this resource:
  1137.  
  1138. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. “Textualizing the Tales of the People of the Book: Folk Narrative Anthologies and National Identity in Modern Israel.” In The Anthology in Jewish Literature. Edited by David Stern, 159–175. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  1139.  
  1140. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1141.  
  1142. The work of Dov Noy, the preeminent Jewish folklorist, the founder of the Israel Folk Archives, and the editor of its publication series, and other anthologies of tales in the archives have contributed to the complex process of nation-building in Israel, in which renewal of cultural ethos and denial of Diaspora tradition clash. Previously published in Prooftexts 19 (1999): 71–82.
  1143.  
  1144. Find this resource:
  1145.  
  1146. Heinemann, Joseph, and Dov Noy, eds. Studies in Aggadah and Folk-Literature. Scripta Hierosolymitana 22. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1971.
  1147.  
  1148. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1149.  
  1150. Studies on Rabbi Judah the Pious, Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, the Moroccan Qsida, Palaea Historica, biblical quotations, dialogues between rabbis and Romans, the Aggadah as literature, animal language, tales in the two Talmuds, exegesis on Isaiah, and the sages and Origin.
  1151.  
  1152. Find this resource:
  1153.  
  1154. Heinemann, Joseph, and Samuel Werses, eds. Studies in Hebrew Narrative Art throughout the Ages. Scripta Hierosolymitana 27. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1978.
  1155.  
  1156. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1157.  
  1158. Seven out of the twelve essays in this volume involve analysis of folktale and folktale-related subjects such as time in biblical narrative, paranomasia in the Aggadah, rabbinic sermons, the Chronicles of Moses, popular belief and folktale, and cognition in the folktale.
  1159.  
  1160. Find this resource:
  1161.  
  1162. Lipsker, A., and R. Kushelevsky, eds. Maʽaseh sippur: Meḥkarim ba-siporet ha-yehudit. Thema: A Series of Thematological Studies in the Literature of the Jewish People. 3 vols. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2006–2013.
  1163.  
  1164. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1165.  
  1166. Anthologies of scholarly articles (the first of which was presented to Professor Yoav Elstein) about narratives in the midrash and the Aggadah, medieval traditions, Hasidic literature, folklore, and modern Jewish literature in Hebrew and other languages. Translated as “Maʾaseh Sippur: Studies in Jewish narrative.”
  1167.  
  1168. Find this resource:
  1169.  
  1170. Segal, Samuel M. Elijah: A Study in Jewish Folklore. New York: Behrman’s Jewish Book House, 1935.
  1171.  
  1172. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1173.  
  1174. In the stories of Elijah Jewish myth and religion try to coexist in congenial compromise. In them Elijah is, first, a historic biblical character, second, a legendary figure created by the naive fancy of the Amoraim and the Tannaim, and, third, an eschatological figure of the theologians.
  1175.  
  1176. Find this resource:
  1177.  
  1178. Shenhar, Aliza. Ha-sippur ha-′amami shel ′edot yisrael. Tel Aviv: Tcherikover, 1982.
  1179.  
  1180. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1181.  
  1182. Biblical, Talmudic and midrashic as well as medieval tales resonate in the narrative traditions of Jewish ethnic groups. Stories such as Potiphar’s Wife, Beruryah, Rabbi Yehuda’s wife, the Jerusalemite, the Ten Lost Tribe Man, and the themes of “charity saves from death” recur in both ancient and current traditions; internationally known tales transformed into Jewish tales when told in Jewish societies. Translated as “The folktale in Jewish ethnic groups.”
  1183.  
  1184. Find this resource:
  1185.  
  1186. Shenhar, Aliza. Jewish and Israeli Folklore. New Delhi: South Asian Publishers, 1987.
  1187.  
  1188. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1189.  
  1190. Seven studies on Jewish folktales concerning the “Judaization” of universal folktales, such as the tales of the woman with an animal face, the predestined marriage, the handless maiden, and methodological issues concerning the teaching of Jewish folktale, meta-folkloristic dimensions of the narrator, and Jewish folklore under conditions of stress.
  1191.  
  1192. Find this resource:
  1193.  
  1194. Shenhar, Aliza. Mesaper, sippur, kahal: Ha-sippur ha-′amami ha-yehudi ve-ha isra′eli. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1994.
  1195.  
  1196. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1197.  
  1198. The poetics and the symbolism of the folktale, the interaction between tradition and improvisation in narrating, literary rendition of folktales, and in particular narrating in Israel are examined in relation to Jewish folktales. Translated as “The story, the storyteller and the audience.”
  1199.  
  1200. Find this resource:
  1201.  
  1202. Wiener, Aharon. The Prophet Elijah in the Development of Judaism: A Depth-Psychological Study. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978.
  1203.  
  1204. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1205.  
  1206. A depth-psychological interpretation of the Elijah figure in the Bible, and in the Aggadah, kabbalah, and Hasidic literature as well as in Christianity, Islam, and contemporary Judaism, concluding that he is a prototype of the hero archetype.
  1207.  
  1208. Find this resource:
  1209.  
  1210. Bible
  1211. In Jewish society the Bible is a holy book, and it has been interpreted and analyzed within religious contexts, rituals, and services. Nevertheless, under the influence of the Enlightenment and modern scholarship in different disciplines, it has been subject also in Jewish studies to scholarly trends, such as High Criticism, and to the findings from archaeology, philology, comparative mythology, and anthropology. The direction of “Form Criticism” was particularly relevant to the interdisciplinary studies of folklore and biblical research.
  1212.  
  1213. Anthropology and Folklore
  1214. James Edwin Thorold Rogers, the author of “Rabbi Jeshua,” first applied the concept of “folklore” to biblical studies in reference to 19th-century scholarship (Rogers 1884). Rogerson 1979 is an historical-analytical study examining the use of anthropology and folklore in the study of the Old Testament in which Frazer 1918 plays a major role in applying to the interpretation of the Bible comparative-evolutionary methodology. Frazer’s work is synthesized and updated in Gaster 1969. Shinan and Zakovitch 2012 applies a textual philological method to uncover mythical elements in the biblical text, and Dundes 1999 considers the Old Testament as folklore, and not just as a work including vestiges of folklore from earlier periods.
  1215.  
  1216. Dundes, Alan. Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
  1217.  
  1218. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1219.  
  1220. The two basic distinctive features of folklore are multiple existence and variation. Their delineation in the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testaments, turns the Bible itself into folklore, contrary to previous scholarly approaches, according to which the Bible contains vestiges of folklore and oral traditions.
  1221.  
  1222. Find this resource:
  1223.  
  1224. Frazer, James G. Folklore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law. 3 vols. London: Macmillan, 1918.
  1225.  
  1226. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1227.  
  1228. A classic work upholding the theory of cultural evolution that identifies in the Old Testament of the civilized Hebrews surviving traces from earlier stages of barbarism and savagery by means of the comparative method. Parallels to biblical stories, customs, and beliefs such as the flood story, marriage customs, dietary rules, and slavery laws, occur among African, American, Asian, Australian, and early European peoples.
  1229.  
  1230. Find this resource:
  1231.  
  1232. Gaster, Theodor H. Myth, Legend, and Custom in the Old Testament: A Comparative Study with Chapters from Sir James G. Frazer’s Folklore in the Old Testament. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
  1233.  
  1234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1235.  
  1236. An update to Frazer 1918.
  1237.  
  1238. Find this resource:
  1239.  
  1240. Rogers, J. E. T. Bible Folk-Lore: A Study in Comparative Mythology. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, 1884.
  1241.  
  1242. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1243.  
  1244. The first book that associates folklore with the Bible, written by James Edwin Thorold Rogers (b. 1823–d. 1890), is a synthesis of 19th-century theories of myth, the “documentary hypothesis,” archaeological discoveries in Mesopotamia and the Near East, and translations of Indian literary and religious texts that interprets themes of the Hebrew and the Greek Bibles in folklore terms.
  1245.  
  1246. Find this resource:
  1247.  
  1248. Rogerson, J. W. Anthropology and the Old Testament. Atlanta: John Knox, 1979.
  1249.  
  1250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1251.  
  1252. A history of the anthropological and folkloristic study of the Old Testament starting with the work of German orientalist J. D. Michaelis (b. 1717–d. 1791), and concluding with the folklorists Milman Parry (b. 1902–d. 1935) and Albert Lord (b. 1912–d. 1991) and the anthropologists Douglas (b. 1921–d. 2007)) and Goody (b. 1919), and including a chapter on the theory of Einfache Formen (primary forms) of André Jolles (b. 1874–d. 1946).
  1253.  
  1254. Find this resource:
  1255.  
  1256. Shinan, Avigdor, and Yair Zakovitch. From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths & Legends. Translated by V. Zakovitch. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2012.
  1257.  
  1258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1259.  
  1260. Ancient Israel was rich in beliefs, myth, and legends drawn from a prebiblical world that the new monotheists who wrote the Bible wanted to suppress and forget. These traditions were not lost; rather, they continued and they are retrievable from rabbinical literature; Jewish Hellenistic writings; the Dead Sea Scrolls; Aramaic, Greek, and Latin translations of the Bible; and even the Bible itself.
  1261.  
  1262. Find this resource:
  1263.  
  1264. Form Criticism and Folklore
  1265. Gunkel 1987 (originally published 1917) initiated form criticism in Old Testament studies under the influence of folklore research. These studies proliferated in many directions. Culley 1976 and Kirkpatrick 1988 apply to the study of biblical tales, methods and principles developed in modern folklore research. Milne 1988 focuses, in particular, on the relevance of the Russian formalist-folklorist Vladimir Propp to biblical narratives, Rofé 1988 studies the genre of the miracle tales of the early prophets, and Niditch 1987, Niditch 1990, Niditch 1993, and Niditch 1996 examine several biblical narrative themes in their relations to folklore.
  1266.  
  1267. Culley, Robert C. Studies in the Structure of Hebrew Narrative. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1976.
  1268.  
  1269. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1270.  
  1271. Field studies of the process of oral tradition and narrative transmission are instructive in examining the formation of narrative structures. For that purpose, folklore studies of narrative performers in Africa, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia are applied to biblical texts, accounting for both the possibilities and the probabilities of such a methodology.
  1272.  
  1273. Find this resource:
  1274.  
  1275. Gunkel, Hermann. The Folktale in the Old Testament. Translated by Michael D. Rutter. Introduction by John W. Rogerson. Historic Texts and Interpreters in Biblical Scholarship. Sheffield, UK: Almond, 1987.
  1276.  
  1277. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1278.  
  1279. The first English translation of the classic Das Märchen im Alten Testament (Tübingen, Germany: Mohr, 1917) by Hermann Gunkel (b. 1862–d. 1932), which introduced principles of folklore scholarship to Old Testament studies. Contrasting the learned historiography with the poetical stories such as the folktale (Märchen), myth (Mythus), saga, (Sage) and legend (Legende), exploring motifs of nature, the supernatural, magic, and primeval heroic history.
  1280.  
  1281. Find this resource:
  1282.  
  1283. Kirkpatrick, Patricia G. The Old Testament and Folklore Study. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 62. Sheffield, UK: JSOT, 1988.
  1284.  
  1285. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1286.  
  1287. Past biblical scholars, such as Hermann Gunkel, Albrecht Alt, Gerhard Von Rad, and Martin Noth, drew upon folklore scholarship by exploring the oral basis of the biblical text. Similarly, present-day scholars continue this trend by applying modern folklore theories and methods that concern oral composition and transmission, genre theory, and the historicity of oral tales to biblical studies.
  1288.  
  1289. Find this resource:
  1290.  
  1291. Milne, Pamela J. Vladimir Propp and the Study of Structure in Hebrew Biblical Narrrative. Sheffield, UK: Almond, 1988.
  1292.  
  1293. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1294.  
  1295. The Morphology of the Folktale (originally published 1928), by Vladimir Propp (b. 1895–d. 1970) revolutionized folktale scholarship and influenced critical narrative analysis in folklore, in particular, and in literature, in general. His theory and methods are introduced and examined as well as their previous applications to biblical narratives, and then applied to the analysis of the “Court Tales” in Daniel 1–6.
  1296.  
  1297. Find this resource:
  1298.  
  1299. Niditch, Susan. Underdogs and Tricksters: A Prelude to Biblical Folklore. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987.
  1300.  
  1301. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1302.  
  1303. Current folklore theories and methods are valuable in the analysis of biblical narratives as three case studies of “wife-sister” tales and tales of two younger sons, Jacob and Joseph demonstrate. An analysis of the Book of Esther concludes this interdisciplinary study.
  1304.  
  1305. Find this resource:
  1306.  
  1307. Niditch, Susan, ed. Text and Tradition: The Hebrew Bible and Folklore. Society of Biblical Literature Semeia Studies. Proceedings from the Conference on the Hebrew Bible and Folklore, April 28–May 1, 1988 at Amherst College, Massachusetts. Atlanta: Scholars, 1990.
  1308.  
  1309. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1310.  
  1311. The papers from the conference explore the connections between biblical and nonbiblical literatures, focusing on issues of formula and structure, narrative patterns and texts, orality and literacy, proverbs, riddles, and the law.
  1312.  
  1313. Find this resource:
  1314.  
  1315. Niditch, Susan. Folklore and the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993.
  1316.  
  1317. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1318.  
  1319. Modern folklore theories and methods, including Olrik’s “epic laws” and morphological, structural, oral formulaic, ethnographic, contextual, and performance analyses are shown to be essential to the study of the Hebrew Bible through a series of case studies that include the narrative of Genesis 3, the ritual narrative of Exodus 12, and the proverbs of “wisdom literature.”
  1320.  
  1321. Find this resource:
  1322.  
  1323. Niditch, Susan. Oral World and Written Word: Ancient Israelite Literature. Library of Ancient Israel. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1996.
  1324.  
  1325. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1326.  
  1327. The oral register is evident in the Hebrew Bible and recoverable through contemporary methods of a synchronic approach that considers a diversity of oral genres, styles, contexts, cultures, composers, and compositions that co-occurred and were compatible with the emergent literacy.
  1328.  
  1329. Find this resource:
  1330.  
  1331. Rofeé, A. The Prophetical Stories: The Narratives about the Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, Their Literary Types and History. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1988.
  1332.  
  1333. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1334.  
  1335. The principles of biblical form criticism are applied to the tales about the prophets distinguishing twelve categories: legenda (including short legenda, elaborated legenda, ethical legenda, and reliquiae [tales about the magic of relics]), vita, historiography, prophetic biography, exemplum, parable, epic, and martyrology narratives.
  1336.  
  1337. Find this resource:
  1338.  
  1339. Midrash and Aggadah
  1340. The scholarship concerning the folklore in the Midrash and the Aggadah, or the Midrash and the Aggadah as folklore, is a principle multidisciplinary area of Jewish studies, in which it is possible to discern comparative, poetic analyses as well as new approaches, such as feminist perspectives. The presence of biblical figures in the Aggadah is a major concern. See also the Oxford Bibliographies article Midrash.
  1341.  
  1342. Introductions
  1343. The Talmudic-Midrashic literature of Late antiquity consists of many books that Strack surveyed in 1931 and Stemberger updated in 1992 (Strack and Stemberger 1996). Reizel 2011 updates and expands the survey of scholarship in Hebrew on the midrashic literature.
  1344.  
  1345. Reizel, Anat. Mavo la-midrashim. Alon Shevut, Israel: Tevunot, Herzog College, 2011.
  1346.  
  1347. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1348.  
  1349. An introduction to oral tradition as it is available in the midrashic books from the 3rd to the 14th centuries that were edited primarily in Palestine, and fewer books in Babylonia, Yemen, and European countries. The introduction to each midrashic book includes information about its name, date, place, style, structure, content, and, when available, critical editions and updated scholarship. Translated as “”Introduction to the midrashic literature.” See Strack and Stemberger 1996.
  1350.  
  1351. Find this resource:
  1352.  
  1353. Strack, Hermann Leberecht, and Gunter Stemberger. Introduction to the Talmud and Midrash. Translated by Markus Bockmuehl. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.
  1354.  
  1355. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1356.  
  1357. The revised edition of the classical introduction to the Talmud and the Midrash that Hermann L. Strack (b. 1848–d. 1922) published in German in 1920, and which appeared in English translation in 1931, offers a thourough update of twentieth century scholarship, addressing textual and theoretical issues, including those that have direct bearing on Jewish folklore.
  1358.  
  1359. Find this resource:
  1360.  
  1361. Collected Studies
  1362. The Midrash is a formative literature that influenced subsequent Jewish literary creativity in fiction, history, prose, and poetry. Books of collected essays, such as Fishbane and Weinberg 2013; Levinson, et al. 2006; and Shinan 1983 are examples of the multidisciplinary approaches to the Midrash and the folklore that is incorporated in its exposition. See also Anthologies and the Oxford Bibliographies article Midrash.
  1363.  
  1364. Fishbane, Michael, and Joanna Weinberg, eds. Midrash Unbound: Transformations and Innovations. Littman Library of Jewish Civilization. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2013.
  1365.  
  1366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1367.  
  1368. Twenty articles explore the midrashic creativity that has its roots in Late Antiquity, as it extended into subsequent literary-historical periods from the Middle Ages up to the Early Modern period, and transformed into different genres such as piyut, mystical literature, and Hasidic narratives.
  1369.  
  1370. Find this resource:
  1371.  
  1372. Levinson, Joshua, Jacob Elbaum, and Galit Hasan-Rokem, eds. Higayon L’Yona: Hebetim ḥadashim be-ḥeker sifrut ha-midrash ha-aggadah ve-hapiyut: Kovetz meḥkarim li-khvodo shel professor yona fraenkel bi-mlot li shivʽim ve-ḥamesh shanim. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2006.
  1373.  
  1374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1375.  
  1376. A collection of essays that explore the literary aspects of midrashic texts, following and expounding upon theoretical and methodological issues that Professor Yona Fraenkel has developed in his studies of the Aggadah. Translated as “Higayon L’Yona: New aspects in the study of Midrash, Aggadah and piyut in honor of Professor Yona Fraenkel.”
  1377.  
  1378. Find this resource:
  1379.  
  1380. Shinan, Avigdor, ed. Mikraʹah be-sifrut ha-aggadah. Likkutei Tarbiz 4. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983.
  1381.  
  1382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1383.  
  1384. A selection of twenty-five articles on the Aggadah previously published in Tarbiz between 1931 and 1978 on midrashim from Late Antiquity until the Middle Ages. Translated as “The aggadic literature: A reader.”
  1385.  
  1386. Find this resource:
  1387.  
  1388. Comparative Studies
  1389. The comparative study of the folklore in the Talmudic-midrashic literature involves internal comparisons between sources, as for example Zilkah 2009, or Jewish languages (Shinan 1992), or external comparisons with sources in other cultures such as Muslim literature (Garsiel 2006), or in general terms in sources of the East and the West as proposed in the programmatic essays Ginzberg 1955 and Ginzberg 1960.
  1390.  
  1391. Garsiel, Bat-Sheva. Mikra, midrash ve-Quran: ′Iyun intertextuali be-ḥomrei sippur meshutafim. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2006.
  1392.  
  1393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1394.  
  1395. The Hebrew Bible, the Midrash, and the Qur’an tell and retell similar stories. Among these, narratives about the following figures are compared: Adam, Eve, and Noah; Abraham, Joseph, and his brothers, Moses and the exodus, Saul, David, and Solomon; Elija, Elisha, Jonah, Job, and Ezra. Translated as “Bible, Midrash, and Qur’an: An intertextual study of common narrative materials.”
  1396.  
  1397. Find this resource:
  1398.  
  1399. Ginzberg, Louis. On Jewish Law and Lore. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1955.
  1400.  
  1401. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1402.  
  1403. Classic essays of Louis Ginzberg, including his lecture delivered at the tercentenary of Harvard University, “Jewish Folklore East and West” (1936). Among the other essays are “Allegorical Interpretation of Scripture,” “the Cabala,” and three essays related to the Halakhah.
  1404.  
  1405. Find this resource:
  1406.  
  1407. Ginzberg, Louis. ′Al halakhah ve-aggadah: Meḥkar ve-massa. Tel Aviv: Devir, 1960.
  1408.  
  1409. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1410.  
  1411. Includes the essays “Jewish Folklore East and West” and “The Significance of the Halachah for Jewish History” in Hebrew translation, and six additional essays, of which “Truncated Sermons from an Unknown Midrash,” “A Flood of Fire,” and “Truncated Aggadot” pertain to folklore directly. Translated as “On halkhah and Aggadah: Studies and essays.”
  1412.  
  1413. Find this resource:
  1414.  
  1415. Shinan, Avigdor. Targum ve-aggadah bo: Ha-aggadah be-targum ha-torah ha-ʹarami ha-meyuḥas le-Yonathan ben-′uziel. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992.
  1416.  
  1417. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1418.  
  1419. The translation of the Bible into Aramaic was an oral performance that was part of Bible reading service in the synagogue. The Aramaic translation of the Pentateuch that is known as Pseudo-Jonathan and which is attributed to Jonathan ben Uziel incorporates aggadic narratives and allusion to aggadic narratives and metaphors. Translated as “The embroidered Targum: The Aggadah in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan of the Pentateuch.”
  1420.  
  1421. Find this resource:
  1422.  
  1423. Zilkah, Yaffa. Be-′ein aggadat ha-yerushalmi: Pirkei ′iyun be-′olamah shel aggadat ha-talmud ha-yerushalmi. Jerusalem: Jewish Agency for Israel-Eliner Library/Beit Morasha of Jerusalem, 2009.
  1424.  
  1425. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1426.  
  1427. The Talmud of Jerusalem was edited in Tiberias in the 4th century. It was compared with the Babylonian Talmud that was edited in the 5th century in Mesopotamia and was much more popular. Its legends about the land and the Temple, about holy men and their prayers, and about social relations are steeped with the ambiance of the Land of Israel. Translated as “In the eyes of the Aggadah of the Yerushalmi.”
  1428.  
  1429. Find this resource:
  1430.  
  1431. Biblical Figures in the Midrash
  1432. The Midrash, by definition, is an interpretation of the biblical text, and in the summary of its texts in Ginzberg 2003, it includes tales about all the major biblical figures. Among them, as Lindbeck 2010 and Sasson 2013, respectively, point out, Elijah the Prophet and King Solomon stand out.
  1433.  
  1434. Ginzberg, L. Legends of the Jews. 2 vols. 2d ed. JPS Classic Reissues. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003.
  1435.  
  1436. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1437.  
  1438. Synthesis and summary of the tales about Biblical events and figures, from creation to Esther, that were told in the late antiquities and are available in the post-biblical oral tradition in Talmudic and midrashic books. The profuse annotation, documenting the original sources, makes this set a fundamental research tools, the value of which has not waned with time. Originally published in 7 volumes between 1909 and 1939.
  1439.  
  1440. Find this resource:
  1441.  
  1442. Lindbeck, Kristen H. Elijah and the Rabbis: Story and Theology. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.
  1443.  
  1444. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1445.  
  1446. Elijah is the most popular biblical figure in Jewish folklore. In the Bible he performs miracles, avenges Gods, and heralds the Messiah. In rabbinical tradition he makes mystical, disguised, and instructive appearances as a holy man, a rabbi, an ideal teacher, a supernatural mediator, and a trickster figure. The rabbinical Elijah narratives shaped his image in subsequent traditions.
  1447.  
  1448. Find this resource:
  1449.  
  1450. Sasson, G. Melekh ve-hediot: Yaḥasam shel ḥaza”l li-shlomoh ha-melekh. Tel Aviv: Resling, 2013.
  1451.  
  1452. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1453.  
  1454. King Solomon is a complex biblical figure who began his reign as a wise and rich king who built the Temple. However, later in life he worshiped pagan gods and his kingdom in declined. This biographical trajectory fascinated the sages, who retold his life focusing on his wisdom, his books, his Temple, and his sins and demonic connections. Translated as “A king and a layman: The sages’ attitude toward King Solomon.”
  1455.  
  1456. Find this resource:
  1457.  
  1458. Poetics of Midrash
  1459. Modern research shifted its emphasize from the study of Midrash mode of thought as articulated in Heinemann 1970, to the study of the poetics of the Midrash (Fraenkel 2001, Meir 1987, Meir 1993, Milikowsky 2005, Stein 2012), or as Hasan-Rokem 2000, Hasan-Rokem 2003 and Raveh 2008 consider it the poetics of everyday life, or the genre of tales of passed time, as Hasan-Rokem 2009 suggests.
  1460.  
  1461. Fraenkel, Y. Sippur ha-Aggadah—aḥdut shel tokhen ve-tzurah. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2001.
  1462.  
  1463. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1464.  
  1465. Includes essays concerning structural analysis of the aggadic narrative, time and narration, alliteration, the function of the biblical verse in oral narration, the aggadic and the halakhic narratives, the aggadic narrative and the folktale, external forms versus internal values, mysticism, and the image of the student. Translated as “The aggadic narrative: Harmony of form and content.”
  1466.  
  1467. Find this resource:
  1468.  
  1469. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. Web of Life: Folklore and Midrash in Rabbinic Literature. Contraversions Jewish and Other Differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000.
  1470.  
  1471. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1472.  
  1473. Lamentations Rabbah narrates daily, but not mundane, actions of personal and collective disasters of the Temple destructions in 586 BCE and in 70 CE, and the decimation of Jewish population after the Bar-Kokhba rebellion in 132–135 CE, pondering, through the riddle genre existential questions, and documenting, for the first time, four international tale types 655, 655A, 1533, 1663.
  1474.  
  1475. Find this resource:
  1476.  
  1477. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. Tales of the Neighborhood: Jewish Narrative Dialogues in Late Antiquity. The Taubman Lectures in Jewish Studies. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
  1478.  
  1479. DOI: 10.1525/california/9780520234536.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1480.  
  1481. Ethical and religious principles are represented not in theological or philosophical rabbinical discourse, but in four tales in Leviticus Rabbah (34.16; 5.8; 9.9; 25.5) that focus on quotidian negotiations in small scaled episodes of everyday life that unfold human relations in their contextual conditions.
  1482.  
  1483. Find this resource:
  1484.  
  1485. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. “Did Rabbinic Culture Conceive of a Category of Folk Narrative?” European Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (2009): 19–56.
  1486.  
  1487. DOI: 10.1163/102599909X12471170467286Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1488.  
  1489. Rabbinic texts in Late Antiquity disclose an awareness of the categories of folklore and folktale. The narrative traditions recounting the tales of Hanina ben Dosa and especially the chain of tales from the third chapter of the Babylonian Talmud tractate Ta’anit, represent, in formal as well as contextual elements, such a meta-folkloric awareness of the rabbis.
  1490.  
  1491. Find this resource:
  1492.  
  1493. Heinemann, Isaak. Darkhei Ha-aggadah (Methods of the Aggadah). 3d ed. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1970.
  1494.  
  1495. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1496.  
  1497. The poetics of the Aggadah involve creative historiography that resorts to telescoping actions and to detailed descriptive, anachronistic narratives that transcend boundaries of time and place and employ analogy and dichotomy. The rabbis articulated their historical imagination through creative philology of exegetical and allegorical interpretations of letters, words and sentences and through the expansion and contraction of narratives.
  1498.  
  1499. Find this resource:
  1500.  
  1501. Meir, M. Ha-sippur ha-darshani be-bhereshit rabbah. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1987.
  1502.  
  1503. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1504.  
  1505. Hermeneutic in rabbinic tradition is a literary mode of which narrative is one of its genres, the components of which are characters, plots, and meanings, and its discourse involves direct and indirect speech, the biblical text, characters, and their motivation. Translated as “The hermeneutic narrative in Genesis Rabba.”
  1506.  
  1507. Find this resource:
  1508.  
  1509. Meir, M. Sugiyot ba-poetika shel sippurei ḥaza”l. Tel Aviv: Sifiat Poalim, 1993.
  1510.  
  1511. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1512.  
  1513. There are two genres of rabbinical tales: hermeneutic and nonhermeneutic. The first is textually dependent on the Bible for meaning, structure, character, and motivation of its figures. It is mimesis of literature, not reality, whereas the second depends on historical, or historically imagined characters and events. The analysis of six tales demonstrates the poetics of these two genres. Translated as “The poetics of rabbinic stories.”
  1514.  
  1515. Find this resource:
  1516.  
  1517. Milikowsky, Chaim. “Midrash as Fiction and Midrash as History: What Did the Rabbis Mean?” In Ancient Fiction: The Matrix of Early Christian and Jewish Narrative. Edited by Jo-Ann A. Brant, Charles W. Hedrick, and Chris Shea, 117–128. Society of Biblical Literature Symposium 32. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2005.
  1518.  
  1519. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1520.  
  1521. Midrashic literature contains countless storyline additions to the biblical narrative in which the rabbis distinguished between those that presented God’s word and those that were historical-literal reconstructions of past events and could be considered “creative mythology.”
  1522.  
  1523. Find this resource:
  1524.  
  1525. Raveh, Inbar. Me′at me-harbeh. Ma′asei ḥakhamim:mibhnim sifrutiim ve-tefisat ′olam. Tel Aviv: Kinneret, 2008.
  1526.  
  1527. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1528.  
  1529. The poetics of the tales of the sages is understood in their historical and theological context, presenting a fragmentary conception of existence, and avoidance of historical perspectives. Their dialogues represent multiple perspectives. The sages are concerned with the daily and the mundane rather than with myth. Translated as “Fragments of being, stories of the sages: Literary structure and worldview.”
  1530.  
  1531. Find this resource:
  1532.  
  1533. Stein, Dina. Textual Mirrors: Reflexivity, Midrash, and the Rabbinic Self. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
  1534.  
  1535. DOI: 10.9783/9780812206944Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1536.  
  1537. The association of knowledge and reflection operates as a central element in rabbinic texts. Drawing upon literary theory, semiotics, and folklore studies, Stein examines self- reflexivity in stories about Simon the Just and the Nazirite, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, rabbinical travelers and their tall tales, Serah daughter of Asher, and the maidservant of Rabbi Judah the Patriarch.
  1538.  
  1539. Find this resource:
  1540.  
  1541. Feministic Analysis
  1542. Rabbinic literature of Late Antiquity was created within an exclusively male society. The sages told, wrote down, and edited their teachings and stories. Therefore, a feminist perspective, as Raveh 2012 and Valler 1993 propose, offers a new analytic point of view of the heroines of their tales.
  1543.  
  1544. Raveh, Inbar. Bi-fnei atzman: Kriʼot feministiot be-sifrut ḥaza”l. Tel Aviv: Resling, 2012.
  1545.  
  1546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1547.  
  1548. An interpretation from a feminist perspective of rabbinical-patriarchal attitudes toward women, their body, sexuality and fertility, and dealing specifically with Rahab, the Israelite midwives, Judith, Rabbi Hiya’s wife, and the wife of Rabbi Shimon. Translated as “On their own: Feminist readings in rabbinical literature.”
  1549.  
  1550. Find this resource:
  1551.  
  1552. Valler, S. Nashim ve-nishiyut be-sippurei ha-talmud. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1993.
  1553.  
  1554. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1555.  
  1556. Five narrative clusters in the Babylonian Talmud reveal a gap between the normative pronounced rabbinical views of women and womanhood and their covert attitudes, represented in the tales that display consideration, sensitivity, and even identification with her positions. This gap reflects trends of thought that advocate gender equality that are absent from the law. Translated as “Women and womanhood in the stories of the Babylonian Talmud.”
  1557.  
  1558. Find this resource:
  1559.  
  1560. Medieval Period
  1561. The medieval period marks a change in the transmission of tradition in Jewish society. Older methods persisted as new modes emerged. The retelling of tradition involved decentralization, individualization, linguistic diversity, generic and thematic expansion, and the adaptation of new literary modes of presentation. The rabbinical authority dimmed its luster, and individual scribes preserved oral traditions, expanding and diversifying the thematic and generic scope of folk tradition and incorporating, unbashfully, narratives and themes told by other peoples.
  1562.  
  1563. Introduction
  1564. In the 1960s, Joseph Dan introduced a course on the medieval Hebrew story and Dan 1974 is a result of his formative research on the subject. His student, Eli Yassif, carried out further studies in this area, and Yassif 2012 and Yassif 2013 are updated research surveys. Tova Rosen, a scholar of medieval Hebrew literature in Spain, joined Yassif in writing Rosen and Yassif 2002.
  1565.  
  1566. Dan, Joseph. Ha-sippur ha-ʽivri bi-yemei ha-beinaim. Jerusalem: Keter, 1974.
  1567.  
  1568. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1569.  
  1570. In the course of a thousand years, from the beginning of the Gaonic period (end of the 6th century) until the end of the Renaissance (16th century) stories or complete books that drew upon folk traditions appeared. Their genres include narrative historiography, hagiography, autobiography, original and translated romance, narrative anthologies, and retelling of biblical and Talmudic tales. Translated as “The Hebrew story in the Middle Ages.”
  1571.  
  1572. Find this resource:
  1573.  
  1574. Rosen, Tova, and Eli Yassif. “The Study of Hebrew Literature of the Middle Ages: Major Trends and Goals.” In Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies. Edited by Martin Goodman, 270–294. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
  1575.  
  1576. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1577.  
  1578. The study of medieval Hebrew narrative emerged after research into medieval Hebrew poetry had been undertaken, in three main trends: historiographical, comparative (with medieval Christian (European) and Muslim (Arabic), and folkloristic.
  1579.  
  1580. Find this resource:
  1581.  
  1582. Yassif, Eli. “Oral Traditions in a Literate Society: The Hebrew Literature of the Middle Ages.” In Medieval Oral Literature. Edited by Karl Reichl, 499–520. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2012.
  1583.  
  1584. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1585.  
  1586. In medieval Jewish society, oral tradition was authoritative in regard to religious and civil law. Local, moral, and fictional narratives were subject to textual variations. Travelers, educators, religious teachers, chroniclers, and historians committed these narratives in writing in medieval books. The fragmentation of these traditions explain the absence of a medieval Jewish oral epic.
  1587.  
  1588. Find this resource:
  1589.  
  1590. Yassif, Eli, ed. “The Hebrew Story in the Middle Ages I.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 20 (2013): 1–99.
  1591.  
  1592. DOI: 10.1628/094457013X663679Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1593.  
  1594. The scholarly study of the Hebrew story in the Middle Ages emerged in the last fifty years. These narratives are not historical documents but literary artistic texts that reflect personal and cultural aspects of the society, rooted in the life experiences of their narrators whose society defines itself through these stories of myth, memory, and fantasy.
  1595.  
  1596. Find this resource:
  1597.  
  1598. Anthologies
  1599. The narrative anthology, in manuscript and later in print, framed either by text or by situation, or freely organized, became the emerging literary format in the Middle Ages. These anthologies included medieval renditions of midrashic tales, or new stories minted in the oral tradition of the era as examined in general in Yassif 2004a and Yassif 2004b, or as studied specifically in Elbaum 2004, Kushelevsky 2010, Schwarzbaum 1979, and Zfatman 1979.
  1600.  
  1601. Elbaum, Jacob. “Yalqut Shimʽoni and the Medieval Midrashic Anthology.” In The Anthology in Jewish Literature. Edited by David Stern, 159–175. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  1602.  
  1603. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1604.  
  1605. Fluidity, rather than firm periodization, is a guide to medieval anthologies. Their feature of adaptation of ancient midrashic material occurs also in classical midrashim. The earliest of these anthologies, Pitron torah, is of an eastern provenance. The starting point of their production cannot be determined. Each guided by an inferable selection principle, they continued to be produced until the coming of print, when output diminished. Previously published in Prooftexts 17.2 (1997): 133–151.
  1606.  
  1607. Find this resource:
  1608.  
  1609. Kushelevsky, Rella. Sigufim u-pituyim: Ha-sippur ha-ʽivri be-̕ashkenaz. Ms. Parma 2295 [de-Rossi 563]. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2010.
  1610.  
  1611. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1612.  
  1613. The manuscript, which includes thirteen Hebrew tales was copied in northern France or Germany at the end of the 13th century, is in the De Rossi collection of the Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, Italy. The manuscript was likely copied from a previous manuscript that was likely written around 1160. Analysis centers on three topics: scriptural, literary, and cultural. Translated as “Penalty and temptation: Hebrew tales in Ashkenaz.”
  1614.  
  1615. Find this resource:
  1616.  
  1617. Schwarzbaum, H. The Mishle Shu′alim (Fox Fables) of Rabbi Berechia Ha-Nakdan. A Study in Comparative Folklore and Fable Lore. Kiron, Israel: Institute for Jewish and Arab Folklore Research, 1979.
  1618.  
  1619. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1620.  
  1621. An essay on fable as a satirical and political form, its rhetorical devices and use in theology, and the texts of the “Fox Fables” of Berechia ha-Nakdan (13th century); includes a comparative analytical and bibliographical commentary.
  1622.  
  1623. Find this resource:
  1624.  
  1625. Yassif, Eli. “The Hebrew Narrative Anthology in the Middle Ages.” In The Anthology in Jewish Literature. Edited by David Stern, 176–195. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004a.
  1626.  
  1627. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1628.  
  1629. There are three types of narrative anthologies in the Middle Ages: the framework anthologies in Iraq and Persia (8th and 9th centuries), the midrashic anthologies (13th and 14th centuries), and the chronological anthologies in Europe, of which Sefer hazikhronot (the Book of Memory) of Eleazar ben-Asher Halevi (14th century) is the most prominent. Previously published in Prooftexts 17.2 (1997): 153–175.
  1630.  
  1631. Find this resource:
  1632.  
  1633. Yassif, Eli. Ke-margalit ba-mishbetzet: Kovetz ha-sippurim ha-ʽivri bi-yemei ha-beinayim. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2004b.
  1634.  
  1635. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1636.  
  1637. Tales occur in clusters as early as the Talmud, but in the Middle Ages they became available in traditional tales anthologies such as Toldot Ben-Sira, Megilat Ahimaʽatz, Sefer ha-maʽasim, Sefer Hasidim, Sefer ha-Zikhronot, Meshalim shel Shelomo ha-melekh, and Oseh pele. These are studied in terms of their structure and sources and their relation to Jewish, European, and Islamic medieval culture and society. Translated as “The Hebrew collection of tales in the Middle Ages.”
  1638.  
  1639. Find this resource:
  1640.  
  1641. Zfatman, Sara. “Mayse Bukh: Kavim li-dmuto shel zhaner be-sifrut yidish ha-yeshanah.” Ha-sifru Literature 28 (1979): 126–152.
  1642.  
  1643. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1644.  
  1645. The Mayse-Bukh is a specific literary genre within the old Yiddish tradition. The discovery of ms. Jerusalem, Heb 8°5245 from Innsbruck, Germany (1597), which contains 109 tales, demonstrates that the Mayse Bukh (Basel, 1602) was not an isolated case but part of a literary genre that circulated in Jewish society in central Europe in the Middle Ages. Translated as “The Mayse-Bukh: An old Yiddish literary genre.”
  1646.  
  1647. Find this resource:
  1648.  
  1649. Foundation Legends
  1650. The growth and spread of the Jewish population in the Middle Ages led to an increase in community foundation stories, which are studied in Zfatman 1993 and Zfatman 2010.
  1651.  
  1652. Zfatman, Sara. Bein Ashkenaz le-Sefarad: Le-toldot ha-sippur ha-yehudi bi-yemei ha-beinayim. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1993.
  1653.  
  1654. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1655.  
  1656. A comparative study of medieval Sephardic and Ashkenazic community foundation legends and a literary historical analysis of the Ashkenazic tale from its early beginnings up to its expanded versions in the 16th century. Translated as “The Jewish tale in the Middle Ages: Between Ashkenaz and Sepharad.”
  1657.  
  1658. Find this resource:
  1659.  
  1660. Zfatman, Sara. Rosh ve-rishon: Yisud manhigut be-sifrut yisrael. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2010.
  1661.  
  1662. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1663.  
  1664. Traditional foundation legends about the beginnings of communities and their secular and religious leadership, in Palestine in Late Antiquity and in medieval Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities and in northern Africa, reveal continuity and transformations effected by cultural and historical changes. Translated as “From Talmudic times to the Middle Ages: The establishment of leadership in Jewish literature.”
  1665.  
  1666. Find this resource:
  1667.  
  1668. The Jewish Pope
  1669. The story of the Jewish Pope is the ultimate fictive triumph of the oppressed over their oppressors. At the same it is a study of case in which sparks ignited by rumors and accusations flare into a fictive folk narrative, as analyzed in Bamberger 2009 and Stroll 1987. For 350 years it became a subject of Yiddish literature, as recounted in Sherman 2003.
  1670.  
  1671. Bamberger, Joseph. Ha-ʾapifior ha-yehudi: Le-toldotehah shel aggadah mi-yemei ha-beinaim be-Ashkenaz. Thema: A Series of Thematological Studies in the Literature of the Jewish People. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2009.
  1672.  
  1673. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1674.  
  1675. The tale of Elhanan ben Shimʽon of Mainz, the kidnapped child who grew up to be a pope, reunite with his own father, return to Judaism, and become a martyr, is available in forty-eight versions, the first of which is found in an early-14th-century manuscript. Its roots are in history and in Jewish and international folklore (ATU 671). Translated as “The Jewish pope: History of a medieval Ashkenazic legend.”
  1676.  
  1677. Find this resource:
  1678.  
  1679. Sherman, Joseph. The Jewish Pope: Myth, Diaspora and Yiddish Literature. Studies in Yiddish 4. Oxford: Legenda, European Humanities Research Center, University of Oxford, 2003.
  1680.  
  1681. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1682.  
  1683. Between 1602 and 1958 the story of the Jewish pope appeared four times in Yiddish literature. First in the Mayseh-bukh (1602), and then it was written about by Dik (b. 1807–d. 1893), Trunk (b. 1820–d. 1893), Singer (b. 1902–d. 1991), and Zangwill (b. 1864–d. 1926). The biblical story of Joseph is the model for a myth of universal rule by a son of a marginalized people.
  1684.  
  1685. Find this resource:
  1686.  
  1687. Stroll, M. The Jewish Pope: Ideology and Politics in the Papal Schism of 1130. Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1987.
  1688.  
  1689. DOI: 10.1163/9789004246577Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1690.  
  1691. Possibly, the historical core of the Jewish pope legend (see Micah-Joseph Bin Gorion, Mimekor Yisrael (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), pp. 238–242) is the papal schism of 1130 in which six cardinals elected Innocent II (d. 1143) to the papacy, and later that same day twenty-one cardinals elected Cardinal Pierleoni, who was a fourth-generation descendant of a Jew, as Pope Anacletus II (d. 1138).
  1692.  
  1693. Find this resource:
  1694.  
  1695. Modern Period
  1696. During the 20th century, Jewish folktale scholarship, carried out by amateur and academic folklorists alike, has increased in volume, in depth, and in breadth. Several historical reasons account for this development: (a) the emergence of international folktale scholarship in the 19th century; (b) the demographic changes in eastern European Jewish population, distinguished by emigration from the Pale of Settlement to western Europe and America, which transformed Jewish life and folklore into an object of nostalgia; (c) the emergence of Zionism and its cultural and demographic effects; (d) the destruction of European Jewry during the Holocaust; (e) the establishment of the State of Israel and, with it, the ingathering of exiles. Several institutes, organizations, and projects supported the recording of folktales, such as Der Gesellschaft für jüdische Volkskunde (“Society for Jewish Folklore”), founded in Hamburg in 1898, the 1912–1914 ethnographic expedition into the Pale of Settlement led by Shloyme Zanvil Rapoport (An-Sky), the folklore collection project initiated by YIVO (Yidishe visnshaftlekher institut/Institute for Jewish Research), the “Palestine Institute for Folklore and Ethnology, founded by Raphael Patai and J. J. Rivlin in 1944, and the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA), University of Haifa, founded by Dov Noy in 1955, which now holds more than 23, 000 texts of Jewish folktales from Arab lands, Israel, Ashkenazic sources, and the Sephardic dispersion.
  1697.  
  1698. History and Folktales
  1699. The beginnings of the Jewish community in Poland lack substantial historical documentation and are available only in unverifiable legendary traditions that early chroniclers included in their writings. Bar-Itzhak 2001 explores the interdependence of history and folklore in the narrative of Polish Jewry.
  1700.  
  1701. Bar-Itzhak, Haya. Jewish Poland: Legends of Origin, Ethnopoetics and Legendary Chronicles. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2001.
  1702.  
  1703. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1704.  
  1705. The story of the initial appearance of Jews in Poland lacks historical documentation, and it is available only in legends of origin noted by early chroniclers, historians, and writers. These legends consolidated and modified community identity, and, after the Holocaust, they were transformed from legends of origin to legends of destruction.
  1706.  
  1707. Find this resource:
  1708.  
  1709. Hasidic Tales
  1710. Hasidism is an ecstatic religious sect that emerged in eastern European Jewish society at the turn of the 19th century and later expanded in communities in America and Israel. Storytelling, particularly of hagiographic narratives, acquired the status of religious worship, as Buxbaum 1994 describes, and the Hasidic tale, as Dan 1975 and Nigal 2008b relate, became a major category in Jewish oral literature. Rabbi Israel Baal-Shem-Tov, who was a historical figure, as Etkes 2005, Nigal 2008a, and Rosman 2013 demonstrate, became a mythical figure in narrative tradition and a hero of many tales, together with other movement leaders, as examined in Dvir-Goldberg 2003. The hagiographic Hasidic tales have a specific formal structure, which Elstein 1983 describes, and the role of the book in their spread in society is studied in Gries 1992. The tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav constitutes a case of a unique convergence of orality, bilingualism, and print, as studied in Wiskind-Elper 1998.
  1711.  
  1712. Buxbaum, Yitzhak. Storytelling and Spirituality in Judaism. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1994.
  1713.  
  1714. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1715.  
  1716. Hasidic rabbis (rebbes) engaged in self-reflection regarding the role of storytelling in Hasidic life. They defended their practice, articulated its principles, addressed the issues of variations, truth, belief, audience, purpose, context, consequences, and its literary forms (allegory, fable, hagiography).
  1717.  
  1718. Find this resource:
  1719.  
  1720. Dan, Joseph. Ha-sippur ha-ḥasidi. Jerusalem: Keter, 1975.
  1721.  
  1722. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1723.  
  1724. The Hasidic tales include international themes, types, and motifs, but it is essentially a 19th-century Jewish European phenomenon, co-current with the rise of modern Hebrew literature. Shivhei ha-Besht, the tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav, and the tales that were published in the peak period of Hasidic literary creativity from 1864 to 1914 are examined closely. Translated as “The Hasidic story: Its history and development.”
  1725.  
  1726. Find this resource:
  1727.  
  1728. Dvir-Goldberg, Rivka. Ha-zaddik ha-ḥasidi ve-armon ha-livyatan: ʽIyun be-sippurei maʽasiyot mi-pi zaddikim. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2003.
  1729.  
  1730. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1731.  
  1732. In Hassidic society the leading rabbis are not only the object of hagiographic narratives but also the subjects of narrating tales, in which they are used as a primary vehicle for their teachings. The most prominent among the storytelling zaddikim are Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (b. 1772–d. 1810) and Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin (b. 1797–d. 1851), whose narrating art is analyzed. Translated as “The zaddik and the palace of leviathan: A study of Hassidic tales told by Zaddikim.”
  1733.  
  1734. Find this resource:
  1735.  
  1736. Elstein, Yoav. Ma′aseh ḥoshev: ′Iyunim ba-sippur ha-ḥasidi. Tel Aviv: Eked, 1983.
  1737.  
  1738. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1739.  
  1740. The Hassidic tale should not be studied separately from Hassidic. A correlation between narrative art and Hassidic theology enables a comprehensive interpretation of these tales. Their poetics can be articulated through thematic and formal and structural analyses and through exploration of their roots in traditional Jewish literature. Translated as “Design work: Studies in Hassidic tales.”
  1741.  
  1742. Find this resource:
  1743.  
  1744. Etkes, Immanuel. The Besht: Magician, Mystic, and Leader. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2005.
  1745.  
  1746. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1747.  
  1748. The Baal-Shem-Tov was the founder of the Hasidic movement and the reconstruction of his image as a magician, a community leader, and a mystic demonstrates his influence in all these roles.
  1749.  
  1750. Find this resource:
  1751.  
  1752. Gries, Zeev. Sefer, sofer ve-sippur bereshit ha-ḥasidut. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1992.
  1753.  
  1754. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1755.  
  1756. The printed book played a major in the history of the Hasidic movement. At its inception its leaders and adherents advocated the ideas of the movement and told its tales orally. Since 1780 print by means of its agents—authors, scribes, editors, publishers, booksellers, and scholars—contributed to the spread and popularity of the movement both within and outside its circles. Translated as “The book in early Hasidism: Genres, authors, scribes, managing editors and its review by their contemporaries and scholars.”
  1757.  
  1758. Find this resource:
  1759.  
  1760. Nigal, Gedalyah. Ha-besht: Aggadot, apologetikah u-metzi’ut. Jerusalem: Institute for Hasidic Literature Research, 2008a.
  1761.  
  1762. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1763.  
  1764. The Hasidic legends are motivated by an apologetic tendency that purport to counter the objection to the Besht’s leadership by validating his erudition and the piety of his ancestors. Translated as “The Besht: Legends, apologetics, and reality.”
  1765.  
  1766. Find this resource:
  1767.  
  1768. Nigal, Gedalyah. The Hasidic Tale. Translated by E. Levin. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2008b.
  1769.  
  1770. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1771.  
  1772. Hasidism, like no other Jewish religious movement, engaged intensively in storytelling. The Hasidic tale is a sanctified story related by Hasidim about their leaders or by the leaders themselves. It was told orally and appeared in print from the beginning of the 19th century, revolving around such themes as the Tsadik, marriage, offspring, agunut, sin, illness, the dead, dybbuks, and more.
  1773.  
  1774. Find this resource:
  1775.  
  1776. Rosman, Moshe. Founder of Hasidism: A Quest for the Historical Ba′al Shem Tov. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2013.
  1777.  
  1778. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1779.  
  1780. Newly discovered archival sources reveal the historical, rather than the legendary, life of the founder of Hasidism, with a detailed description of his life and the cultural, social, economic, and political context in which he lived, which has changed thereby the understanding of the master narrative of Hasidism. The new introduction in this volume updates scholarship on Hasidism and addresses criticism of the original edition. Originally published 1996.
  1781.  
  1782. Find this resource:
  1783.  
  1784. Wiskind-Elper, Ora. Tradition and Fantasy in the Tales of Reb Nahman of Bratslav. SUNY Series in Judaica: Hermeneutics, Mysticism, and Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
  1785.  
  1786. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1787.  
  1788. The thirteen tales of Reb Nahman, recounted in Yiddish orally during his last four years, and translated into Hebrew by Nathan Sternharz, share images and concepts with his teaching, but they differ in form. Each narrative presents a self-contained fantasy world, born of the narrator’s imagination and Jewish tradition, in which symbols and allegory interweave with elusive and enigmatic elements.
  1789.  
  1790. Find this resource:
  1791.  
  1792. Tales of Mortals and Demons
  1793. Rabbinic literature censored demonic narratives or condemned belief in demons. Nevertheless, both continued to be an integral part of folk traditions, and stories about interrelations between mortals and demons became available in the Middle Ages and onward, as Zfatman 1987 relates.
  1794.  
  1795. Zfatman, Sara. Nisu′ei adam ve-shedah: Gilgulav shel motiv ba-siporet ha-ʽamamit shel yehudei ashkenaz ba-me′ot ha-t”z- y”t. Jerusalem: Akademon, 1987.
  1796.  
  1797. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1798.  
  1799. The motif of a marriage between a mortal man and a demonic woman occurs in Ashkenazi folk literature and is examined in five texts starting with the 1514 “Mayse fun Vorms” and concluding with a 1893 version of this tale from eastern Galicia in Poland. These Yiddish tales have an affinity with the narrative tradition on exorcism. Translated as “The marriage of a mortal man and a she-demon: The transformation of a motif in the folk narrative of Ashkenazi Jewry in the sixteenth–nineteenth centuries.”
  1800.  
  1801. Find this resource:
  1802.  
  1803. Israel
  1804. Immigrants brought with them to Israel the narrative traditions of their Diaspora communities. In Israel itself, the first and second generations of immigrants told different kinds of tales. These were stories of settlement (Bar-Itzhak 2005), immigration and integration (Schely-Newman 2002), and traveling community (Noy 2007). The comparative study of Arab and Jewish narratives reveals a long tradition of interdependence that preceded the current encounter between the two peoples, as Schwarzbaum 1975 relates.
  1805.  
  1806. Bar-Itzhak, Haya. Israeli Folk Narratives: Settlement, Immigration, Ethnicity. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005.
  1807.  
  1808. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1809.  
  1810. Folklore and oral traditions are an integral part of the modern Jewish national settlement in Eretz-Israel during the 20th century. Distinct from the traditions immigrants brought with them from their Diaspora communities, they include kibbutz local legends, legends of immigration and absorption, and ethnic folklore within an Israeli context.
  1811.  
  1812. Find this resource:
  1813.  
  1814. Noy, Chaim. A Narrative Community: Voices of Israeli Backpackers. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2007.
  1815.  
  1816. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1817.  
  1818. Backpacking (tarmilaˋut) in “exotic” and “authentic” destinations has become a rite of passage for young Israelis after they are discharged from their military service. Upon their return they recount, reflect upon, and relive their travel experience in the company of former backpackers like themselves, who join together to become a narrative community.
  1819.  
  1820. Find this resource:
  1821.  
  1822. Schely-Newman, Esther. Our Lives Are but Stories: Narratives of Tunisian-Israeli Women. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002.
  1823.  
  1824. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1825.  
  1826. Four women tell their personal narratives of cultural shock that followed immigration from Tunisia to Israel and transition from a life lived in the privacy of women’s quarters to one in farming communities. These change effected their storytelling, enabling them to shift from veiled metaphors to open accounts as they narrate their personal lives, creating thereby new identities for them and new outlets for their storytelling.
  1827.  
  1828. Find this resource:
  1829.  
  1830. Schwarzbaum, H. Mimkor Yisrael ve-Yishmael: Yahadut ve-ˋIslam be-aspaklaryat ha-folklor. Tel Aviv: Don, 1975.
  1831.  
  1832. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1833.  
  1834. There is a mutual influence between Jewish and Arabic folklore and literature, which spans a long history since the emergence of Islam and one that involves biblical themes, local legends, and mythological and religious subjects. Translated as “The folklore aspects of Judaism and Islam.”
  1835.  
  1836. Find this resource:
  1837.  
  1838. Sepharad
  1839. These three studies represent three stages of research into Sephardic tales. Grunwald 1982 is a collection and study dated back to the beginning of the 20th century conducted in Europe; Alexander-Frizer 2008 is a summative analysis of research conducted during the 20th century; and Held 2009 is an analysis of narrative performance in communal feminine meetings involving nostalgia and revival.
  1840.  
  1841. Alexander-Frizer, Tamar. The Heart Is a Mirror: The Sephardic Folktale. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2008.
  1842.  
  1843. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1844.  
  1845. Told in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), the Sephardic folktale expresses the ethnic identity of the community, linguistically, contextually, and thematically, through connections to Jewish tradition and to the Hispanic and regional folklore of the Sephardic Diaspora. Its genres, legends, ethical tales, fairy tales, novellas, and humorous tales represent the Sephardic identity in terms of their narrative features, an identity that becomes apparent in storytelling performance.
  1846.  
  1847. Find this resource:
  1848.  
  1849. Grunwald, M. Sippurei-′am, romansot, ve-ʹorḥot-ḥayim shel yehudei sepharad: Textim u-meḥkarim. Edited by Dov Noy. Folklore Research Center Studies 6. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1982.
  1850.  
  1851. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1852.  
  1853. Max (Meir) Grunwald (b. 1871–d. 1953) is the father of Jewish folkloristics and of studies in Sephardic Jewish cultural heritage. This volume includes a selection of seventy tales and nineteen songs from the Max Grunwald Archives, which he recorded mostly in Vienna during World War I, together with a selection of his studies in Sephardic folklore and culture. Translated as “Tales, songs and folkways of the Sephardic Jews, texts and studies.”
  1854.  
  1855. Find this resource:
  1856.  
  1857. Held, Michael. Bo′i asaper lakh/ven te kontare: ʽIyun rav-teḥumi ba-sippurim ha-ʹishiim shel mesaprot ′amamiyot dovrot sefaradit yehudit (ladino). Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2009.
  1858.  
  1859. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1860.  
  1861. Seven Sephardic women, part of a larger group that met regularly in Jerusalem for twenty years to tell stories in Judeo-Spanish, told their personal narratives in 1999–2000. The group, a socially “reimagined community,” created its own nostalgic context of storytelling, and analysis of their tales draws upon theories of folklore, literary theory, psychology, and sociology. Translated as “Let me tell you a story, Vent e kontare: The personal narratives of Judeo-Spanish-speaking storytelling women: An interdisciplinary study.”
  1862.  
  1863. Find this resource:
  1864.  
  1865. Collections of Folktales and Fables
  1866. Modern anthologies of Jewish folktales reflect a growing interest in the subject in Israel, Europe, and the United States. The editors accompany the tales with comparative annotations in offering a literary-historical context for each story, and they interpret its meanings in the Jewish tradition and society. In addition to general narrative anthologies, ethnic and regional collections have appeared, concentrating on storytelling in communities in Arab lands, Ashkenaz, Israel, and the Sephardic dispersion. There are two sources for the general folktale anthologies: medieval and early modern folk books, which are assembled in Ben-Yehezki’el 1956–1958 and Bin Gorion 1990, and oral tradition, which are published in Jason 1976, Noy 1963, Schram 1991, and Schram 2000.
  1867.  
  1868. Ben-Yehezki’el, Mordekhai, ed. Sefer ha-maʹasiyot: Melukat mi-sefarim umi-pi ha-shmuʹah. 6 vols. Tel Aviv: Dvir, 1956–1958.
  1869.  
  1870. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1871.  
  1872. Tales, collected primarily from folk books, organized thematically on topics that include: hospitality, philanthropy, repentance, religious slaughterers, crime and punishment, trials, rewards, confidence, grateful dead, kaddish, lovers, destiny, bonds, writers and books, Jewish leaders, proselytes, pious women, between the living and the dead, circumcision, misers, popes, demons, transmigration, martyrs, matchmakers, and mates, treasures, hypocrites, craftsmen, demons, deserted wives, and more. Originally published in three volumes in 1924 and 1925. Translated as “Book of tales: Collected from books and oral tradition.”
  1873.  
  1874. Find this resource:
  1875.  
  1876. Bin Gorion, Micah-Joseph. Mimekor Yisrael: Classical Jewish Folktales, Abridged and Annotated. Edited by Emanuel Bin Gorion. Translated by I. M. Lask. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990.
  1877.  
  1878. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1879.  
  1880. An anthology of tales from the Middle Ages and subsequent periods about the biblical themes and figures, the Second Temple period, the Talmudic and the medieval periods, Hasidic tales, tales of Elijah the Prophet, and tales of romance, fantasy, wisdom, and ethics. Introduction and headnotes by Dan Ben-Amos. This is an abridged edition of Mimekor Yisrael: Classical Jewish Folktales, 3 vols. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976), which is a translation of Der Born Judas, 6 vols. (Leipzig: Insel, 1916–1923).
  1881.  
  1882. Find this resource:
  1883.  
  1884. Jason, Heda, ed. Märchen aus Israel. Translated by S. Gassmann. Die Märchen der Weltliteratur. Düsseldorf: Diederichs, 1976.
  1885.  
  1886. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1887.  
  1888. A total of seventy-seven tales from Jewish narrative traditions of Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and from the oral tales that were recorded in Israel in the 20th century and are now on deposit at the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA). The tales are jokes, legends, Märchen, mythic tales, and wisdom novellas.
  1889.  
  1890. Find this resource:
  1891.  
  1892. Noy, Dov. Folktales of Israel. Translated by G. Baharav. Folktales of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.
  1893.  
  1894. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1895.  
  1896. A total of seventy-one tales selected from the first two thousand narrative texts recorded in Israel and deposited in the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA). Immigrants to Israel from sixteen countries tell about righteous and covetous people, talking animals, kings and commoners, clever Jews, husbands and wives, heroes and heroines, wise men and numbskulls. Their stories belong to the international body of popular tales.
  1897.  
  1898. Find this resource:
  1899.  
  1900. Schram, Peninnah. Tales of Elijah the Prophet. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1991.
  1901.  
  1902. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1903.  
  1904. Thirty seven retold tales about Elijah the Prophet, one of the most popular folklore heroes in the traditional narratives of Jewish ethnic groups, culled from the Israel Folktale Archives and other sources, annotated with motif and tale type identification. He is a master miracle worker, appearing in many disguises ranging from an old man to a horseman. Foreword by Dov Noy.
  1905.  
  1906. Find this resource:
  1907.  
  1908. Schram, Peninnah, ed. Stories within Stories: From the Jewish Oral Tradition. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 2000.
  1909.  
  1910. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1911.  
  1912. Fifty framed or embedded tales from Jewish oral tradition, thirty-nine of which are from the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA), told by narrators from Arab lands as well as from Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities.
  1913.  
  1914. Find this resource:
  1915.  
  1916. Midrash and Aggadah
  1917. The narratives in the Talmudic-midrashic books are interspersed among exegetical, religious, ethical, and judicial commentary and discussions. Modern scholars extracted the narratives from their traditional literary contexts and organized them thematically. Bialik and Ravnitzky 1992 is a formative anthology, which was initially published in 1908–1911 as an early effort toward the realization of Bialik’s vision of preparing a bookshelf of traditional Jewish literature for modern Jews. Nadich 1994, Rubenstein 2002, and Beitner 2011 are works whose authors selected from the same sources only rabbinical tales, and Margaliyot 1960 includes selected tales about Elijah the Prophet. Ginzberg 2003 is a synthesis of the rabbinical tradition about biblical narratives prepared with comprehensive scholarly annotation that makes it an indispensable research tool. Graves and Patai 1964 follows the same scholarly tradition in offering a scholarly synthesis of traditional tales, which, in this case, is modeled after a similar work on classical myths that Robert Graves had earlier published.
  1918.  
  1919. Beitner, A. Sippurei Yavneh: Bikur ḥolim ve-niḥum ʼavelim. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2011.
  1920.  
  1921. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1922.  
  1923. Between 70 and 132 CE Yavneh was a city of scholars. Its tales constitute a homogenous literary category sharing components in which it is possible to distinguish thematic groups, such as these tales. The proposed explanation for the thematic and structural similarity of tales of this genre is literary rather than folkloristic. Translated as “Yavneh stories: Visiting the sick and consoling mourners.”
  1924.  
  1925. Find this resource:
  1926.  
  1927. Bialik, Hayim N., and Yehoshua H. Ravnitzky, eds. The Book of Legends: Sefer Ha-Aggadah: Legends from the Talmud and Midrash. Translated by W. G. Braude. Introduced by D. Stern. New York: Schocken, 1992.
  1928.  
  1929. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1930.  
  1931. Originally published by Hayim Nahman Bialik (b. 1873–d. 1934) and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky (b. 1859–d. 1944) in 1908–1911, this narrative anthology introduced the literature of Jewish oral tradition to a generation that no longer studied it in its original compilations. They organized the tales thematically and historically, including chapters about biblical heroes and Talmudic rabbinical leaders.
  1932.  
  1933. Find this resource:
  1934.  
  1935. Ginzberg, Louis. Legends of the Jews. 2 vols. 2d ed. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003.
  1936.  
  1937. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1938.  
  1939. Synthesis and summary of the tales about biblical events and figures, from creation to Esther, that were told in Late Antiquity and are available in the post-biblical oral tradition in Talmudic and midrashic books. The profuse annotation, documenting the original sources, makes this set a fundamental research tool, the value of which has not waned with time. Originally published in seven volumes 1909–1939.
  1940.  
  1941. Find this resource:
  1942.  
  1943. Graves, Robert, and Raphael Patai. Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964.
  1944.  
  1945. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1946.  
  1947. Modeled after Robert Graves, Greek Myths (1955), the mythic narratives, which are excluded from the Bible but appear in the apocryphal books, the midrashim, and the Talmud, are summarized with ample annotation to their original sources and with references to Ugaritic and Mesopotamian mythologies.
  1948.  
  1949. Find this resource:
  1950.  
  1951. Margaliyot, E. Eliyahu ha-navi be-sifrut Yisra’el, be-emunato uve-ḥaye ruḥo. Jerusalem: Kiryat Sefer, 1960.
  1952.  
  1953. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1954.  
  1955. The forty-four texts about Elijah the Prophet that are extracted from post-biblical Jewish literature, including the Talmud and the Midrash, medieval literature, and the kabbalah and Hasidic narratives, offer a comprehensive view of his image as it has historically evolved in Jewish literature. Translated as “Elijah the Prophet in Jewish literature, religion, and spiritual life.”
  1956.  
  1957. Find this resource:
  1958.  
  1959. Nadich, Judah. The Legends of the Rabbis. 2 vols. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1994.
  1960.  
  1961. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1962.  
  1963. These legends have been culled from Talmudic-midrashic sources, and they were combined to create continuous narratives about figures, institutions, and events during a period from about 538 BCE to about 115 CE. Includes Vol. 1: “Jewish Legends of the Second Commonwealth,” and Vol. 2: “The First Generation after the Destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem.”
  1964.  
  1965. Find this resource:
  1966.  
  1967. Rubenstein, Jeffrey L., ed. and trans. Rabbinic Stories. New York: Paulist, 2002.
  1968.  
  1969. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1970.  
  1971. Stories from the Talmuds and the midrashim about historical memories and lessons from history, rabbinic authority and rabbinic personalities, life and death in the rabbinic academy, holy men and rabbinic masters, women, wives and marriage, Romans and gentiles, life of piety, suffering and martyrdom, and sin and repentance. Preface by J. D. Cohen.
  1972.  
  1973. Find this resource:
  1974.  
  1975. Medieval Period
  1976. Arab culture and language had a major influence on medieval Jewish narrative traditions, and rabbis and literary authors edited collections of folktales that combined Jewish traditional narratives (Brinner 1977, Gaster 1968, Shapira 2005) and tales that do not have analogues in traditional Jewish literature (Epstein 1967 and Yassif 1984).
  1977.  
  1978. Brinner, William M., ed. and trans. An Elegant Composition Concerning Relief after Adversity by Nissim ben Jacob ibn Shāhīn. Yale Judaica Series 20. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977.
  1979.  
  1980. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1981.  
  1982. A retelling in Judeo-Arabic of thirty-four ethical tales from the Jewish oral tradition written by Nissim ben Jacob ibn Shahin of Kairouan, Tunisia (11th century), modeled after Kitab al-Faraji baʽd al-Shiddah by Abū ʽAli al-Muhassin al-Tanukhi (b. 940–d. 997), first printed in 1557 in Ferrara, Italy. The English translation is of Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew texts from 1933, 1953, and 1965.
  1983.  
  1984. Find this resource:
  1985.  
  1986. Epstein, Morris, ed. and trans. Tales of Sendebar: An Edition and Translation of the Hebrew Version of the Seven Sages, Based on Unpublished Manuscripts. Judaica Texts and Translation First Series Number Two. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1967.
  1987.  
  1988. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1989.  
  1990. The Hebrew text of this anti-feminist romance constitutes a bridge between the eastern and western versions of the book known as “The Seven Sages of Rome.” Eighteen manuscripts are available, two of them in the Bodleian Library in Oxford (Heb. D. 11 and Bodl. Or. 135) dated to 1325 and 1250, respectively, that are the basis for this critical edition.
  1991.  
  1992. Find this resource:
  1993.  
  1994. Gaster, Moses. The Exempla of the Rabbis: Being a Collection of Exempla, Apologues and Tales Culled from Hebrew Manuscripts and Rare Hebrew books. New York: Ktav, 1968.
  1995.  
  1996. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  1997.  
  1998. A 13th-century or 14th-century manuscript of Talmudic-midrashic legends in Hebrew with English summaries and comparative annotation. “Prolegomenon” by W. G. Braude. Originally published in 1924. Evaluated by P. S. Alexander, “Gaster’s Exempla of the Rabbis: A Reappraisal,” in RASHI 1040–1990: Hommage à Ephraïm E. Urbach, edited by Gabrielle Sed-Rajna (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), pp. 793–805; R. Kushelevsky, “Some Remarks on the Date and Sources of ‘Sefer ha-Maʽasiyyot,” Kiryat Sefer 68, Supplement (1998): 155–157.
  1999.  
  2000. Find this resource:
  2001.  
  2002. Shapira, Anat, ed. Midrash Aseret Ha-Dibrot. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2005.
  2003.  
  2004. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2005.  
  2006. First printed in Venice in 1541, the tale collection is dated to the 10th century in a Muslim country, likely Iran, and available in two types: exegetical and anthological. Its tales are predicated on the Ten Commandments. Manuscript Paris 716, which is the basis for this critical edition, includes thirty-six tales, twenty-seven major and nine secondary. Appendix includes additional tales. Translated as “A Midrash on the Ten Commandments.”
  2007.  
  2008. Find this resource:
  2009.  
  2010. Yassif, Eli. Sippurei Ben-Sira bi-yemei ha-beinaim. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1984.
  2011.  
  2012. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2013.  
  2014. The book known as Alpha Beta de Ben-Sira consists of two separate works: “Toldot Ben-Sira” (late 9th–early 10th centuries, written in Iraq) and “Alpha Beta de Ben-Sira” (end of 10th century or beginning of 11th century, written in a Muslim country, possibly in North Africa). It is subject to textual, literary, and folkloristic analyses, and the scholarship about it is examined critically. Translated as “The tales of Ben Sira in the Middle Ages: A critical text and literary studies.”
  2015.  
  2016. Find this resource:
  2017.  
  2018. Tales From European Countries
  2019. In Italy (Flusser 1980, Gaster 1971, Yassif 2001) and in France and Germany (Yassif 2013), scribes wrote down tales that circulated in medieval Jewish oral tradition, and with the transition from script to print some of them were published in Yiddish (Gaster 1934, Katz 1994, Meitlis 1969). A number of these manuscripts are now subject to scholarly research and will likely be published in the future. Stern, et al. 1990 includes an English translation of selected texts.
  2020.  
  2021. Flusser, D., ed. Sefer Yosifun (The Josippon [Josephus Gorionides]). 2 vols. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1980.
  2022.  
  2023. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2024.  
  2025. Critical edition that draws on medieval manuscripts of the historiography of the Second Temple period by an anonymous author from southern Italy, written in 953, and modeled on the writings of Josephus Flavius (b. 37?–d. 100) and uses other sources. Later versions constituted a popular history of the period that was read in Jewish communities.
  2026.  
  2027. Find this resource:
  2028.  
  2029. Gaster, Moses, ed. and trans. Maʽaseh Book: Book of Jewish Tales and Legends. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1934.
  2030.  
  2031. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2032.  
  2033. The largest Old Yiddish folktale collection published in Basel, Switzerland, in 1602 by Jacob ben Abraham of Mezeritch, Lithuania. The tales are culled from Talmudic-midrashic, medieval anthologies, and hagiographic narratives about rabbinical leaders and personalities of medieval Jewry in central Europe.
  2034.  
  2035. Find this resource:
  2036.  
  2037. Gaster, Moses, ed. and trans. The Chronicles of Jerahmeel; or the Hebrew Bible Historiale, Being a Collection of Apocryphal and Pseudo-Epigraphical Books Dealing with the History of the World from the Creation to the Death of Judas Maccabeus. New York: Ktav, 1971.
  2038.  
  2039. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2040.  
  2041. Selections of Manuscript Heb.D.11 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in English translation. “Prolegomenon” by H. Schwarzbaum. Originally published 1899. See Yassif 2001.
  2042.  
  2043. Find this resource:
  2044.  
  2045. Katz, Eli, ed. and trans. Book of Fables: The Yiddish Fable Collection of Reb Moshe Wallich Frankfurt am Main, 1697. Jewish Folklore and Anthropology Series. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.
  2046.  
  2047. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2048.  
  2049. A bilingual English-Yiddish edition of Sefer Mesholim, a Yiddish book of fables originally published in 1697 in Frankfurt am Main by Moses ben Eliezer Wallich, who in fact reproduced the earlier Yiddish fable book known as the Ku-Bukh (Cow Book) published in 1595 or even earlier in 1555. Its thirty-four fables are part of the European Aesop canon.
  2050.  
  2051. Find this resource:
  2052.  
  2053. Meitlis, Jakob, ed. Mayseh–bukh: 84 dertseylungen fun der 1ter oysgabe in Bazel in 1602. Buenos Aires: Ateneo Literario en El Instituto Cientifico Judio, 1969.
  2054.  
  2055. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2056.  
  2057. A selection from the tales of the Maʽaseh book in their original Yiddish (see Gaster 1971). Translated as “The book of stories, Basel 1602, and studies on Jewish literature.”
  2058.  
  2059. Find this resource:
  2060.  
  2061. Stern, David, and Mark J. Mirsky, eds. Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature. Translated by N. Bronznick, Y. Elman, M. Govrin, A. Green, M. Himmelfarb, I. Marcus, M. J. Mirsky, J. Rosenberg, D. Ruderman, R. F. Scheindlin, D. Stern, and A. Weinstein. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990.
  2062.  
  2063. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2064.  
  2065. English translations of selections from primarily medieval Jewish narrative books such as Sefer Zerubbabel, Midrash on the Ten Commandments, Midrash Eleh Ezkerah, the Alphabet of Ben Sira, Sefer Hasidim, books of mysticism Sefer ha-bahir, the Zohar, folktales (“The Tale of the Jerusalemite),” literary narratives of Spanish and Italian authors, and a Hasidic tale.
  2066.  
  2067. Find this resource:
  2068.  
  2069. Yassif, Eli, ed. Sefer ha-zikhronot hu divrei ha-yamim le-yeraḥmiʾel. Tel Aviv: Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies, Tel Aviv University, 2001.
  2070.  
  2071. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2072.  
  2073. Manuscript Heb.D.11 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, is a universal history from the creation to the Messianic period, centered upon the Jewish people. Copied by Elazar ben Asher Ha-Levi in the 14th century, among others from a manuscript written by Jerahmeʾel ben Shelomoh, a poet who lived in northern Italy at the beginning of the 12th century. Translated as “The Book of Memory that is the Chronicles of Jerahme’el.”
  2074.  
  2075. Find this resource:
  2076.  
  2077. Yassif, Eli, ed. Me’ah sipurim ḥaser eḥad: Agadot ketav-yad Yerushalayim ba-folḳlor ha-Yehudi shel yeme ha-benayim. Tel Aviv: Haim Rubin Tel Aviv University Press, 2013.
  2078.  
  2079. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2080.  
  2081. This 16th-century manuscript (Jerusalem 8°3182) likely dates to 1300, probably from France or Germany, and is the largest extant collection of medieval Jewish tales. They recount complex intra-gender and intra-class relationships and the intricate association between the supernatural and the natural worlds that prevailed in medieval Jewish society. Translated as “Nine-nine tales: The Jerusalem Manuscript cycle of legends in medieval Jewish folklore.”
  2082.  
  2083. Find this resource:
  2084.  
  2085. Modern Period
  2086. In Jewish folktale research it is possible to consider the modern period as the new era of oral tradition when, guided by scholarly principles, folklorists recorded the oral traditions of Diaspora Jews, in particular in Europe and in Israel, where the traditions of Jews from Arab lands were recorded. In America no systematic research of tales from oral tradition has been undertaken, and here the scholarship of Jerome Mintz (b. 1930–d. 1997) stands out.
  2087.  
  2088. America
  2089. The legends in Mintz 1968 were recorded in the course of anthropological field research among several Hasidic communities in New York in 1959–1961 and the summer of 1963.
  2090.  
  2091. Mintz, J. R. Legends of the Hasidim: An Introduction to Hasidic Culture and Oral Tradition in the New World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968.
  2092.  
  2093. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2094.  
  2095. The Hasidic immigrants who came to the United states in the 1940s and 1950s maintained their culture and renewed their oral literature of wonder legends, parables, philosophical sayings, and historical accounts. Their oral tales, more than 370 of which have been recorded orally, demonstrate intimate relationships with law, ritual, cultural values, and social structure.
  2096.  
  2097. Find this resource:
  2098.  
  2099. Arab Lands
  2100. Jewish communities in Arab lands carried on a vital tradition of storytelling almost until their emigration to Israel and other countries during the second half of the 20th century following the establishment of the State of Israel. During the 19th century some tales were written down in manuscripts (Avishur 1992, Avishur 1998), but upon the arrival of storytellers in Israel they were recorded from oral narration and deposited in the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA). The founder of the IFA, Dov Noy was a tireless recorder and editor of the tales of Jews from Arab lands (Noy 1963, Noy 1965, Noy 1966a, Noy 1966b, Noy 1967). Ben-Amos 2011 is an anthology of tales drawn from the IFA.
  2101.  
  2102. Avishur, Yitzhak, ed. and trans. Ha-sippur ha-ʹamami shel yehudei Iraq: Mivḥar sippurim mi-kitvei-yad. Haifa, Israel: University of Haifa, 1992.
  2103.  
  2104. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2105.  
  2106. A bilingual edition in Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew of thirty tales, each accompanied by commentary and analysis. Translated as “The folktales of the Jews of Iraq: Thirty stories in Judeo-Arabic from 19th century manuscripts.”
  2107.  
  2108. Find this resource:
  2109.  
  2110. Avishur, Yitzhak, ed. and trans. Shivḥei ha-Rambam: Sippurim ʽamamyim be-ʽaravit yehudit u-ve-ʽivrit me-ha-mizraḥ u-mitzfon–Africa. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1998.
  2111.  
  2112. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2113.  
  2114. A total of 141 folktales about Maimonides (b. 1135–d. 1204), published from manuscripts, prints, and oral traditions, from Iraq, Yemen, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco and concerning his his childhood, medical education and practice, mystical knowledge and practice of magic, erudition, immigration, and communal leadership. Translated as “In praise of Maimonides: Folktales in Judaeo-Arabic and Hebrew from the Near East and North Africa.”
  2115.  
  2116. Find this resource:
  2117.  
  2118. Ben-Amos, Dan, ed. Folktales of the Jews. Vol. 3, Tales from Arab Lands. Translated by Jacqueline Teitelbaum. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2011.
  2119.  
  2120. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2121.  
  2122. A selection of sixty tales from the Israel Folktale Archives Named in Honor of Dov Noy, that were recorded from immigrants from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen and organized generically as legends, moral tales, folktales, and humorous tales. Consulting editor Dov Noy and series editor Ellen Frankel.
  2123.  
  2124. Find this resource:
  2125.  
  2126. Noy, Dov. Jefet Schwili erzählt: Hundertneunundsechzig jemenitische Volkserzälungen aufgezeichnet in Israel, 1957–1960. Supplement-Serie zu Fabula Zeitschrift für Erzählforschung, Series A: Texts. Vol. 4. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1963.
  2127.  
  2128. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2129.  
  2130. A collection and study of a master Jewish-Yemenite storyteller.
  2131.  
  2132. Find this resource:
  2133.  
  2134. Noy, Dov. Ha-naʽarah ha-yefefiyah u-shloshet bnei-ha-melekh: 120 sippurei-ʽam mi-pi-yehudei Iraq. Tel Aviv: ʽAm-ʽOved, 1965.
  2135.  
  2136. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2137.  
  2138. Eight Jewish-Iraqi narrators told the 120 tales to three collectors, who deposited the texts at the Israel Folktale Archives at the University of Haifa. Scholarly notes, bibliographies, an essay about Tunisian Jewry, and a set of indexes accompany the tales. Translated as “Jewish-Iraqi folktales.”
  2139.  
  2140. Find this resource:
  2141.  
  2142. Noy, Dov. Moroccan Jewish Folktales. New York: Herzel, 1966a.
  2143.  
  2144. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2145.  
  2146. Thirty-one Jewish-Moroccan storytellers told seventy-one tales to thirteen collectors who deposited the texts at the Israel Folktale Archives at the University of Haifa. Scholarly notes, bibliographies, an essay about Tunisian Jewry, and a set of indexes accompany the tales. Foreword by Raphael Patai.
  2147.  
  2148. Find this resource:
  2149.  
  2150. Noy, Dov. Shivʽim sippurim ve-sippur mi-pi yehudei Tunisia. Jerusalem: Bi-Tfutzot ha-Gola, 1966b.
  2151.  
  2152. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2153.  
  2154. Thirteen Tunisian-Jewish storytellers told these seventy-one tales to nine collectors who deposited the texts at the Israel Folktale Archives at the University of Haifa. Scholarly notes, bibliographies, an essay about Tunisian Jewry, and a set of indexes accompany the tales. Translated as “Jewish folktales from Tunisia.”
  2155.  
  2156. Find this resource:
  2157.  
  2158. Noy, Dov. Shivʽim sippurim ve-sippur mi-pi yehudei Luv. Jerusalem: Bi-Tefutzot ha-Golah, 1967.
  2159.  
  2160. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2161.  
  2162. Eleven Jewish-Libyan storytellers told seventy-one tales to seven collectors who deposited the texts at the Israel Folktale Archives at the University of Haifa. Scholarly notes, bibliographies, an essay about Tunisian Jewry, and a set of indexes accompany the tales. Translated as “Jewish folktales from Libya: Seventy-one tales from oral tradition collected in Israel.”
  2163.  
  2164. Find this resource:
  2165.  
  2166. Hasidic Tales
  2167. Hasidic writers and printers published tales that circulated in oral tradition during the 19th century. The first of these collections of hagiographic legends was Shivhei ha-Besht, which was published in 1814 (Ben-Amos and Mintz 1970, Grözinger, 1997, Rubinstein 1991). Throughout the century numerous chapbooks of Hasidic tales were published. Buber 1947 is an anthology of legends culled from these publications, and Nigal 2006 is a scholarly edition of tales that two popularizers of the Hasidic tales published. Eliach 1982 includes rewritten tales that are based on Hasidic stories from the Holocaust period. Unique within this tradition are the tales of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (b. 1772–d. 1810), which were written down by his disciple from oral performance (Band 1978).
  2168.  
  2169. Band, Arnold J., ed. and trans. Nahman of Bratslav: The Tales. Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist, 1978.
  2170.  
  2171. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2172.  
  2173. Thirteen tales told by Rabbi Nahman of Bratslavin the Ukraine between 1806 and 1810, and dictated orally to Rabbi Nathan Sternhartz of Nemirov (b. 1780–d. 1845), who published them in 1815. The tales combine mystical allegories with motifs and themes of European fairytales, and they present a rabbi as a storyteller rather than as an object of hagiographic narratives. Preface by Joseph Dan.
  2174.  
  2175. Find this resource:
  2176.  
  2177. Ben-Amos, Dan, and Jerome R. Mintz, eds. and trans. In Praise of the Baal Shem Tov (Shivḥei ha-Besht): The Earliest Collections of Legends about the Founder of Hasidism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970.
  2178.  
  2179. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2180.  
  2181. Written by Dov Ber (also Dob Baer ben Samuel), son-in-law of Alexander the Shohet, the Baal Shem Tov’ scribe for eight years, and printed in 1814 by Israel Yofeh of Kopys, Poland, this hagiography tells about Israel Baal Shem Tov, his birth, childhood, coming out as a magician and as a mystic his miracles, hidden sight, exorcism, religious devotions, and teachings.
  2182.  
  2183. Find this resource:
  2184.  
  2185. Buber, Martin. Tales of the Hasidim. 2 vols. Translated by Olga Marx. New York: Schocken, 1947.
  2186.  
  2187. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2188.  
  2189. During the 19th century Hasidic hagiographic literature flourished. The selected tales are grouped together, centered around individual Hasidic rabbis, and, when biographies are available, intended to be correlated narratively to the teachings of the respective rabbis and to confirm their image in the Hasidic tradition. Vol. 1: “The Early Masters”; Vol. 2, “The Later Masters.”
  2190.  
  2191. Find this resource:
  2192.  
  2193. Eliach, Yaffa. Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
  2194.  
  2195. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2196.  
  2197. Eighty-nine tales that are based on a single or several combined oral interviews with Hasidim who are Holocaust survivors, conducted by the author and others in Israel and the USA between 1970 and 1981, recounting horrific incidents, miraculous rescues, and the faith and hope of those interned in the camps and in the ghettoes.
  2198.  
  2199. Find this resource:
  2200.  
  2201. Grözinger, Karl E. Die Geschichten vom Baˋal Schem Tov Schivche ha-Bescht. 2 vols. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1997.
  2202.  
  2203. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2204.  
  2205. A bilingual, Hebrew/German and Yiddish/German scholarly edition of Shivhei ha-Besht (“In praise of the Baal Shem Tov”). Vol. 1: “Hebräisch mit deutscher Übersetzung”; Vol. 2: “Jiddisch mit deutscher Übersetzung: Jüdische Kultur.” With the collaboration of R. Berger, U. Faber, V. Lipphardt, and S. Senkbeil, and an essay by R. Elior.
  2206.  
  2207. Find this resource:
  2208.  
  2209. Nigal, G. Sippurim ḥasidiyim mi-Lemberg-Levov: Sifrei Fromkin-Rodkinson u-Bodek. Jerusalem: Ha-makhon le-ḥeker ha-sifrut ha-ḥasidit, 2006.
  2210.  
  2211. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2212.  
  2213. An anthology that includes two of the previously published books by the controversial writer Michael Levi Fromkin-Rodkinson (b. 1845–d. 1904) and four books by Menahem Bodek (b. c. 1825–d. 1874), in a revised edition. Both authors were popularizers of the Hasidic tale who drew upon Hasidic oral tradition and literature, rewriting their tales and expanded the readership of the tales beyond Hasidic society. Translated as “Hasidic tales from Lemberg-Lvov, Ukraine.”
  2214.  
  2215. Find this resource:
  2216.  
  2217. Rubinstein A., ed. Shivḥei ha-Besht: Mahadurah muʽeret u-mebhuʽret. Jerusalem: Rubin Mas, 1991.
  2218.  
  2219. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2220.  
  2221. A critical annotated edition of “In Praise of the Baʽal Shem Tov,” based on the first two Hebrew editions that were published in Kopys and Berdichev in 1814–1815, the Yiddish of Ostrog and Koretz, a manuscript and comparative and explanatory historical and cultural notes. Translated as “In Praise of the Baʽal Shem Tov (Shivhei ha-Besht).”
  2222.  
  2223. Find this resource:
  2224.  
  2225. Yiddish Folktales in Translation
  2226. The Yiddish-speaking Jews of eastern Europe had a vigorous storytelling tradition that included Jewish as well as Yiddish renditions of international narratives. YIVO (Yidishe visnshaftlekher institut/Institute for Jewish Research) initiated their collection, and tales from its archives appear in Lehman 1926–1933, Weinreich 1988, and Zfatman 1998. Neugroschel 2005 is a translation of selected tales from the popular Yiddish literature, and Schwarzbaum 1968 is a heavily annotated edition of tales that readers sent to the Forewarts, using a common folkloristic method of folklore collection. The tales in Stephani 1998 and in Ben-Amos 2007 were recorded in eastern Europe and in Israel, respectively, after the Holocaust.
  2227.  
  2228. Ben-Amos, Dan, ed. Folktales of the Jews. Vol. 2, Tales from Eastern Europe. Translated by Leonard J. Schramm. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2007.
  2229.  
  2230. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2231.  
  2232. A selection of seventy-one tales from the Israel Folktale Archives Named in Honor of Dov Noy, recorded from immigrants from Belarus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine, and organized as tales of the supernatural, of Hasidim, and of the Holocaust; includes historical, ethnic, moral, magical, and humorous tales. Consulting editor is Dov Noy, series editor is Ellen Frankel.
  2233.  
  2234. Find this resource:
  2235.  
  2236. Lehman, Szmil. “Eliahu ha-navi in der folks-fantazieh.” In Archiwum do filologii zydowskiej, historji I etnologii. Vol. 1. Edited by Nojach Prylucki and Szmil Lehman, 115–178. Warsaw: Najer Farlag, 1926–1933.
  2237.  
  2238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2239.  
  2240. Twenty-five Yiddish tales and legends about Elijah the Prophet, recorded from oral narration in Poland between 1906 and 1925. Translated as “Elijah the Prophet in the folk imagination.”
  2241.  
  2242. Find this resource:
  2243.  
  2244. Neugroschel, J. Radiant Days, Haunted Nights: Great Tales from the Treasury of Yiddish Folk Literature. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2005.
  2245.  
  2246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2247.  
  2248. These twenty-eight selections from oral popular, and literary Yiddish, sources range from the 16th to the 20th centuries. They are chosen with deliberate disregard for the distinctions among folktales, literary stories on folklore themes, and narratives in chapbooks, and with consideration of their sources as constituting a comprehensive Yiddish folk literature.
  2249.  
  2250. Find this resource:
  2251.  
  2252. Schwarzbaum, Haim. Studies in Jewish and World Folklore. Supplement Series to Fabula, Series B, no. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1968.
  2253.  
  2254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2255.  
  2256. A primary research source in Jewish folktale scholarship that includes abstracts and rich comparative bibliographic notes to 540 Yiddish tales found in Naftoli Gross, Maaselech un Mesholim (New York: Forewarts, 1955); with two appendixes on “Jewish Folk-Narrative Lore” and “Other Genres of Jewish Folklore.”
  2257.  
  2258. Find this resource:
  2259.  
  2260. Stephani, Claus. Ostjüdische Märchen. Die Märchen der Weltliteratur. Munich: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1998.
  2261.  
  2262. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2263.  
  2264. A total of fifty-four tales recorded from oral narration between 1968 and 1993 in Yiddish, Hungarian, German, and Romanian from Jews living in rural communities in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, Moldova, and Hungary. Their basic narrative genre is the mayseh, a category in which are included traditional tales, memoirs, personal narratives, and tales of happiness and pain.
  2265.  
  2266. Find this resource:
  2267.  
  2268. Weinreich, Beatrice S., ed. Yiddish Folktales. Translated by L. Wolf. Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library. New York: Pantheon, 1988.
  2269.  
  2270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2271.  
  2272. A selection of Yiddish tales from the archives of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research that were collected before and between the two world wars by folklorists and amateurs; includes legends, fairy tales, fables, and jokes about demons and princes, Elijah the Prophet and the Baal Shem Tov, the wise men of Khelm, dybbuks, golems, princesses, and rabbis.
  2273.  
  2274. Find this resource:
  2275.  
  2276. Zfatman, Sara, ed. Maʽasiyot kesem mi-pi yehudei mizraḥ eiropah/yidishe vunder-maʽasiyot fun mizreḥ-eyrope. Translated by Y. Birshtain and I. Basok. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad and Gurt Foundation, 1998.
  2277.  
  2278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2279.  
  2280. Thirty tales from the oral traditions of eastern European Jews told and recorded in the Pale of Settlement during the first four decades of the 20th century. They are on deposit at the archives of YIVO. Many tales have analogues in European folktales but include features that evidence their adaptation to Jewish culture. A bilingual edition. Translated as: Folktales told by eastern European Jews.”
  2281.  
  2282. Find this resource:
  2283.  
  2284. Sepharad Tales in Judeo-Spanish and in Translation
  2285. The recording of Judeo-Spanish tales began in the first decades of the 20th century, and since than it has grown substantially (see Alexander-Frizer 2008 [cited under Tales of Mortals and Demons: Sepharad] Haboucha 1992 [cited under Encyclopedias, Bibliographies, and Indexes: Modern Period]). The tale collections appeared in Judeo-Spanish (Alexander and Romero 1988), in Hebrew (Alexander and Noy 1989), in English translation (Ben-Amos 2006, Koén-Sarano 2004), in local dialect (Luria 1930), and in multiple dialects that are current among the Candian Sepharadim (Elbaz 1982).
  2286.  
  2287. Alexander, T., and Dov Noy. Otzaro shel abba: Me’ah sippurim ve-sippur mi-pi yehudei sefarad. Jerusalem: Misgav Yerushalayim, 1989.
  2288.  
  2289. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2290.  
  2291. A total of 101 tales recorded in Israel from oral tradition, and selected from 1,410 Judeo-Spanish tales in the Israel Folktales Archives, told by narrators from Spanish Morocco, Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece, and Israel. Only two of the tales are legends, the rest are magical tales (Märchen). Type and motif indexes are available. Translated as “The treasures of our fathers: Judeo-Spanish tales.”
  2292.  
  2293. Find this resource:
  2294.  
  2295. Alexander, T., and E. Romero. Erase una vez . . . Maimonides: Cuentos tradicionales Hebreos. Antologia. Estudios de Cultura Hebrea 8. Cordoba, Spain: Ediciones el Almendro, 1988.
  2296.  
  2297. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2298.  
  2299. A total of 105 tales with comparative notes and motif and type indexes about Maimonides (b. 1135–d. 1204) drawn from oral traditions, manuscripts, and printed sources from the 16th to the 20th centuries, from communities in East Europe, Arab lands, and the Mediterranean basin. They deal with his childhood, medical education, exile, medical practice, contests and traps, rabbinical leadership, and death and burial.
  2300.  
  2301. Find this resource:
  2302.  
  2303. Ben-Amos, Dan, ed. Folktales of the Jews. Vol. 1, Tales from the Sephardic Dispersion. Translated by Leonard J. Schramm. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2006.
  2304.  
  2305. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2306.  
  2307. A selection of seventy-one tales from the Israel Folktale Archives Named in Honor of Dov Noy, recorded from immigrants from the Balkan Peninsula, Morocco, Spain, Turkey, and members of the Sephardic community in Israel; organized generically as legends, moral tales, folktales, and humorous tales. Consulting editor is Dov Noy, series editor is Ellen Frankel.
  2308.  
  2309. Find this resource:
  2310.  
  2311. Elbaz, André E. Folktales of the Canadian Sephardim. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1982.
  2312.  
  2313. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2314.  
  2315. A total of eighty tales and the “Ballad of Sol the Just” selected out of 341 narratives recorded in Montreal and Toronto from Moroccan-born Sephardim who told tales about the Moroccan-Jewish saints and miracle workers, biblical heroes, and rabbinical figures as well as relating personal-experience narratives in Judeo-Arabic, French, and Judeo-Spanish. Introduction opens and motif index concludes the anthology. Translated from French.
  2316.  
  2317. Find this resource:
  2318.  
  2319. Koén-Sarano, Matilda, ed. King Solomon and the Golden Fish: Tales from the Sephardic Tradition. Translated and annotated by Reginetta Haboucha. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004.
  2320.  
  2321. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2322.  
  2323. Fifty four folktales about the supernatural, fate, Elijah the Prophet, romance, cleverness and wisdom, and humor, recorded from oral tradition in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), in Israel in the 1980s and 1990s, selected from the author’s archive, and accompanied by scholarly commentary by the translator. Preamble by Yoel S. Perez.
  2324.  
  2325. Find this resource:
  2326.  
  2327. Luria, Max A. “A Study of the Monastir Dialect of Judeo-Spanish Based on Oral Material Collected in Moastir, Yugo-Slavia.” Revue Hispanique 176 (1930): 323–583.
  2328.  
  2329. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2330.  
  2331. The important dialect study of the Jewish community of Bitola (formally Monastir) in the southwestern area of the Republic of Macedonia, includes stories, dialogues, riddles, proverbs, and ballads. The research began in New York among the Monastir immigrant community and was concluded with two months of field work in Monastir in 1927.
  2332.  
  2333. Find this resource:
  2334.  
  2335. Roth, Rita. The Power of Song and Other Sephardic Tales. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2007.
  2336.  
  2337. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2338.  
  2339. Retold Sephardic stories from the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA).
  2340.  
  2341. Find this resource:
  2342.  
  2343. Bilingual Editions
  2344. These Judeo-Spanish and Hebrew editions include tales recorded from the oral traditions of Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Israel (Koén-Sarano 1994, Koén-Sarano 1995, Koén-Sarano 1999, Koén-Sarano 2002, Moskonah, 1985).
  2345.  
  2346. Koén-Sarano, Matilda. Konsejas i konsejikas del mundo djudeo-espanyo. Jerusalem: Kana, 1994.
  2347.  
  2348. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2349.  
  2350. A bilingual, Judeo-Spanish and Hebrew, edition of Sephardic tales recorded from oral tradition from narrators from Turkey, Israel, and Greece, who told stories about love, hate, royal subjects, imaginary adventures, wit and wisdom, fate and fools, life in exile, and Jewish cleverness, as well as romantic and witty songs.
  2351.  
  2352. Find this resource:
  2353.  
  2354. Koén-Sarano, Matilda. De Saragosa a Yerushaláyim: Kuentos Sefaradís. Zaragoza, Spain: Ibercaja, 1995.
  2355.  
  2356. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2357.  
  2358. Judeo-Spanish tales from oral tradition, told in Israel by narrators, mostly from Turkey, about diverse subjects and figures that are current in the Sephardic tradition.
  2359.  
  2360. Find this resource:
  2361.  
  2362. Koén-Sarano, Matilda. Lejendas i kuentos morales de la tradisión djudeo-espanyola. Jerusalem: Nur, 1999.
  2363.  
  2364. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2365.  
  2366. An anthology in Judeo-Spanish and Hebrew of legends about King Solomon, Elijah the Prophet, Alexander the Great, and Napoleon Bonaparte as well as anonymous rabbis, concluding with tales the editor rendered in poetic form.
  2367.  
  2368. Find this resource:
  2369.  
  2370. Koén-Sarano, Matilda. El kurtijo enkantado: Kuentos i konsejas del mundo djudeo-espanyol. Jerusalem: Nur Afakot, 2002.
  2371.  
  2372. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2373.  
  2374. A bilingual, Judeo-Spanish and Hebrew, edition of 150 Sephardic tales told by sixty-eight narrators about olden days of kings, luck, the Jewish world, friends and neighbors, wedding and marriage, father and sons, truthful moments, Makeda the town of fools, and the world to come.
  2375.  
  2376. Find this resource:
  2377.  
  2378. Moskonah, Yitshak. Sippurei Sefarad: Sipurei-ʻam ṿe-aneḳdoṭot me-otsar ha-folḳlor shel Yehudei Sefarad. Translated by Rivkah and Yoel. S. Perets. Jerusalem: Sifriyat Maʽariv 1985.
  2379.  
  2380. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2381.  
  2382. A bilingual, Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish, edition of Jewish tales from Bulgaria, including anecdotes, folktales, and accounts of daily life. Translated as “Tales of Sepharad: Folktales and anecdotes from the treasury of tales of the Sephardic Jews.”
  2383.  
  2384. Find this resource:
  2385.  
  2386. Other Lands
  2387. The folk traditions of linguistically or geographically isolated Jewish ethnic groups have often distinct features that either preserve vestiges of earlier themes or forms or reflect their development independently without contacts with the broader Jewish community. Such is the case with the Jews of Ethiopia (Alexander and ʻEnat 1996), and, to a lesser extent, with the Jews of Kurdistan (Rivlin 1959, Sabar 1982).
  2388.  
  2389. Alexander, Tamar, and Amelah ʻEnat, eds. Tarat tarat: Sipure ʻam mi-pi Yehude Etyopyah. Tel Aviv: Yediot Ahronot, 1996.
  2390.  
  2391. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2392.  
  2393. The selection of eighty tales from 370 tales recorded as told in Amharic and translated into Hebrew are stories about family relations, animals, ethics, humor, and historical events. Translated as “Jewish folktales from Ethiopia.”
  2394.  
  2395. Find this resource:
  2396.  
  2397. Rivlin, J. J. Shirat yehudei ha-targum: Pirkei ʹalilah u-gevurah be-phi yehudei Kurdistan. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1959.
  2398.  
  2399. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2400.  
  2401. Recorded from oral singers, these are epic songs about biblical figures and events, such as Adam and Eve, Jacob and his sons, the war between Judah and Joseph, David and Goliath, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon and the Cushites, Elijah the Prophet, and others. Translated as “The poetry of the Aramaic Jews: Epic poetry in the oral tradition of the Jews of Kurdistan.”
  2402.  
  2403. Find this resource:
  2404.  
  2405. Sabar, Yona, ed. and trans. The Folk Literature of the Kurdistani Jews: An Anthology. Yale Judaica Series 23. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1982.
  2406.  
  2407. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2408.  
  2409. The Aramaic-speaking Kurdistani Jews retained and created a diversified oral tradition in epic poetry, legends, and folktales, nursery rhymes, folksongs and rhymes, and folksongs and proverbs.
  2410.  
  2411. Find this resource:
  2412.  
  2413. Proverbs and Riddles
  2414. Proverbs and riddles are ubiquitous primary folklore forms. Proverbs have been recorded more often than riddles, yet both occur in every language community. Oral proverbs are quoted and referred to in ancient literary resources from the Bible and onward. Ancient lists include oral and literary proverbs. The riddle, on the other hand, occurs in these sources less often, yet its generic term hidah is known. In modern times proverbs are found in every Jewish language and ethnic group, while riddles have not been documented as often.
  2415.  
  2416. Bibliographies
  2417. Ignatz Bernestein (b. 1836–d. 1909) was a rich industrialist and a folklorist. He amassed a fortune, which allowed him to indulge in his love for folklore, in general, and for proverbs, in particular, and he accumulated one of the world’s richest private proverb libraries, of which Bernstein 2003 is a catalogue.
  2418.  
  2419. Bernstein, Ignatz. Catalogue des livres parémiologiques composant la bibliothèque de Ignace Bernstein. Volkskundliche Quellen 7. 2 vols. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlag, 2003.
  2420.  
  2421. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2422.  
  2423. The general proverb bibliography that lists the books in the library of the pioneer Yiddish proverb scholar includes in its “Index” valuable entries to 19th-century Hebrew and Yiddish proverb collections. Foreword by Wolfgang Mieder. Originally published 1900.
  2424.  
  2425. Find this resource:
  2426.  
  2427. Sepharad
  2428. The study of Judeo-Spanish proverbs draws not only on the ethnography of speaking, but also on proverbs in popular press and private collections (Alexander 2003) and on popular printers (Carracedo and Romero 1981).
  2429.  
  2430. Alexander, T. “Ha-pitgam ha-yehudi-sefardi: Mekorot u-meḥkarim.” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish folklore 22 (2003): 179–201.
  2431.  
  2432. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2433.  
  2434. Judeo-Spanish proverbs were published first in 1885 in newspapers and journals, and since 1951 in books, mostly by Judeo-Spanish speakers. The more than one hundred collections are available in (1) books, (2) newspapers and journals, (3) folk narrative collections, (4) educational books, (5) dictionaries and encyclopedias, (6) archives and private collections, (7) scholarly journals, and (8) appendixes to scholarly publications. Translated as “The Judeo-Spanish proverb: Research and collections.”
  2435.  
  2436. Find this resource:
  2437.  
  2438. Carracedo, L., and E. Romero. “Refranes publicados por Yaʽacob A. Yoná (edición concordada) y Bibliografía del Refranero sefardí.” Sefarad (Estudios Sefardíes 4) 41.3 (1981): 389–560.
  2439.  
  2440. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2441.  
  2442. A bibliography of proverb collections, bibliographies, and critical studies based on the 334 proverbs that Yaʽacob Yoná published in his chapbooks from 1889 to 1915.
  2443.  
  2444. Find this resource:
  2445.  
  2446. Studies
  2447. The Proverbs and riddles of Jewish folklore and their literary renditions are available in the Bible in Hebrew and in subsequent periods in the spoken languages in Jewish societies—in Aramaic, Hebrew, and some Greek in the Midrash and the Aggadah—and in a broader range of Jewish languages in the medieval and modern periods.
  2448.  
  2449. Bible
  2450. The proverbs and riddles in the Bible demonstrate the general semiotic distinctive features of these genres, the rhetoric of cultural authority of the proverb (Fontaine 1982) and the enigmatic metaphorization and divination of the riddle (Zakovitch 2005), respectively.
  2451.  
  2452. Fontaine, Carole R. Traditional Sayings in the Old Testament: A Contextual Study. Bible and Literature Series 5. Sheffield, UK: Almond, 1982.
  2453.  
  2454. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2455.  
  2456. The application to the biblical text of a broad range of questions that emerged in the fields of folklore and its methods of genres and performance studies, of structuralism, linguistics, and semiotics, allows for a more systematic investigation of the social dimension of the biblical text, in general, and of wisdom literature, with which this book is concerned, in particular.
  2457.  
  2458. Find this resource:
  2459.  
  2460. Zakovitch, Yair. Abiʽah ḥidot mini kedem: Ḥidot ve-ḥalomot ba-siporet ha-mkraʼit. Tel Aviv: ʽAm ʽOved, 2005.
  2461.  
  2462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2463.  
  2464. Literary, “close-reading” interpretations of riddles, riddle dreams, ambiguous expressions, and legal riddles presented to kings are interspersed in biblical narratives. Many of them involve verbal play and have multiple solutions, and they occur in the wisdom literature and as metaphors in biblical poetry. Translated as “‘I will utter dark sayings of old’: Riddles and riddle dreams in biblical narrative.”
  2465.  
  2466. Find this resource:
  2467.  
  2468. Midrash and Aggadah
  2469. Within the study of the Midrash and the Aggadah analysis of the riddle stands out. It is an uncommon genre in these texts. Hasan-Rokem 1996 takes a psychological approach explaining its use in a desperate situation as a defense mechanism, while Stein 1996 examines the riddle as complementing the biblical text and as used in situations of cultural contact.
  2470.  
  2471. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. “‘Spinning Threads of Sands’: Riddles as Images of Loss in the Midrash on Lamentations.” In Untying the Knot: On Riddles and Other Enigmatic Modes. Edited by Galit Hasan-Rokem and David Shulman, 109–124. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  2472.  
  2473. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2474.  
  2475. The midrashic text of Lamentations Rabbah, at the center of which there is loss and destruction, includes a sequence of riddles. Their presence in this book and their interpretation is guided by the insight that play and humor may be the most powerful modes of spiritual survival in moments of utter stress.
  2476.  
  2477. Find this resource:
  2478.  
  2479. Stein, Dina. “A King, a Queen, and the Riddle Between: Riddles and Interpretation in a Late Midrashic Text.” In Untying the Knot: On Riddles and Other Enigmatic Modes. Edited by Galit Hasan-Rokem and David Shulman, 125–147. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  2480.  
  2481. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2482.  
  2483. Riddles and wisdom questions are rare in the Midrash. The primary biblical setting that frames them is the encounter between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In addition, there are eleven tales in Lamentations Rabbah in which the Jerusalemites pose riddles to the people of Athens, and some wisdom questions; all are cases involving contacts between different cultures and categorization systems.
  2484.  
  2485. Find this resource:
  2486.  
  2487. Modern Period
  2488. Hasan-Rokem 1982b is a programmatic essay, proposing a model for analysis of the Jewish proverb, and Pagis 1996 proposes a model for the riddle as it occurs in literary texts. Hasan-Rokem 1982a extends the model that the author proposes with reference to the use of proverbs in the tales of the Israel Folktales Archive (IFA).
  2489.  
  2490. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. Proverbs in Israeli Folk Narratives: A Structural Semantic Analysis. FF Communications 232. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1982a.
  2491.  
  2492. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2493.  
  2494. A study of 2,000 narratives, randomly selected from 10,000 stories in the Israeli Folktale Archives, in which proverbs have a key position. The analysis of the proverbs concerns their text, use, structure, and function. They occur mostly at the narrative summation, and could be conceived as “a concretization in poetic language of a structured expression of the norm system”(p. 96).
  2495.  
  2496. Find this resource:
  2497.  
  2498. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. “Le-ḥeker ha-pitgam ha-ʽamami ha-yehudi.” Tarbiz 51 (1982b): 281–292.
  2499.  
  2500. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2501.  
  2502. An analysis of the text, use, structure, and function of the proverb “Do not trust the gentile even after forty years in the grave” as a model for analysis of Jewish proverbs. Translated as “Toward the study of the Jewish proverb.”
  2503.  
  2504. Find this resource:
  2505.  
  2506. Pagis, D. “Toward a Theory of the Literary Riddle.” In Untying the Knot: On Riddles and Other Enigmatic Modes. Edited by Galit Hasan-Rokem and David Shulman, 81–108. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
  2507.  
  2508. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2509.  
  2510. A general theory with Hebrew applications proposes that the proper riddle functions as a competition between the riddler and riddles, and its literary form must be difficult and enigmatic, yet contain clues for its deciphering. In oral tradition, the riddler is a performer in folklore and an author in literature. Formally, literary riddles require a balance between encoding and decoding.
  2511.  
  2512. Find this resource:
  2513.  
  2514. Arab Lands
  2515. Pioneering ethnographic description and analysis of proverbs began in general folklore research in the 1930s, but in Jewish folklore the author of Hasan-Rokem 1993 (cited under Modern Period: Other Lands) introduced this method. Hatukhah 2009 demonstrates a unique use of this method, since the author applies it to her family.
  2516.  
  2517. Hatukhah, Shulamit. Pitgam le-khol matsav (ki-meʻaṭ—): Mi-pitgame ḳehilat Radaʻe mi-yotsʼe-Teman/mi-pi Tsadoḳ Menaḥem Ḥatukah ṿe-Raḥel Saʻid Ḥatukah. Tel Aviv: Teraklin, 2009.
  2518.  
  2519. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2520.  
  2521. Transcription of interviews the author conducted with her parents, who came to Israel from Radaʽe, Yemen, soliciting from them proverbs and asking about their meanings and use. Translated as “A proverb for any situation (almost): From the proverbs of Yemenite Jews from the Radaʽe community.”
  2522.  
  2523. Find this resource:
  2524.  
  2525. Ashkenaz
  2526. For the second generation of Jewish immigrants in a non-Yiddish-speaking linguistic environment, the Yiddish language itself became a target of humor, and its proverbs and expression of goodwill or ill-will even more so, as Matisoff 1979 analyzes. However, among native Yiddish speakers, Yiddish proverbs are subject to literary-linguistic, historical (Sadan 1964), and structural-grammatical analyses (Silverman-Weinreich 1978).
  2527.  
  2528. Matisoff, James A. Blessings, Curses, Hopes and Fears: Psycho-ostensive Expressions in Yiddish. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues (ISHI), 1979.
  2529.  
  2530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2531.  
  2532. A collection of expressions of goodwill and ill-will in Yiddish and their linguistic analysis, presented in Roman transcription and English translation, drawn from the author’s family and personal knowledge as well as from collections of Yiddish texts.
  2533.  
  2534. Find this resource:
  2535.  
  2536. Sadan, Dov. Yerid ha-shaʽashuʽim: Gilgulei halatzah u-fitgamim. Tel Aviv: Masadah, 1964.
  2537.  
  2538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2539.  
  2540. Interpretive essays of Yiddish proverbs (except for the first two essays that deal with jokes) that explore their linguistic, historical, and cultural transformations. Translated as “An amusement fair: Transformation of jokes and proverbs.”
  2541.  
  2542. Find this resource:
  2543.  
  2544. Silverman-Weinreich, B. “Towards a Structural Analysis of Yiddish Proverbs.” YIVO Annual of Jewish Social Science 17 (1978): 1–20.
  2545.  
  2546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2547.  
  2548. The grammatical patterns distinguished in Yiddish proverbs are: conditional sentences, comparative sentences, imperatives, interrogative sentences, negatives, and riddle patterns. Secondary grammatical markers include: parallelism, emphatic word order, and ellipsis of the verb. The semantic markers are: metaphors, paradoxes, irony, sharp contrasts, and surprising comparisons. The phonetic markers are: rhymes, assonance, puns, alliteration, and metric patterning. Reprinted in The Wisdom of Many: Essays on the Proverb, edited by Wolfgang Mieder and Alan Dendes (New York: Garland, 1981), pp. 65–85.
  2549.  
  2550. Find this resource:
  2551.  
  2552. Sepharad
  2553. While Lévy 1969 is a programmatic methodological proposal for a systematic analysis of Judeo-Spanish proverbs, Alexander-Frizer 2004 is a summary of research that incorporates advances in this field with the author’s analytical insights. Pagis 1986 is a critical study of literary riddles in the Judeo-Spanish and Portuguese communities in Holland and Italy, written by a poet-scholar.
  2554.  
  2555. Alexander-Frizer, Tamar. Milim masbiʽot mi-leḥem: Le-ḥeker ha-pitgam ha-sefardi-yehudi. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 2004.
  2556.  
  2557. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2558.  
  2559. Judeo-Spanish proverbs from oral tradition have appeared in print since 1885. The analysis of 45,000 proverbs that are available in anthologies, manuscripts, computer databases, and field work, recognizes the importance of understanding the folk proverb within its sociocultural contexts; treats women’s speech, family, poetic strategies in social relation, place and space, Hebrew in Judeo- Spanish, intercultural connections, and holidays. Translated as “Words are better than bread: A study of the Judeo-Spanish proverb.”
  2560.  
  2561. Find this resource:
  2562.  
  2563. Lévy, Isaac J. Prolegomena to the Study of the Refranero Sefardi. New York: Las Americas, 1969.
  2564.  
  2565. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2566.  
  2567. In Spanish proverbios refer to erudite while refránes refers to vernacular sayings that are characterized by parallelism, paradox, personification, alliteration, and metaphors. Such sayings were used by writers in Late Antiquity and were common in speech. Judeo-Spanish speakers included in their language Hebrew, Turkish, and Greek proverbs, as the list that concludes this study amply demonstrates.
  2568.  
  2569. Find this resource:
  2570.  
  2571. Pagis, Dan. ′Al sod ḥatum: Le-toldot ha-ḥidah ha-′ivrit be-italyah u-bhe-holand. Supplement to Tarbiz 4. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1986.
  2572.  
  2573. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2574.  
  2575. The emblem-riddle, headed by an enigmatic picture, first appeared around 1645 in Italy and Holland, was printed as broadsides or copied in manuscripts for use in riddling contests held at weddings and other festivities. The fashion lasted around 200 years and then declined. Includes an English-language summary. Translated as “A secret sealed: Hebrew baroque emblem: Riddles from Italy and Holland.”
  2576.  
  2577. Find this resource:
  2578.  
  2579. Other Lands
  2580. Collaboration between a field researcher, who is a member of the community under study, and an academic folklorist produced an innovative ethnographic proverb study (Hasan-Rokem 1993).
  2581.  
  2582. Hasan-Rokem, Galit. ʼAdam le-ʼadam gesher: Pitgamim shel yehudei Georgia be-Yisrael. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 1993.
  2583.  
  2584. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2585.  
  2586. A collection and an analysis of 232 proverbs recorded from Georgian Jews in Israel, according to a structural-semantic method, reveals the dynamic dialogic communication in the context of immigration between the Georgian Jews and their distinct cultural heritage and the Israeli “host society.” Field research by Y. Atanelov. Translated as “A man bridged man: The proverbs of Georgian Jews in Israel.”
  2587.  
  2588. Find this resource:
  2589.  
  2590. Collections of Proverbs and Riddles
  2591. Both proverbs and riddles are identifiable and extractable minor genres that can be, and in other languages have been, organized either thematically or alphabetically, but in Jewish studies only proverbs have been published in such collections, purporting to offer a comprehensive list of proverbs that appear either in Jewish literature throughout its history or in a literature of a particular period or a particular ethnic group. There are three types of dictionaries of Jewish proverbs: historical dictionaries that aim to list proverbs throughout Jewish literary history, such as Alcalay and Nurock 1970, Salomón 1980, and Waxman 1933; comparative dictionaries, such as Blankstein 1964 and Cohen 1961; and period specific dictionaries, such as Davidson 1964 and Sever 1961–1962.
  2592.  
  2593. Alcalay, Reuben, and Max Nurock. Words of the Wise: An Anthology of Proverbs and Practical Axioms Drawn from Hebrew Literature Throughout the Ages: Rendered into English Together with the Originals and Arranged Alphabetically by Subject. Ramat Gan, Israel: Massada, 1970.
  2594.  
  2595. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2596.  
  2597. Includes a total of 5,389 proverbs and saying culled from the Bible and from Talmudic-midrashic, apocryphal, medieval, and modern literature as well as oral Ladino and Yiddish proverbs. The editor credits himself as having improved some proverbs and formulated others, yet it remains a valuable reference work. Published also as A Basic Encyclopedia of Jewish Proverbs, Quotations and Folk Wisdom: Presented in English with Hebrew Originals and Arranged Alphabetically by Subject (New York: Hartmore House, 1973).
  2598.  
  2599. Find this resource:
  2600.  
  2601. Blankstein, L. Mishlei Yisrael ve-ʼumot ha-ʽolam be-hitpatḥutam le-nusḥaotehem ve-li-leshonotehem makbilim ʼish ʼel ʼaḥiv u-mesudarim be-seder a-b. Edited by S. Ashkenazi. Jerusalem: Kiryath-Sefer, 1964.
  2602.  
  2603. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2604.  
  2605. The first volume of an ambitious and incomplete project that seeks to list Hebrew proverbs that appeared in the literature from the Middle Ages to the modern era; includes 1,853 proverbs with their parallels in Yiddish and European languages, referring also to their sources in the Bible and post-biblical literature of Late Antiquity. Valuable bibliography. Translated as “Hebrew proverbs and their origins with parallels from other languages.”
  2606.  
  2607. Find this resource:
  2608.  
  2609. Cohen, Israel. Sefer pitgamim makbilim. Tel Aviv: Machbarot Lesifrut, 1961.
  2610.  
  2611. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2612.  
  2613. A total of 2,727 proverbs with variations culled from literary sources and proverb dictionaries and arranged alphabetically following the principal term in each proverb. Translated as “Dictionary of parallel proverbs in English, German, and Hebrew.”
  2614.  
  2615. Find this resource:
  2616.  
  2617. Davidson, Israel. Otsar ha-meshalim ve-ha-pitgamim me-sifrut yemei habeinayim. Jerusalem: Mosad Ha-Rav Kuk, 1964.
  2618.  
  2619. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2620.  
  2621. A collection of 3,222 proverbs culled from medieval Hebrew literature, thematically classified: fathers and sons, slavery and mastery, love and hostility, religious faith, truth and falsehood, women, animals, body and soul, speech and silence, time, wisdom and stupidity, nature, good and evil, ethics, writers and books, this world and the world to come, wealth and poverty, and miscellaneous. Translated as “A treasure of proverbs and fables from medieval Hebrew literature.”
  2622.  
  2623. Find this resource:
  2624.  
  2625. Salomón, Simón Grass. Sabiduria popular Hebrea: Incluye refranes y pensamientos Hebreos, Ashkenazíes y Sefarditas extraídos de la Biblia, del Talmud, de los Midrashim y otras fuentes indicadas en la bibliografia. Santiago, Chile: Comite Representativo de la Colectividad Israelita de Chile, 1980.
  2626.  
  2627. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2628.  
  2629. Proverbs from biblical, Talmudic, midrashic sources as well as the Ashkenazic and Sephardic oral traditions and written literature, arranged thematically.
  2630.  
  2631. Find this resource:
  2632.  
  2633. Sever, Mosheh, ed. Mikhlol ha-maʾamarim ṿe-ha-pitgamim: Yalḳuṭ kolel u-madrikh li-meḳorot ha-talmudim, ha-midrashim, ha-ḳabalah, ha-shirah ṿehe-hagut; ʻim heʾarot, beʾurim u-mafteḥot. 3 vols. Jerusalem: Mosad Ha-Rav Kuk, 1961–1962.
  2634.  
  2635. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2636.  
  2637. A dictionary of the proverbs and idiomatic expressions in the Talmudic- Midrashic and kabbalistic literatures. Translated as “All the sayings and proverbs: A comprehensive guide to the Talmudic-midrashic sources, the kabbalah, the poetry and the philosophy with explanations and indexes.”
  2638.  
  2639. Find this resource:
  2640.  
  2641. Waxman, M. Mishlei Yisrael. Jerusalem: Shiloh, 1933.
  2642.  
  2643. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2644.  
  2645. A collection 6,062 idioms, phrases, and proverbs, culled from the Hebrew Bible, Talmudic-midrashic, and medieval Hebrew literatures, arranged in alphabetical order according to the principal term or concept. Informative essay introduces the collection, discussing the nature of the proverb, in general, and in the Bible, the Apocrypha, and the Talmud, in particular. Translated as “Proverbs of Yisrael.”
  2646.  
  2647. Find this resource:
  2648.  
  2649. Arab Lands
  2650. In each of the Arab countries the Jewish communities had its own dialect of Judeo-Arabic, and its own collective proverb repertoire. The proverbs of the Iraqi Jews have been documented in Avishur 1997, Meiri 1996, and Meiri 2006, those of Morocco in Ben-Ami 1996 and Hanuna 2012, those of Tunisia in Buhnik 2000–2004 and Maimon 2010. Sebaagh 2000 records the proverbs of the Sephardic Jews in North Africa, and Sagiv and Landau 1998 is a comparative dictionary of proverbs that appear in classical sources of Arabic and Hebrew. A comparative dictionary of Judeo-Arabic proverbs from different Jewish communities would be a valuable contribution.
  2651.  
  2652. Avishur, Yitshak, ed. Ha-pitgam ha-ʽamami shel yehudei Iraq: Ktav-yad u-dfusim shel kovetz pitgamim be-ʽaravit-yehudit (“qissat ahl almathal”). Haifa, Israel: Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa, 1997.
  2653.  
  2654. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2655.  
  2656. This collection of Judeo-Arabic Iraqi proverbs is from the manuscript Qissat ‘ahl al-mathal (“The story of the proverb-teller”) from 1851. A total of 205 published proverbs supplement the 515 proverbs in the manuscript. The proverbs are in Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew translation, accompanied by an introductory essay on the folk proverbs of the Jews of Iraq. Translated as “Folk proverbs of the Jews of Iraq: Qissat ahl almathal collection in Judeo-Arabic from manuscript and prints translated into Hebrew.”
  2657.  
  2658. Find this resource:
  2659.  
  2660. Ben-Ami, Issacher. ʼElef pitgam ve-Pitgam mi-pi yehudei Morocco. Jerusalem: Lugassi, 1996.
  2661.  
  2662. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2663.  
  2664. A total of 1,090 proverbs in Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew translation with brief interpretive comments, arranged alphabetically. Originally published 1970. Translated as “One thousand and one proverbs of Moroccan Jews.”
  2665.  
  2666. Find this resource:
  2667.  
  2668. Buhnik, Yosef. Nivim u-fitgamim mi-pi yehudei luv ve-tunisyah. 2 vols. Rishon le-Tsiyon, Israel: Beʼer, 2000–2004.
  2669.  
  2670. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2671.  
  2672. The 450 proverbs of the first volume and the 375 of the second volume are presented in Arabic followed by a Hebrew vocalized transcription, translation, and a brief interpretation, concluding with a biblical citation that conveys a similar moral. Includes volume 1, Shaʽar shimʽon eḥad (“The Simeon gate”); volume 2, Shaʽar shimʽon shnayim (“The Simeon gate: Second”). Translated as “Idioms and proverbs in the speech of Libyan and Tunisian Jews.”
  2673.  
  2674. Find this resource:
  2675.  
  2676. Hanuna, M. Ḥatunat artishok, gerushei shezifim: Ḥokhmat ha-pitgam shel yehudei maroko. Edited by R. Rozental. Jerusalem: Keter, 2012.
  2677.  
  2678. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2679.  
  2680. A total of 1,133 proverbs in Moroccan Judeo-Arabic, classified thematically and listed first in their Hebrew translation, Judeo-Arabic text, and interpretive note that is supplemented by articulation of the proverb’s covert message. The entry concludes with a proverb variant or a list of other languages in which a similar proverb is available. Translated as “Artichoke marriage, plums divorce: The wisdom of Moroccan Jews proverbs.”
  2681.  
  2682. Find this resource:
  2683.  
  2684. Maimon, Yael, ed. 180 pitgamim be-ʻArvit Tunisaʼit/mi-pi Raimond (Rinah) (Priyenṭah) ṿe-Raḥamim Maimon (180 Tunisian idioms and proverbs recorded from Raimond (Rinah) (Priyenṭah) ṿe-Raḥamim Maimon). Ramat Gan, Israel: Media, 2010.
  2685.  
  2686. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2687.  
  2688. In a popular format, the author lists and interprets proverbs she phonetically recorded from her parents in Judeo-Arabic and renders them in Hebrew and Arabic together with interpretive comments.
  2689.  
  2690. Find this resource:
  2691.  
  2692. Meiri, Yehoshua. ʽAl neharot bavel: Otzar ha-pitgamim shel yehudei bavel: Pitgamim, folklor, minhagim, ʼemunot ve-sippurim me-havai yahadut bavel, ve-hakbalatam le-pitgamei-ʽam aḥerim. Jerusalem: Mas, 1996.
  2693.  
  2694. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2695.  
  2696. A total of 1,303 proverbs in the Jewish dialect of Iraqi Arabic in Hebrew and Arabic; includes Hebrew transliteration, explanation, and comparative annotation, are arranged thematically, in alphabetical order of the subjects, reflecting a broad gamut of affairs of family, community, commercial, and personal life. The proverbs were recorded from the oral tradition of the Baghdad Jewish community in Israel over a period of ten years. Translated as On the rivers of Babylon: Treasury of proverbs of the Iraqi Jews.”
  2697.  
  2698. Find this resource:
  2699.  
  2700. Meiri, Yohoshua. Hedim mi-bavel: Bituyim, ʼimrot, ve-havai shel yehudei Bagdad, be-shiluv minhagim, folklor, ʼemunot ve-sippurim me-havai yehudei bavel. Jerusalem: Mas, 2006.
  2701.  
  2702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2703.  
  2704. A sequel to ʽAl neharot bavel, this volume includes 1,876 idiomatic expressions in the Judeo-Arabic of Iraqi Jewry, arranged thematically and alphabetically, and listed in Hebrew, Arabic, and Hebrew transliteration, followed by interpretive comments and bibliographical references. Translated as “Echoes of Babylon: Idioms, sayings, and folklore of the Baghdadi Jews.”
  2705.  
  2706. Find this resource:
  2707.  
  2708. Sagiv, David, and Jacob M. Landau. Sefer ha-pitgamim: ʽIvri-ʽaravi. Jerusalem: Schocken, 1998.
  2709.  
  2710. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2711.  
  2712. The Parallel proverbs are culled from classical sources in these respective languages and are listed in alphabetical order of the first Hebrew words together with occasional English analogues. The introductory essay, supplemented by a bibliography, surveys the availability of proverbs in Hebrew and Arabic traditional literature and proverb collections. Translated as “Hebrew-Arabic proverbs.”
  2713.  
  2714. Find this resource:
  2715.  
  2716. Sebaagh, Simon. Mishlei-ʽam u-makbileihem: Pitgamim u-meshalim ʽamamiyim shel yehudei sefarad u-tzfon-afrika u-makbileihem ba-mekorot ha-yehudiyim ve-ḥakhmei –ha-ʽolam. Jerusalem: Mas, 2000.
  2717.  
  2718. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2719.  
  2720. The introductory essay is followed by one hundred proverbs and fables in colloquial Algerian Arabic that the author heard from his father, supplemented by Ladino proverbs he learned from his mother. The proverbs are in Arabic, Hebrew transliteration, Hebrew and French translation, and one hundred parallel fables and metaphors from Jewish sources supplement them. Translated as “Folk proverbs and their analogues: Folk proverbs and fables of the Sephardic and North African Jews, and their analogues in Jewish sources and world wisdom literature.”
  2721.  
  2722. Find this resource:
  2723.  
  2724. Ashkenaz
  2725. The Yiddish of eastern European Jews had its own regional dialects. However, the proverb collections rarely indicate these distinctions. Rather, it is possible to differentiate between them in terms of their target readership as found in European, Israeli, and American collections. The first Yiddish proverb collections (Blass 1857 and Tendlau 1980) appeared in Germany, intended for eastern European Jews who moved out of the Pale of Settlement westward as a likely response to nostalgic sentiments of home. Bernstein 1969 is a comprehensive and fundamental collection and meets the scholarly standards of its time, and it remains a valuable reference and source book. Golenpol 2000 (originally published in 1936), published in Latvia with Hebrew versified translations, represents a literary aim to transfer the Yiddish folk idiom to the Hebrew that was by then revived and in use in Hebrew schools in eastern Europe and in the “Yishuv” in Palestine, then under the League of Nations mandate. During the Yishuv period, in Palestine, Hebrew was the language of the education system and of public space, while Yiddish and other immigrant languages were spoken at home and in private spaces. Consequently, appreciation of Yiddish proverbs was limited (Einhorn 1959). Once Hebrew became the language of the land, tolerance and nostalgia cleared the way for the publication of Yiddish proverb collections, both for a general readership (Furman 1968) and for academic audiences (Guri 2012, Levite 1996).
  2726.  
  2727. Bernstein, Ignatz. Jüdische Sprichwörter und Redensarten im anhang Erotica und Rustica mit einer Einführung und Bibliographie von Hans Peter Althaus. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1969.
  2728.  
  2729. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2730.  
  2731. A reprint edition of the classical collection of 3,987 Yiddish proverbs (originally published in Warsaw in 1908), that includes the controversial 227 erotic proverbs, originally appearing separately as Erotica und Rustica (1908). The proverbs are arranged alphabetically, according to their respective principal words, accompanied by an introduction by Hans. Peter. Althaus and a valuable bibliography.
  2732.  
  2733. Find this resource:
  2734.  
  2735. Blass, Moritz. Jüdische Sprichwörter. Leipzig: Wolfgang Gerhard, 1857.
  2736.  
  2737. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2738.  
  2739. The first collection of “European-Jewish” (Yiddish) proverbs that appeared either in Yiddish or in German translation, with some words in the original Yiddish or Hebrew, arranged alphabetically by first words.
  2740.  
  2741. Find this resource:
  2742.  
  2743. Einhorn, S. Mishlei-ʽam be-Yiddish. Edited by Yom-Tov Levinski. Tel Aviv: Devir, 1959.
  2744.  
  2745. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2746.  
  2747. The author was a physician who recorded the proverbs from his patients while attending them. The proverbs were first published in Reshumot (1926) without Hebrew translation and in Reshumot, 2nd series (1946) with Hebrew translation, and in both installments, including brief interpretive notes; 843 proverbs in all plus two brief appendixes of other collectors. Translated as “Yiddish folk proverbs.”
  2748.  
  2749. Find this resource:
  2750.  
  2751. Furman, Israel. Idishe shprichwerter un rednsartn. Tel Aviv: Hamenora, 1968.
  2752.  
  2753. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2754.  
  2755. A total of 1,778 Yiddish proverbs recorded from oral traditions in Romania, Bessarabia, Bukovina, Moldavia, and Transylvania and arranged alphabetically following the key words in the proverbs. An interpretation and ethnographic comments regarding its use accompany each proverb. Translated as “Yiddish proverbs and sayings.”
  2756.  
  2757. Find this resource:
  2758.  
  2759. Golenpol, Akiva. Lexikon ha-folklor ha-ʽivri (sefer ha-pitgamim). Amherst, MA: National Yiddish Book Center, 2000.
  2760.  
  2761. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2762.  
  2763. A bilingual edition of 1,278 proverbs from traditional sources and as told by rabbis and writers in modern times, versified in Hebrew. Originally published 1936. Translated as “Lexicon of Hebrew folklore (book of proverbs).”
  2764.  
  2765. Find this resource:
  2766.  
  2767. Guri, Yosef. Otzar ha-nivim shel ha-Yidish/Fun yidishen kval: Yidisher frazeologisher verterbukh. Edited by I. Rudnitzky. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2012.
  2768.  
  2769. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2770.  
  2771. A total of 2,240 idiomatic expressions in Yiddish, with their analogues or translations in English and Russian, arranged alphabetically according to their first words, with indexes of themes and principal words or concepts. Translated as “Dictionary of Yiddish idioms.”
  2772.  
  2773. Find this resource:
  2774.  
  2775. Levite, Avraham. Yidishe shprikhverter un glaykhverter /pigamim ve-ʼamarot be-yidish. Ramat Gan, Israel: Yisrael Bukh/Rena Costa Center for Yiddish Studies, Bar-Ilan University, 1996.
  2776.  
  2777. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2778.  
  2779. A total of 4,008 Yiddish proverbs arranged alphabetically according to the principal word or concept, with occasional explanations and narrative illustrations. The author, a Holocaust survivor originally from Galicia, Poland, recorded the proverbs over in his wanderings over the years, and since 1945 in Eretz-Israel. Translated as “Yiddish proverbs and saying.”
  2780.  
  2781. Find this resource:
  2782.  
  2783. Tendlau, Abraham Moses. Sprichwörter und redensarten deutsch-jüdischer Vorzeit. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms, 1980.
  2784.  
  2785. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2786.  
  2787. A total of 1,070 Yiddish proverbs accompanied by interpretive and bibliographical commentary. Originally published 1860.
  2788.  
  2789. Find this resource:
  2790.  
  2791. The American Collections
  2792. In America the Yiddish proverb collections appear with English translations directed at the second- and third-generation of immigrants who have heard Yiddish at home or wish to learn it formally. They are bilingual, but the Yiddish appears with Roman rather than Hebrew letters (Weingarten 1944, Ayalti 1949, Kogos 1970, Kumove 1984, Kumove 1999, and Rosmarin 2000).
  2793.  
  2794. Ayalti, Hanan J., ed. Yiddish Proverbs. Woodcuts by B. Reder. New York: Schocken, 1949.
  2795.  
  2796. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2797.  
  2798. A total of 500 proverbs in Yiddish and English translations, arranged alphabetically in Yiddish with a thematic index.
  2799.  
  2800. Find this resource:
  2801.  
  2802. Kogos, Fred. Book of Yiddish Proverbs and Slang. New York: Poplar, 1970.
  2803.  
  2804. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2805.  
  2806. A total of 1,001 Yiddish proverbs in transliteration and translation, followed by Yiddish- English and English-Yiddish glossaries of idiomatic expressions.
  2807.  
  2808. Find this resource:
  2809.  
  2810. Kumove, Shirley. Words like Arrows: A Collection of Yiddish Folk Sayings. New York: Schocken, 1984.
  2811.  
  2812. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2813.  
  2814. A collection of Yiddish proverbs with Roman transliteration and English translation, drawn from oral and written sources and arranged thematically and alphabetically.
  2815.  
  2816. Find this resource:
  2817.  
  2818. Kumove, Shirley. More Words, More Arrows: A Further Collections of Yiddish Folk Sayings. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999.
  2819.  
  2820. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2821.  
  2822. A continuation volume to Kumove 1984.
  2823.  
  2824. Find this resource:
  2825.  
  2826. Rosmarin, Rahel S. Mamma Used to Say: Pearls of Wisdom from the World of Yiddish. Translated by Y. Y. Iskowitz. New York: Feldheim, 2000.
  2827.  
  2828. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2829.  
  2830. A popular book of Yiddish proverbs learned at home that includes their transliteration, translation, interpretation, and references to their occurrence in Hasidic writings and their parallels in traditional literature.
  2831.  
  2832. Find this resource:
  2833.  
  2834. Weingarten, Joseph A., ed. and trans. Yiddish Proverbs & Proverbial Expressions (Compared with Proverbs of Other Nations). New York: N.p., 1944.
  2835.  
  2836. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2837.  
  2838. A total of 445 proverbs translated from Yiddish arranged alphabetically according to the principal word in the proverb, most followed by parallels from proverbs of other nations with a bibliography of books of Yiddish proverbs that goes back to the mid-19th century. Originally published 1941.
  2839.  
  2840. Find this resource:
  2841.  
  2842. Israel
  2843. Currently in Israel proverbs are to be found of Jewish ethnic groups spoken in their original languages or in Hebrew rendition (Stahl 1975), or modern Hebrew proverbs are heard that occur in conversations, public media, and literature. The source of some of them may be in idioms and proverbs in other languages, or they are of local coinage (Rozental 2009).
  2844.  
  2845. Rozental, Rubik. Milon ha-tserufim: Nivim u-maṭbeʻot lashon ba-ʻIvrit ha-ḥadashah: Gilgulim, meḳorot, shimushim. Jerusalem: Keter, 2009.
  2846.  
  2847. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2848.  
  2849. A total of 18,000 idioms in modern Hebrew, including proverbs, proverbial sayings, and colloquial expressions accompanied by interpretative commentary, their sources and parallels in traditional literature, and other languages. Translated as “Dictionary of phrases: Idioms and sayings in modern Hebrew: Transformation, sources, usages.”
  2850.  
  2851. Find this resource:
  2852.  
  2853. Stahl, Abraham. Pitgamei ʽedot Yisrael. Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1975.
  2854.  
  2855. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2856.  
  2857. A comprehensive collection that includes 3,615 proverbs from twenty-four ethnic groups, from oral tradition and printed sources, categorized into 313 thematic units and accompanied by a thorough methodological introduction, indexes, and bibliography. Translated as “Proverbs of Israeli ethnic groups.”
  2858.  
  2859. Find this resource:
  2860.  
  2861. Sepharad
  2862. The Judeo-Spanish proverbs are available from distinct regional clusters such as the northern Moroccan proverbs (Alexander-Frizer and Bentolila 2008, Benazeraf 1978), the south Slavic countries (Alkalay 1984, Gaʼon 1989, Kolonomos 1976, Kolonomos 1978, Moskonah 1981), Greece (Saporta y Beja 1978), Turkey (Perahya, et al. 1995), and a general dictionary (Cantera Ortiz der Urbino 2004).
  2863.  
  2864. Alexander-Frizer, T., and Y. Bentolila. Mila bi-sheʽata zahav maʽalata: Ha-pitgam ha-sefaradi-yehudi bi-tzfon maroco. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2008.
  2865.  
  2866. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2867.  
  2868. A bilingual proverb dictionary in Haketia, a North Morocco variety of Judeo-Spanish, and Hebrew that draws upon eighty years of documentation in print and manuscript from Israel, Spain, France, and the Americas. The introductory essay is about the language, its proverb tradition, and its relation to proverbs in Hebrew, Spanish, Moroccan Arabic, and Ladino as well as to Jewish ethnic identity. Translated as “A timely word worth gold: The Judeo-Spanish proverb in North Morocco.”
  2869.  
  2870. Find this resource:
  2871.  
  2872. Alkalay, A. ʼImrot u-fitgamim shel yehudei sefarad/Dichos i refranes Sefardies. Edited by D. Benveniste. Jerusalem: Edicion de la Comunidad Sefardita de Jerusalem, y el Centro de intercalar el Patrimonio Judeo-Sefardita en el Ministerio de Educacion y Cultura, 1984.
  2873.  
  2874. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2875.  
  2876. The author was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, but grew up from a very early age in the Sephardic community of Jerusalem. Therefore, the assembled proverbs cannot be associated with any specific country of the Sephardic dispersion. The proverbs are in Roman transliteration and Hebrew translation, and brief interpretation is given. Arranged thematically, they are about luck, man and his world, manners and resonance, and family .
  2877.  
  2878. Find this resource:
  2879.  
  2880. Benazeraf, Raphaël. Refranero: Recueil de proverbes: Judéo-espagnols du Maroc (hakitia). Paris: Imprimerie Continentale, 1978.
  2881.  
  2882. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2883.  
  2884. A collection of 560 proverbs in Hakitia with French translation and brief explanation, arranged in alphabetical order of the first words.
  2885.  
  2886. Find this resource:
  2887.  
  2888. Cantera Ortiz der Urbino, Jesús. Diccionario Akal del refranero sefardí: Colección de refranes y frases hechas del judeoespañol, con su correspondencia o traducción en español y francés. Akal/Diccionarios 41. Madrid: Ediciones Akal, 2004.
  2889.  
  2890. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2891.  
  2892. A summative dictionary that includes 4,386 Judeo-Spanish proverbs, with their parallels in Spanish and French, culled from previous publications.
  2893.  
  2894. Find this resource:
  2895.  
  2896. Gaʼon, Moshe David. Besamim mi-sefarad: Me-otsar ḥokmat yahadut Sefarad. Edited by Yoram Gaʼon. Jerusalem: Keter, 1989.
  2897.  
  2898. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2899.  
  2900. The proverbs were recorded by Moshé David Gaʼon (b. 1889–d. 1958), in Sarajevo, former Yugoslavia, in Turkey and in Jerusalem, and were edited by his son. Each proverb is given in Judeo-Spanish, and in literal and literary renditions in Hebrew. Arranged thematically, the proverbs are about family, health, wealth, ethics, and social values. Translated as “Spices from Spain: From the wisdom treasure of Spanish Jewry.”
  2901.  
  2902. Find this resource:
  2903.  
  2904. Kolonomos, Zamila, ed. Poslovice i izreke sefardskih Jevreja Bosne i Hercegovine/Proverbs and sayings of the Sephardi Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Belgrade: Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, 1976.
  2905.  
  2906. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2907.  
  2908. The 1,187 Judeo-Spanish proverbs from Bosnia and Herzegovina are from three anonymous lists and include the collections of Avram Pinto (b. 1903), Daniel Danon (b. 1888–d. 1942), and Samuel Pinto (b. 1886–d. 1957).
  2909.  
  2910. Find this resource:
  2911.  
  2912. Kolonomos, Zamila, ed. Poslovice, izreke I price sefardskih Jevreja Makedonije/Proverbs, Sayings and Tales of the Sephardi Jews of Macedonia. Belgrade: Federation of Jewish Communities in Yugoslavia, 1978.
  2913.  
  2914. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2915.  
  2916. A trilingual book with introductory texts in Judeo-Spanish, English, and Hebrew, and Judeo-Spanish texts of thirteen tales and 527 proverbs from Bitola and five tales and 473 proverbs from Skopje. It is a memorial volume to two Jewish communities in Macedonia that were annihilated during the Holocaust. The narrators and speakers are survivors that document destroyed speech communities.
  2917.  
  2918. Find this resource:
  2919.  
  2920. Moskonah, Yitshak. Peninei Sefarad: Alpayim pitgamim me-ʼotzar ha-ḥokhmah shel yehudei sefarad. Edited by M. Elimelech. Tel Aviv: Sifriyat Maʽariv, 1981.
  2921.  
  2922. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2923.  
  2924. A total of 2,000 proverbs from the Judeo-Spanish of the Jewish community in Bulgaria, arranged alphabetically following the first words in the Roman transcription of Judeo-Spanish, which appears after its Hebrew rendition. Translated as “Sephardic pearls: Two thousand proverbs from the wisdom treasure of the Jews of Spain.”
  2925.  
  2926. Find this resource:
  2927.  
  2928. Perahya, Klara, S. de Toledo, S. Danon, and F. Ender. Erensya Sefaradi (Proverbos i Diças). 2d ed. Istanbul: Gözlem, 1995.
  2929.  
  2930. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2931.  
  2932. Judeo-Spanish proverbs from Turkey with their translation and interpretations in French, Turkish, and English, classified thematically.
  2933.  
  2934. Find this resource:
  2935.  
  2936. Saporta y Beja, E. Refranes de los judíos sefardíes y otras locuciones típicas de los judí os sefardíes de Salónica ye otres sitios de Oriente recopilados. Biblioteca Nueva Sefarad 5. Barcelona: Ameller Ediciones, 1978.
  2937.  
  2938. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2939.  
  2940. An expanded edition of his Refranero sefardí (1957) that includes proverbs from Salonika, written down from memory and as recalled by other community members, and accompanied by philological and cultural explanations, including occasionally narratives associated with proverbs, and arranged alphabetically following the first words of the proverbs.
  2941.  
  2942. Find this resource:
  2943.  
  2944. Jewish Humor
  2945. Scholarship on “Jewish humor,” as well as the origin of the concept itself, is a 20th-century European and American intellectual development. It was triggered, first, by denial of its existence and, later, by its characterization as a unique kind of humor, unparalleled among other nations. Both ideas have been challenged in scholarship, which has also followed the changes and transformations in Jewish humor in Europe, America, and Israel in folklore and in popular culture.
  2946.  
  2947. Bibliographies
  2948. The rise of scholarship on Jewish humor required special bibliographies devoted to Jewish humor in general, in the Bible, and in the modern period. Bibliographies are standard in scholarly publications, but Eppler 1967 is an annotated essay that is addressed specifically to this subject.
  2949.  
  2950. Eppler, E. E. Jewish Humor through the Ages: A Bibliography Prepared on the Occasion of Jewish Book Week, Including a Study by Dr. Meir Gertneron “Tales of Tears and Smiles.” London: World Jewish Congress British Section, 1967.
  2951.  
  2952. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2953.  
  2954. This annotated bibliography—a mixed bag of literary and folk humor—includes sixty-five items.
  2955.  
  2956. Find this resource:
  2957.  
  2958. Bible
  2959. Research and analysis of Jewish humor in the Bible involves concepts and ideas that have been employed in its analysis in the 20th century.
  2960.  
  2961. Roeckelein, J. E. “Biblical and Jewish Humor.” In The Psychology of Humor: A Reference Guide and Annotated Bibliography. By J. E. Roeckelein, 99–118. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002.
  2962.  
  2963. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2964.  
  2965. There are debates concerning the occurrence of humor in the Bible and the distinctive qualities of Jewish humor. Proposed and debated attributes include marginality, aggressiveness against self, manic pleasure of triumph over the oppressor, and masochism.
  2966.  
  2967. Find this resource:
  2968.  
  2969. Modern Period
  2970. Davidson 1907 describes parodies in Jewish literature that preceded the formulation of the concept of “Jewish humor” whereas Cohen 1987, Nilsen 1993 and Ziv 1998 (cited under Modern Period: Collected Studies) include the studies that scholars published at the height of debate about, and interpretations of, Jewish humor.
  2971.  
  2972. Cohen, Sarah Blacher. “A Selected Check List on Jewish Humor.” In Jewish Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor. Edited by Sarah Blacher Cohen, 234–241. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
  2973.  
  2974. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2975.  
  2976. The 1950s and 1960s saw a resurgence of ethnic identity in Jewish humor in America.
  2977.  
  2978. Find this resource:
  2979.  
  2980. Davidson, Israel. “Descriptive Bibliography of the Parodies from the Beginning of the 19th Century to the Present Day.” In Parody in Jewish Literature. By Israel Davidson, 207–276. Columbia University Oriental Studies 2. New York: Columbia University Press, 1907.
  2981.  
  2982. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2983.  
  2984. A total of 421 literary and folkloric parodies, published in diverse sources about diverse themes, texts, figures, and events in Jewish-European societies.
  2985.  
  2986. Find this resource:
  2987.  
  2988. Nilsen, Don Lee Fred. “Israeli and Jewish Humor.” In Humor Scholarship: A Research Bibliography. By Don L. F. Nilsen, 200–207. Bibliographies and Indexes in Popular Culture 1. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993.
  2989.  
  2990. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  2991.  
  2992. Scholars associate different qualities with Jewish humor: a defense mechanism, sweetened aggression, paranoia, Yiddishism, reaction to an overprotective motherhood, a response to suffering, and ridicule of the oppressor.
  2993.  
  2994. Find this resource:
  2995.  
  2996. Studies
  2997. It became apparent, upon discovery in the 20th century, that the Jews and Israelites joked, laughed, and employed wit throughout their history in spite of, or because of, their troubled history. They expressed humor in the biblical period, their humor is abundantly evident in their religious exegesis and laws in the Talmud and the oral literature of the Midrash and Aggadah, the medieval period, and, most definitely, in the modern period, including during the horrors of the Holocaust.
  2998.  
  2999. Bible
  3000. Chotzner 1883 and Chotzner 1905 are authored by an early modern writer who explores humor in the Bible. More recently Lang 1962 addresses this issue in general, and in the late 20th century and the early 21st century Radday and Brenner 1990 and Brenner 2003 introduce into the debate current concepts and theoretical perspectives.
  3001.  
  3002. Brenner, A., ed. Are We Amused? Humour about Women in the Biblical Worlds. Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 383; Bible in the Twenty-First Century Series 2. London: T & T Clark, 2003.
  3003.  
  3004. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3005.  
  3006. Seven essays and two responses concerning the application of humor to narratives about biblical female figures, such as Tamar (Genesis 38) and Esther; discusses the biblical foremothers of Jesus (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Batsheba) highlighted by Matthew, and examines Josephus’s re-representation of biblical female figures.
  3007.  
  3008. Find this resource:
  3009.  
  3010. Chotzner, Josef. Humour and Irony of the Hebrew Bible. Harrow, UK: J. C. Wilbee, 1883.
  3011.  
  3012. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3013.  
  3014. Reading the Hebrew Bible in its original language reveals humor in its proverbs, poetry, and prophecy. The prevailing humorous mode is satire, which is directed, in Ecclesiastes, against high state functionaries, kings, scribblers, preachers, bookworms, idlers, skeptics, fools, drunkards, and women. Isaiah is the most prolific satirist among the prophet. In Moses’s blessings the humor is also hearty and tender.
  3015.  
  3016. Find this resource:
  3017.  
  3018. Chotzner, Josef. “Humour of the Bible.” In Hebrew Humour and Other Essays. By Josef Chotzner, 1–12. London: Luzac, 1905.
  3019.  
  3020. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3021.  
  3022. Humor occurs in the Hebrew Bible in mocking, punning on proper names and general punning, sarcasm, burlesquing of idols, mixture of bitterness and melancholy, satire, coarse humor, as is found in Ezekiel chapters 16 and 23. Reprinted in a limited edition of 150 copies (Folcroft, PA: Folcroft Library Editions, 1979).
  3023.  
  3024. Find this resource:
  3025.  
  3026. Friedman, Hershey H. “Humor in the Hebrew Bible.” Humor 13 (2000): 258–285.
  3027.  
  3028. DOI: 10.1515/humr.2000.13.3.257Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3029.  
  3030. The humorous verses and situations collected in this paper are characterized as belonging to one of the following categories of humor: sarcasm, irony, wordplay, humorous names, humorous imagery and exaggeration, and humorous situations. Humor brings God closer to humankind. Humorous stories and exaggerations make the moral lessons of the Hebrew Bible more memorable.
  3031.  
  3032. Find this resource:
  3033.  
  3034. Lang, Dov B. “On the Biblical Comic.” Judaism 11 (1962): 249–254.
  3035.  
  3036. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3037.  
  3038. Contrary to Alfred North Whitehead (b. 1861–d. 1947) who contended that “the total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature” (Lucien Price, Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead [Boston: Little Brown, 1954, p. 199]) comic element in the Bible is represented in puns, the “trickster” theme, and in irony.
  3039.  
  3040. Find this resource:
  3041.  
  3042. Radday, Y. T., and A. Brenner, eds. On Humour and the Comic in the Hebrew Bible. Sheffield, UK: Almond, 1990.
  3043.  
  3044. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3045.  
  3046. Contrary to Whitehead, who assumed the absence of humor in the Bible, humor does occur in the Hebrew Bible on semantic, onomastic, and dramatic levels, in different genres, such as parables, jokes, and tales, and in different humorous modes, such as parody, satire, and the grotesque.
  3047.  
  3048. Find this resource:
  3049.  
  3050. Midrash and Aggadah
  3051. The Midrash and Aggadah are part of the rabbinical literature of Late Antiquity, and its careful, perhaps even casual, reading reveals that the sages were as human as all of us are and told tall tales (Ben-Amos 1976) and political and erotic joke (Rosenheim 2008, Yassif 1990) as well as making witty remarks (Englman 1999).
  3052.  
  3053. Ben-Amos, Dan. “Talmudic Tall Tales.” In Folklore Today: A Festschrift for Richard M. Dorson. Edited by Linda Dégh, Henry Glassie, and Felix J. Oinas, 25–44. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976.
  3054.  
  3055. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3056.  
  3057. The art of telling lies requires masking them as fact, but repeated pointing to the existence of the rhetorical mask. The narration involves an interplay between apparent and real meanings, and laughter occurs when the mask is removed.
  3058.  
  3059. Find this resource:
  3060.  
  3061. Englman, B. “Humor mutzhar, galui ve-samui ba-talmud ha-bavli.” BDD: Bekhol Derakhekha Daehu: Journal of Torah and Scholarship 8 (1999): 5–28.
  3062.  
  3063. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3064.  
  3065. Proverbs and witty expressions in the Babylonian Talmud could represent the Talmudic rabbis’ sense of humor. At times, the Talmudic text marks out a statement as humorous, at others it has to be discovered. Humor occurs in puns, verbal play, self-ridicule, riddles, and sarcastic remarks about others and minority groups. Translated as “Declared, open and hidden humor in the Babylonian Talmud.”
  3066.  
  3067. Find this resource:
  3068.  
  3069. Rosenheim, E. “Humor etzel Ḥaza’l.” In Psikhologia be-havayat ha-yadut. By E. Rosenheim, 218–295. Moshav Ben-Shemen, Israel: Modan, 2008.
  3070.  
  3071. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3072.  
  3073. Among the sages humor functioned to convey the teaching of ethics. They distinguished between ridicule, which they tolerated only against paganism, and good-hearted humor, which they endorsed. They used humor to extract themselves from difficult situations, and for social control, political criticism. They employed it as irony, and in verbal play, puns and for religious teachings. Translated as “Humor among the sages.”
  3074.  
  3075. Find this resource:
  3076.  
  3077. Yassif, Eli. “Sippurei humor ba-aggadah: Tipologiah, noseh, mashmaʽut.” In Meḥqerei Talmud: Talmudic Studies Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Ephraim E. Urbach, III, pt I. Edited by Yaakov Sussmann and David Rosenthal, 403–430. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1990.
  3078.  
  3079. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3080.  
  3081. The erotic jokes and the vulgar language of folk humor were likely censored out of the Jewish canonic literature of Late Antiquity. However, some humorous tales occur in this literature and their narrators pitted against each other e rich and the poor, man and woman, the drunk and the sober, Jews and non-Jews, and fact and fiction. Translated as “Humoristic tales in the Aggadah: Typology, themes and meaning.”
  3082.  
  3083. Find this resource:
  3084.  
  3085. Medieval Period
  3086. Literary parody is the principal humorous genre that was undertaken in Middle Ages. Davidson 1907 gives a broad exploration of this genre from the 12th until the 19th centuries, and Davidson 1914 is an edition of a 12th-century Hebrew book that includes humorous parodic and satirical texts, which are analyzed in depth in Dishon 1985.
  3087.  
  3088. Davidson, Israel. Parody in Jewish Literature. Columbia University Oriental Studies 2. New York: Columbia University Press, 1907.
  3089.  
  3090. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3091.  
  3092. The parody is not an ancient form in Hebrew literature and is found only since the 12th century. It declined in the mid-14th century and revived in the 17th century, and it was available in diverse forms and practiced throughout the 19th century.
  3093.  
  3094. Find this resource:
  3095.  
  3096. Davidson, Israel. Sepher Shaashuim: A Book of Medieval Lore by Joseph Ben Meir Ibn Zabara. Texts and Studies of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America 4. New York: Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1914.
  3097.  
  3098. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3099.  
  3100. A 12th-century literary work written in Hebrew in Spain that includes humorous tales and anecdotes, satiric social criticism, and parodies of sermons.
  3101.  
  3102. Find this resource:
  3103.  
  3104. Dishon, J. Sepher Shaashuim le-yosef ben meir ibn zabara. Jerusalem: Rubin Mas, 1985.
  3105.  
  3106. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3107.  
  3108. An analytical, literary, folkloristic, and historical study of Sepher Shaashuim. Translated as “The Book of Delight composed by Joseph ben Meir Zabara.”
  3109.  
  3110. Find this resource:
  3111.  
  3112. Modern Period
  3113. The study of Jewish humor in the folklore of modern times intensified in the second half of the 20th century, notwithstanding that its influential emergence in 19th-century Germany has now become apparent. Reference articles offering a general framework and a broad range of methods and theories have been assembled in collected studies, but the main issues have concerned definition, the nature of the Jewish joke, the validity of the causes for its symptoms that psychoanalytic interpretation has identified, and the reasons for targeting women in Jewish jokes. Adler 1893 and Chotzner 1905 are responses to the image of the Jews as humorless people held by some European intellectuals, and Ziv 2007 is a summative essay describing the historical, ethnic, and philosophical dimensions of Jewish humor. Cohen 2004 provides a full-scale survey of the history of Jewish humor from its beginning in the Bible and up to its flourishing in 19th-century eastern Europe that attempts to finds its particular qualities in the nature of Jewish society.
  3114.  
  3115. Adler, H. “Jewish Wit and Humour.” Nineteenth Century 33 (1893): 457–469.
  3116.  
  3117. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3118.  
  3119. Contrary to the opinions of Ernest Renan and Thomas Carlyle the Hebrews had a sense of humor. Their Maker provided His feeble creatures with humor as a weapon. Yet, their mirth has an undercurrent of sadness. There is humor in their ancient and medieval literature, and Jewish writers in Germany display witticism often turned by the speaker against himself.
  3120.  
  3121. Find this resource:
  3122.  
  3123. Chotzner, J. Hebrew Humour and Other Essays. London: Luzac, 1905.
  3124.  
  3125. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3126.  
  3127. Treats essays of historical significance written before the concept of “Jewish humor” was widely recognized. Satire, sarcasm, and puns are identified in the Hebrew Bible, the writings of Immanuel di Roma (b. c. 1265–d. c. 1330), Kalonymos ben Kalonymos (b. 1176–d. 1238), and Isaac Erter (b. 1792–d. 1851)—all dispelling the assertion of Thomas Carlyle (b. 1795–d. 1881) and Ernest Renan (b. 1823–d. 1892) that Jewish literature lacks humor.
  3128.  
  3129. Find this resource:
  3130.  
  3131. Cohen, Adir. Ha-humor shel ʽAm Yisrael le-dorotav: Me-ha-tanakh ve-ʽad yameinu. Haifa, Israel: Amatzyah, 2004.
  3132.  
  3133. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3134.  
  3135. A survey of Jewish humor from the Bible through post-biblical oral tradition, medieval literature, Hasidic literature, and up to the 19th century Yiddish literature. Treats 20th-century Jewish humor found during the Holocaust and in Soviet Russia, Israel, and America. Jewish humor is told by Jews, about Jews, in a Jewish language. It is critical, nonconformist, democratic, and witty, targeting authority figures. Translated as “Jewish humor through the ages.”
  3136.  
  3137. Find this resource:
  3138.  
  3139. Ziv, Avner. “Humor.” 2d ed. Encyclopedia Judaica Vol. 9. Edited by Fred Skolnick and Michael Berenbaum, 590–599. Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2007.
  3140.  
  3141. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3142.  
  3143. Jewish humor is created by and for Jews, reflecting Jewish life. Geographically varied, and rooted in ancient times, Late Antiquity, and the Middle Ages, its modern variety emerged during the Enlightenment in Germany and in eastern Europe in the 19th century. Minority status, bilingualism, pilpul, and a sense of the absurd contributed to the formation of its principle features, which changed radically in Israel.
  3144.  
  3145. Find this resource:
  3146.  
  3147. Collected Studies
  3148. The collected studies of Jewish humor represent an interdisciplinary efforts to research, interpret, and explain the Jewish humor phenomena, which appears to be enigmatic and fascinating to scholars who approach it from different disciplinary perspectives in Cohen 1987, Greenspoon 2011, Ziv 1991, Ziv 1998, and Ziv and Sover 2012.
  3149.  
  3150. Cohen, Sarah Blacher, ed. Jewish Wry: Essays on Jewish Humor. Jewish Literature and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987.
  3151.  
  3152. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3153.  
  3154. Fourteen essays that explore the varieties of Jewish humor: as a form of masochism, of rebellious rationalism, and of intelligence running amok. Its roots are in the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud but it burst into the open in the 19th century in Yiddish literature. In America and in Israel it is represented in popular culture and literature.
  3155.  
  3156. Find this resource:
  3157.  
  3158. Greenspoon, Leonard J., ed. Jews and Humor. Proceedings of the Twenty-Second Annual Symposium of the Klutznick Chair in Jewish Civilization-Harris Center for Judaic Studies, October 25–26, 2009. Studies in Jewish Civilization 22. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2011.
  3159.  
  3160. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3161.  
  3162. Fourteen essays that explore the relations between Jews and humor in traditional sources from the Hebrew Bible through Talmudic texts, medieval parodies, 18th-centuries joke books to modern popular entertainment.
  3163.  
  3164. Find this resource:
  3165.  
  3166. Ziv, Avner, ed. Special Issue: Jewish Humor. Humor 4.2 (1991).
  3167.  
  3168. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3169.  
  3170. Nine essays that explore different aspects of Jewish humor, in the writings of Malamud and Bellow, in JAP jokes, in cartoons in South Africa, and in the figure of the “schlemiezel,” and they address issues of self-deprecating humor and the actual existence and definition of Jewish humor and Jewish jokes.
  3171.  
  3172. Find this resource:
  3173.  
  3174. Ziv, Avner, ed. Jewish Humor. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1998.
  3175.  
  3176. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3177.  
  3178. Thirteen articles about “Humor and Jewish Identity,” “Humor and Satire as Aggressive Weapons” (of Jews, against Jews, and among Jews), “Tradition and Jewish Humor,” and “Humor in the Promised Land.” Originally published 1986.
  3179.  
  3180. Find this resource:
  3181.  
  3182. Ziv, Avner, and A. Sover, eds. Ḥashivuta shel retzinut: Kovetz ma’amarim rav-teḥumi be-ḥeker ha-humor. Jerusalem: Carmel, 2012.
  3183.  
  3184. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3185.  
  3186. Seventeen articles about “Humor as a Defense Mechanism in and after the Holocaust,” “Humor in Jewish Sources,” “Philosophy and Applicable Humor,” “Medicine and Humor Therapy,” “Humor in Literature,” “Theater and Cinema,” and “Humor, Learning and Emotional Intelligence.” The more theoretical essays draw upon examples from Jewish societies. Translated as “The importance of not being serious: Collection of multidisciplinary articles in humor research.”
  3187.  
  3188. Find this resource:
  3189.  
  3190. Psychoanalytic Interpretations, Roots, and Challenges
  3191. The idea that Jewish humor is an expression of self-aggression (Freud 1960 [1905]) has been its formative concept during the 20th century and Freud’s disciples offered causal interpretations (Grotjahn 1957, Reik 1929, Reik 1962). Gilman 1984 and Chase 2000 identify the roots of this idea in 19th-century German Jewish culture, and Ben-Amos 1973 and Davies 1991 challenge its applicability to modern Jewish humor.
  3192.  
  3193. Ben-Amos, Dan. “The ‘Myth’ of Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 32 (1973): 112–131.
  3194.  
  3195. DOI: 10.2307/1498323Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3196.  
  3197. An ethnographic method reveals, contrary to the psychoanalytical school and popular image, that Jewish humor is not masochistic, but a verbal venue of differentiation within the Jewish community. Dialect jokes set intergenerational boundaries, and erudition sets boundaries between rabbis and other community leaders.
  3198.  
  3199. Find this resource:
  3200.  
  3201. Chase, Jeffrey S. Inciting Laughter: The Development of “Jewish Humor” in 19th Century German Culture. European Cultures: Studies in Literature and the Arts 12. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2000.
  3202.  
  3203. DOI: 10.1515/9783110813838Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3204.  
  3205. “Jewish humor” (Judenwitz) referred in early-19th-Germany, not to Jewish folk humor, but to the critical, journalistic, and literary writings of Moritz Gottlieb Saphir (b. 1795–d. 1858), Ludwig Börne (b. 1786–d. 1837), and Heinrich Heine (b. 1797–d. 1856), which their contemporaries considered not Jewish at all, whereas recent psychoanalytic critics analyze it as masochistic and self-hating, qualities often associated with Jewish humor.
  3206.  
  3207. Find this resource:
  3208.  
  3209. Davies, C. “Exploring the Thesis of the Self-Deprecating Jewish Sense of Humor.” Humor 4 (1991): 189–209.
  3210.  
  3211. DOI: 10.1515/humr.1991.4.2.189Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3212.  
  3213. The view that Jewish humor is self-denigrating is widely held, but it is doubtful whether it is true. Jewish jokes play with hostility and stereotypes; they do not endorse them.
  3214.  
  3215. Find this resource:
  3216.  
  3217. Edel, Edmund. Der Witz der Juden. Berlin: Louis Lamm, 1909.
  3218.  
  3219. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3220.  
  3221. Jewish wit is as old as the Jewish people, passed down from one generation to another.
  3222.  
  3223. Find this resource:
  3224.  
  3225. Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. Translated by James Strachey. New York: Norton, 1960.
  3226.  
  3227. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3228.  
  3229. The study addresses the general questions of the relation of jokes to the unconscious, but the comments Freud made about Jewish jokes were formative regarding their subsequent analysis. He considered them to be tendentious jokes directed against the subject himself or the collective with whom he identifies, such as his nation. Freud affirms that Jews are notorious for ridiculing their own character.
  3230.  
  3231. Find this resource:
  3232.  
  3233. Gilman, Sander L. “Jewish Jokes: Sigmund Freud and the Hidden Language of the Jews.” Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought 7.4 (1984): 591–614.
  3234.  
  3235. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3236.  
  3237. Differences in language, style, and themes between L. M. Büschenthal’s collection of comic thoughts about Jews (Gedichte, 1812) and Manuel Schnitzer’s (M. Nuél) Das Buch der Jüdischen Witze (Berlin: Riecke, 1907) reflect changes in the self-conception of Jews in Germany. In Freud’s retelling, the Jew vanishes in the presence of the idealized German, turning the aggressiveness of the joke against the outsider himself.
  3238.  
  3239. Find this resource:
  3240.  
  3241. Grotjahn, Martin. Beyond Laughter: Humor and the Subconscious. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957.
  3242.  
  3243. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3244.  
  3245. The chapter on “Sigmund Freud and the Psychoanalysis of Jokes” includes comments regarding the nature of Jewish humor. Accordingly, Jewish humor is not masochistic, but only a masochistic mask in which victory is achieved by defeat, in which the persecuted Jew deflects his hostility from the persecutors onto himself. By the apparent self-aggression of their jokes, the Jews outwit their enemies.
  3246.  
  3247. Find this resource:
  3248.  
  3249. Raskin, Richard. Life Is Like a Glass of Tea: Studies of Classical Jewish Jokes. Aarhus, Denmark: Aarhus University Press, 1992.
  3250.  
  3251. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3252.  
  3253. An analysis of six classical Jewish jokes according to a literary-historical-interpretive method highlights four properties that characterize Jewish jokes: reversibility, a verbal logic-defying impossible figure, being grounded in the realities of human behavior, and basic mistrust in any mind-trapping mental construct.
  3254.  
  3255. Find this resource:
  3256.  
  3257. Reik, Theoror. “Zur Psychoanalyse des jüdischen Witzes.” Imago 15 (1929): 63–88.
  3258.  
  3259. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3260.  
  3261. The self-ridicule, degradation, and criticism toward the individual and collective self that is characteristic of Jewish humor is symptomatic of psychological melancholy, when the reproaching of self is actually addressed against the lost love object. Hebrew translation by Y. L. Barukh, “ʽAl ha-bedihah ha-yehudit” (Simon Ernst, Meʼotzar ha-bedihah [Tel Aviv: NP, 1933], pp. 3–36).
  3262.  
  3263. Find this resource:
  3264.  
  3265. Reik, Theodor. Jewish Wit. New York: Gamut, 1962.
  3266.  
  3267. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3268.  
  3269. The distinctive features of Jewish humor are human intimacy, antithetical thoughts, un-merry laughter, and explosive truth, masochism, and self-directed aggression that results in “victory through defeat.” The recurrent humorous figures in Jewish-German society and literature are the Schlemiel, the “meschugge,” the rabbi, the Jewish mother. The recurrent concepts are logic, truth, irony, sarcasm, skepticism, and paradoxes.
  3270.  
  3271. Find this resource:
  3272.  
  3273. Rohatyn, B. “Die Gestalten des juedischen Volkshumors.” Ost und West 2 (1911): 121–126.
  3274.  
  3275. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3276.  
  3277. See also 3 (1911): 211–218. From an aesthetic-psychological and cultural-historical perspective, in addition to faith, humor helped Jews throughout their troubled history to overcome pain and laugh it away. This proposition is illustrated by jokes about matchmakers.
  3278.  
  3279. Find this resource:
  3280.  
  3281. Simon, E. “Notes on Jewish Wit.” Jewish Frontier 15 (October 1948): 42–48.
  3282.  
  3283. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3284.  
  3285. Jewish humor is characterized by pun, intonation wit, by literalizing of examples, by pilpul— Talmudic mental calisthenics. It is self-defensive and self-critical. It is a moralistic wit.
  3286.  
  3287. Find this resource:
  3288.  
  3289. Telushkin, Joseph. Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say about the Jews. New York: William Morrow, 1992.
  3290.  
  3291. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3292.  
  3293. Jewish humor exposes the intellectual, ethical, and religious aspects of Jewish life as well as its social dimensions: relations between parents, especially mothers, and their children and attitudes toward anti-Semitism, assimilation, and self; includes a valuable annotated bibliography.
  3294.  
  3295. Find this resource:
  3296.  
  3297. Wisse, Ruth R. Some Serious Thoughts about Jewish Humor. Leo Baeck Memorial Lecture 45. New York: Leo Baeck Institute, 2001.
  3298.  
  3299. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3300.  
  3301. Yiddish humor, in oral tradition and in literature, is associated with the Jewish condition, and it is qualitatively the best national humor, laughing not at the Jewish character, as Freud asserted, but at its own nature, being a self-reflective humor.
  3302.  
  3303. Find this resource:
  3304.  
  3305. Wisse, Ruth R. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor. Library of Jewish Ideas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.
  3306.  
  3307. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3308.  
  3309. Wisse affirms that, among the Jews, there is a greater reliance on humor. It flourishes in an exegetical tradition that values literate intelligence and wit, a religious tradition of self-restraint, a culture forged in the ancient Near East and developed in the modern West, and a theodicy of believers who have been targeted for genocide, all in a social and historical context of incongruities.
  3310.  
  3311. Find this resource:
  3312.  
  3313. The Jewish Joke
  3314. The attempts to describe the distinctive features of Jewish humor deal with issues concerning the joke tellers and humoristic qualities that are characteristic of their narratives. This inquiry is bound up with two related issues: Do Jews tell also non-Jewish jokes, and do non-Jews tell jokes that have the distinctive qualities of Jewish humor? As a solution to these dilemmas, Noy 1962 proposes a social basis for the demarcation of Jewish jokes, to which Eilbrit 1993, Jason 1967, and Nevo 1991 add geographic, linguistic, and thematic features for the description of the corpus of Jewish jokes. Berger 2006, Bermant 1986, Cohen 1999, Landmann 1962 select intellectual qualities, logical inversion and the absurd, and related qualities as the distinctive features of Jewish humor. Oring 1983 inverts the issue and considers the concept of Jewish humor as a construct externally attributed to Jews.
  3315.  
  3316. Berger, Arthur A. The Genius of the Jewish Joke. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2006.
  3317.  
  3318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3319.  
  3320. Jewish jokes are distinguished by their attempt to alter horrific to laughable reality intellectually, to maintain contrasting ethnic distinction between Jews and the others, and by emotional, sympathy-winning self-disparagement. Masochism is not one of its distinctive features. Surviving European figures in American Jewish dialect jokes are the Schlemiel, the Schlimasel, the Shadken, and the Schnorrer. Originally published 1997.
  3321.  
  3322. Find this resource:
  3323.  
  3324. Bermant, Chaim. What’s the Joke? A Study of Jewish Humour through the Ages. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1986.
  3325.  
  3326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3327.  
  3328. Jewish humor is hard to define but easy to recognize by its insolence and sarcasm, negativity and savoring unhappiness, excess precaution, bitter laughter, wryness, logical inversion, self-deprecation, protective self-ridicule, and laughter that is fraught with pain.
  3329.  
  3330. Find this resource:
  3331.  
  3332. Cohen, Ted. “Jewish Jokes and the Acceptance of Absurdity.” In Jokes: Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters. By Ted Cohen, 45–68. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
  3333.  
  3334. DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226112329.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3335.  
  3336. Jewish jokes are characterized by crazy logic, logical contradiction, insane rationality, palpable implausibility, and sheer absurdity. To laugh at absurdity is the acceptance of incomprehensibility. Jewish humor is the humor of the outsider and it exploits a fascination with logic and language.
  3337.  
  3338. Find this resource:
  3339.  
  3340. Eilbrit, Henry. What Is a Jewish Joke: An Excursion into Jewish Humor. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1993.
  3341.  
  3342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3343.  
  3344. A Jewish joke stems from Jewish life or Jewish history, its punch line depends upon a Jewish language—Yiddish in particular—and it highlights real or imagined Jewish characteristics or stereotypes. Historically, the roots of the Jewish joke are in the society, culture, and language of eastern European Jews.
  3345.  
  3346. Find this resource:
  3347.  
  3348. Jason, Heda. “The Jewish Joke: The Problem of Definition.” Southern Folklore Quarterly (1967): 48–54.
  3349.  
  3350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3351.  
  3352. A proposal to consider jokes told by Jews in terms of their specific linguistic or geographic rather than their national designation.
  3353.  
  3354. Find this resource:
  3355.  
  3356. Landmann, S. “On Jewish Humour.” Jewish Journal of Sociology 4 (1962): 193–204.
  3357.  
  3358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3359.  
  3360. Jewish humor is more profound, varied, and richer than that of other peoples. It hardly occurs in either the Bible or the Talmud. The typical Jewish jokes are ridicule of ignorance and impudence of beggars. Wit, in its highest level, requires a combination, displayed by Jews since the Enlightenment, of intellectual training and a profound insight into universal problems.
  3361.  
  3362. Find this resource:
  3363.  
  3364. Nevo, Ofra. “What Is a Jewish Joke?” Humor 4 (1991): 251–260.
  3365.  
  3366. DOI: 10.1515/humr.1991.4.2.251Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3367.  
  3368. A psychological test seeking to determine the factors that contribute to the perception of jokes as Jewish. Jokes were manipulated to represent, in eight facets, characterizing ethnic elements in jokes: (1) name of hero, (2) names of secondary heroes, (3) roles, (4) subgroups, (5) culture, (6) location, (7) language, (8) stereotypes specifically related to the Jewish context.
  3369.  
  3370. Find this resource:
  3371.  
  3372. Noy, Dov. “Hakayemet Beddihat Am Yehudit?” Mahanayim 67 (1962): 48–56.
  3373.  
  3374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3375.  
  3376. A joke is Jewish when it is told by and to Jews. The motif-index offers a methodology that could counter unfounded generalizations and the attribution of qualities of international humor exclusively to the Jews. Translated as “Is there a Jewish folk joke?”
  3377.  
  3378. Find this resource:
  3379.  
  3380. Oring, Elliott. “The People of the Joke: On the Conceptualization of a Jewish Humor.” Western Folklore 42.4 (1983): 261–271.
  3381.  
  3382. DOI: 10.2307/1499501Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3383.  
  3384. Jewish humor is that humor which has been conceptualized as uniquely, distinctly, or characteristically reflective of, evocative of, or conditioned by the Jewish people and their circumstances. There is no particular concern that these conceptualizations of uniqueness can be demonstrated as matters of fact; rather, it is the orientation itself that defines the subject matter. Reprinted in Elliott Oring, Jokes and Their Relations (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1992), pp. 112–121; Boskin, Joseph. The Humor Prism in 20th-Century America (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997), 134–144.
  3385.  
  3386. Find this resource:
  3387.  
  3388. Women as Targets in Jewish Humor
  3389. The Jewish American Princess and the Jewish American Mother (Dundes 1985, Ravits 2000, Saper 1991) are comic images in the Jewish American humor repertoire, but they may have their roots in eastern European family relationships (Davies 1990).
  3390.  
  3391. Davies, C. “An Explanation of Jewish Jokes about Jewish Women.” Humor 3 (1990): 363–378.
  3392.  
  3393. DOI: 10.1515/humr.1990.3.4.363Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3394.  
  3395. Jewish jokes about Jewish wives, mothers, and “JAPs” have no equivalent in other groups, but they are not anti-Semitic, nor are they misogynous. Rather, they result from the family-centered nature of Jewish life and the Jewish in-group marriage. For Jewish men Jewish women represent duty, and, like other duties, they are both accepted and mocked.
  3396.  
  3397. Find this resource:
  3398.  
  3399. Dundes, Alan. “The J. A. P. and the J. A. M. in American Jokelore.” Journal of American Folklore 98 (1985): 456–475.
  3400.  
  3401. DOI: 10.2307/540367Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3402.  
  3403. The stereotype of the Jewish American Princess (JAP), as displayed in a popular American joke cycle of the 1970s and 1980s, needs to be analyzed as contrasting with the image of the Jewish American Mother (JAM), conceived as an overprotective and self-victimized woman.
  3404.  
  3405. Find this resource:
  3406.  
  3407. Ravits, Martha A. “The Jewish Mother: Comedy and Controversy in American Popular Culture.” MELUS 25 (2000): 3–31.
  3408.  
  3409. DOI: 10.2307/468149Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3410.  
  3411. The history of the mother stereotype in Jewish folklore, jokes, and popular culture follows a jagged pattern of vilification and vindication, of male action and female reaction. The feminist responses to men’s comic devaluing of the Jewish mother failed to disrupt the persistence of the image, but the shift of women from the margin to the center did do so.
  3412.  
  3413. Find this resource:
  3414.  
  3415. Saper, B. “The JAP Jokes Controversy: An Excruciating Psychosocial Analysis.” Humor 4 (1991): 223–239.
  3416.  
  3417. DOI: 10.1515/humr.1991.4.2.223Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3418.  
  3419. Applying the methodology of cognitive-behavioral psychology to the analysis of JAP jokes, which accounts for the teller, the receiver, and the interaction between them, it becomes apparent that not every JAP joke purports to ridicule or inflict harm on Jewish women. If a joke is unreinforced, that joke telling will extinguish of its own accord.
  3420.  
  3421. Find this resource:
  3422.  
  3423. America
  3424. The eastern European Jewish humor transformed in America to a humor of an immigrant minority group facing problems of rejection (Dundes 1971); marginalization (Rosenberg and Shapiro (1958); adaptation, survival, and defense (Berger 2001, Cray 1964, Boskin and Dorinson 1985, Dorinson 1981, Katz and Katz 1971); and identity (Brandes 1983). The Jewish trickster figure was transferred to America (Boskin and Dorinson 1985, Cray 1964). Mass media in America constituted a new challenge to Jewish humorists (Boskin and Dorinson 1985, Berger 2001, Eckardt 1992).
  3425.  
  3426. Berger, Arthur A. Jewish Jesters: A Study in American Popular Comedy. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton, 2001.
  3427.  
  3428. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3429.  
  3430. Is there a relationship between the traditional background of Jewish comedians and their humor in the popular media? An answer to this question is sought in the biography and performances of the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Henny Youngman, Rodney Dangerfield, Cid Caesar, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks, Jackie Mason, Woody Allen, and Jerry Seinfeld.
  3431.  
  3432. Find this resource:
  3433.  
  3434. Boskin, Joseph, ed. The Humor Prism in 20th-Century America. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997.
  3435.  
  3436. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3437.  
  3438. The concept of Jewish humor emerged toward the end of the 19th century, affirming, in the views of Jews and others, that they are “the people of the joke.” Their humor is predicated upon their history of suffering, which conditioned the expectation of Jewish humor to be transcendent, defensive, and pathological. See especially pp. 134–144.
  3439.  
  3440. Find this resource:
  3441.  
  3442. Boskin, Joseph, and Joseph Dorinson. “Ethnic Humor: Subversion and Survival.” American Quarterly 37 (1985): 81–97.
  3443.  
  3444. DOI: 10.2307/2712764Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3445.  
  3446. Jewish and black comedians responded differently to social stress affecting minorities. The Jews drew upon a long tradition that sanctioned irreverent humor and granted license to jesters and tricksters while black comedians resorted to inwardly masochistic, tragic, externally aggressive, even acrimonious humor that generated gallows humor, the ironic curse, double meanings, trickster tales, and retaliatory jokes.
  3447.  
  3448. Find this resource:
  3449.  
  3450. Brandes, Stanley. “Jewish-American Dialect Jokes and Jewish-American Identity.” Jewish Social Studies 45 (1983): 233–240.
  3451.  
  3452. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3453.  
  3454. Jewish American dialect jokes incorporate Yiddish vocabulary, syntax, and/or intonation, mimicking immigrant speech, and describe a sensitive speech event. They are a series of tales that Jews tell to themselves about themselves. They originate from a preoccupation with, and insecurity about, ethnic identity. In a nonthreatening, humorous vein they recount the linguistic tribulations, embarrassments, and triumphs of a people.
  3455.  
  3456. Find this resource:
  3457.  
  3458. Cray, Ed. “The Rabbi Trickster.” Journal of American Folklore 77.306 (1964): 331–345.
  3459.  
  3460. DOI: 10.2307/537381Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3461.  
  3462. The cycle of “rabbi trickster” jokes is a form of the urban religious joke, told about Jews by Jews of all ages and classes in the New World. Their hero outwits his religious rivals in a self-effacing manner. The trickster functions in a dual role—at one and the same time he is both wise and foolish.
  3463.  
  3464. Find this resource:
  3465.  
  3466. Dorinson, Joseph. “Jewish Humor: Mechanism for Defense, Weapon for Cultural Affirmation.” Journal of Psychohistory 8.4 (1981): 447–464.
  3467.  
  3468. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3469.  
  3470. The representation of Jewish humor in the mass media has its roots in the folk and literary humor of eastern European Jewry. Jewish American comedians oscillate between the poles of aggression internalized and anger externalized. The American Jew flits from conformity to alienation and, for him, Jewish humor serves as both a defense mechanism and a cultural lifeline.
  3471.  
  3472. Find this resource:
  3473.  
  3474. Dundes, Alan. “A Study of Ethnic Slurs: The Jew and the Polack in the United States.” Journal of American Folklore 84.332 (1971): 186–203.
  3475.  
  3476. DOI: 10.2307/538989Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3477.  
  3478. Ethnic jokes and slurs serve as source for the construction of ethnic stereotypes. According to them the Jews are greedy bargain hunters, have large noses, and are status conscious and ethnically self-centered. The Polish people are poor, dirty, stupid, inept, vulgar, boorish, and tasteless.
  3479.  
  3480. Find this resource:
  3481.  
  3482. Eckardt, A. Roy. Sitting in the Earth and Laughing: A Handbook of Humor. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1992.
  3483.  
  3484. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3485.  
  3486. Three chapters (pp. 131–191) are devoted mostly to Jewish humor in American popular media, considering its singularity, marginality, self-criticism, tragic optimism, and proposing to study, instead of “Jewish humor,” “humor among Jews,” in which it becomes an inversion of religion alongside a faithful humor that escapes both the cynicism of hopelessness and the utopian belief in a perfect world.
  3487.  
  3488. Find this resource:
  3489.  
  3490. Katz, Naomi, and Eli Katz. “Tradition and Adaptation in American Jewish Humor.” Journal of American Folklore 84.332 (1971): 215–220.
  3491.  
  3492. DOI: 10.2307/538991Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3493.  
  3494. The apparent decline in the popularity of dialect jokes in recent years in Jewish jokes represents a subsequent stage of adaptation, on the part of young American Jews, who reject what they regard as the excessively vulgar, ostentatious, and materially oriented conformity of their Americanized parents to the values of well-to-do suburbia.
  3495.  
  3496. Find this resource:
  3497.  
  3498. Rosenberg, Bernard, and Gilbert Shapiro. “Marginality and Jewish Humor.” Midstream 4 (1958): 70–80.
  3499.  
  3500. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3501.  
  3502. The “Jewish” style of humor dates only from the emancipation, and it emerged as a reaction to the special problem of questionable status that Jews have faced in many lands. Jewish jokes reflect the psychological ambiguity of life in a marginal social position. This becomes apparent in frequent references to conversion and to intermarriage.
  3503.  
  3504. Find this resource:
  3505.  
  3506. Ashkenaz
  3507. The humor of the Jews of Ashkenaz in Europe and in the countries where they migrated has been at the core of Jewish humor scholarship in general, but the following studies focus upon two specific issues. Bialostotzky 1963 discusses the jeters in Ashkenazic humor, who play the role of human tricksters, and Harris and Rabinovich 1988 presents and analyzes the humor of the Jews under Soviet rule, which was largely unknown outside the Soviet Union until the publication of this study.
  3508.  
  3509. Bialostotzky, B. J. Yidisher humor un yidishe leytsim. New York: Cyco, 1963.
  3510.  
  3511. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3512.  
  3513. A book-length essay about Yiddish humor, interspersed with ample examples, of the principal themes and figures of Yiddish humor, ranging from biblical, rabbinical, and religious themes and figures to stories about the wise men of Chelem and jesters such as Motké Habad and Shayké Faifer. Translated as “Jewish humor and Jewish jesters.”
  3514.  
  3515. Find this resource:
  3516.  
  3517. Harris, David A., and Izrail Rabinovich. The Jokes of Oppression: The Humor of Soviet Jews. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1988.
  3518.  
  3519. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3520.  
  3521. Circulated orally in the Soviet Union, these jokes were collected from contacts in the Soviet Union and from former Soviet citizens. They include Jewish political jokes, humor about daily life, traditional Jewish jokes adapted to life under communism, and true stories of personal experience. Their central hero is Rabinovich (alias Shapiro or Khaimovich), a common man who exerts optimism.
  3522.  
  3523. Find this resource:
  3524.  
  3525. The Wise Men of Chelem
  3526. Chelem is a city in eastern Poland (Kanc and Grinberg 1981) that in Jewish, and not in Polish, folklore became an imaginary town of fools, the like of which can be found in many countries. The jokes about the fools of Chelem, euphemistically called “wise men,” describe an entire community, including its leaders and institutions, that mirrors a Jewish small town albeit inverted, with a logic all of its own (Biletzky 1981, Loewe, 1920, Rogovin 2009). Descendants of Chelem write defensively, protesting jokes about their ancestral city (Friedman 1954, Gotfarsztajn 1954, Janasowicz 1954).
  3527.  
  3528. Biletzky, Israel Ch. Bekhal Chachamim: ʽAni atah ve-Ḥelem. Tel Aviv: Gazit, 1981.
  3529.  
  3530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3531.  
  3532. A literary essay about the anecdotes of Chelem, discerning in them naiveté and innocence, and humor that is lacking, hostility, aggression, and satire. Translated as “Among the wise: I, you, and Chelem.”
  3533.  
  3534. Find this resource:
  3535.  
  3536. Friedman, P. “Tsu der geshikhte fun di yidn in Khelem.” In Yizker-bukh Khelem. Edited by M. Bakalczuk-Felin, 13–38. Johannesburg: Chelemer Landsmanschaft Society, 1954.
  3537.  
  3538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3539.  
  3540. A brief history of the community that mentions its leaders, rabbis, and major events, concluding with a brief note and a valuable bibliography on the community image as a “town of fools” in Jewish folklore. Translated as “Concerning the history of the Jews in Chelem.”
  3541.  
  3542. Find this resource:
  3543.  
  3544. Gotfarsztajn, J. “Di khelmer maasiyot zynen gornisht azoy narish.” In Yizker-bukh Khelem. Edited by M. Bakalczuk-Felin, 53–60. Johannesburg: Chelemer Landsmanschaft Society, 1954.
  3545.  
  3546. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3547.  
  3548. The city of Chelem became a noted center for Jewish thought in which inverted induction rules. The Chelem joke is a protest against the tragic fate of the Jewish people, the moral of which that the people thrives, contrary to theories and logic. Translated as “Chelmer stories are not so foolish.”
  3549.  
  3550. Find this resource:
  3551.  
  3552. Janasowicz, I. “Di ‘Khelemer maaseh’ un di Yidishe literature.” In Yizker-bukh Khelem. Edited by M. Bakalczuk-Felin, 45–51. Johannesburg: Chelemer Landsmanschaft Society, 1954.
  3553.  
  3554. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3555.  
  3556. The tales about Chelem have a long history in oral tradition, and there is no relation between the fictional city of the jokes and the real historical city that its Jewish residents knew. Translated as “The myth of Chelem in Jewish literature.”
  3557.  
  3558. Find this resource:
  3559.  
  3560. Kanc, Shimon, and Mosheh Grinberg, eds. Sefer ha-zikaron li-ḳehilat Ḥelem: 40 shanah le-ḥurbanah. Tel Aviv: Irgun yotsʾe Ḥelem be-Yiśraʾel uve-Artzot ha-Brit, 1981.
  3561.  
  3562. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3563.  
  3564. Memorial book for the Jewish community in Chelem, including its history, traditions, and folklore. Translated as “Sefer Helem: Yizkor book in memory of Chelem.”
  3565.  
  3566. Find this resource:
  3567.  
  3568. Loewe, Heinrich. Schelme und Narren mit jüdischen Kappen. Berlin: Welt-Verlag, 1920.
  3569.  
  3570. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3571.  
  3572. A discussion of Jewish jesters and fools in eastern European Jewish humor, and a collection of sixty jokes.
  3573.  
  3574. Find this resource:
  3575.  
  3576. Rogovin, O. “Chelm as Shtetl: Y. Y. Trunk’s Khelemer Khakhomim.” Prooftexts 29.2 (2009): 242–272.
  3577.  
  3578. DOI: 10.2979/PFT.2009.29.2.242Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3579.  
  3580. Yehiel Yeshaia Trunk’s The Wise Men of Chelm (see 1951) fuses the different Chelm traditions with innovative plots and historical, linguistic, and cultural material. Using formalist methodology, the Chelm of folklore is immersed with the spirit of the shtetl, creating not a realistic eastern European Jewish town but a myth of it.
  3581.  
  3582. Find this resource:
  3583.  
  3584. Humor in the Holocaust
  3585. During the Holocaust humor functioned as political satire and entertainment (Hillenbrand 1995, Kühn 1999, Lipman 1991) and as a defense mechanism (Levin 2004, Lipman 1991, Ostrower 2009). After the war the pairing of humor and the Holocaust became ethically questionable (Leone 2002), and the Holocaust itself became a subject in anti-Semitic jokes (Dundes and Hauschild 1983).
  3586.  
  3587. Dundes, Alan, and Thomas Hauschild. “Auschwitz Jokes.” Western Folklore 42(1983): 249–260.
  3588.  
  3589. DOI: 10.2307/1499500Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3590.  
  3591. Anti-Semitism prevailed in Germany after World War II, as the currency of executioner jokes told by Germans victimized the Jews in the 1980s demonstrates. Reprinted in Humour in Society: Resistance and Control, edited by Chris Powell and George E. C. Paton (New York: St. Martin’s), 1988), pp. 56–55.
  3592.  
  3593. Find this resource:
  3594.  
  3595. Hillenbrand, Fritz K. M. Underground Humor in Nazi Germany, 1933–1945. London: Routledge, 1995. 72–84.
  3596.  
  3597. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3598.  
  3599. A total of eighty-seven jokes and anecdotes in which intolerance, bureaucracy, and ignorance—the omnipresent Nazi sins—are contrasted with Jewish intelligent and ingenious response toward repression. The jokes, mostly created by the Jews, testify to the inimitable quality of Jewish humor, which enabled them to laugh at their oppressors and at themselves.
  3600.  
  3601. Find this resource:
  3602.  
  3603. Kühn, Volker. “‘We’ve Enough Tsoris’: Laughter at the Edge of the Abyss.” In Theatrical Performances during the Holocaust: Texts, Documents, Memoirs. Edited by Rebecca Rovit and Alvin Goldfarb, 40–57. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
  3604.  
  3605. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3606.  
  3607. Jewish cabaret comedians in Germany in the 1930s, who belonged to the Jüdischer Kulturbund Deutscher Juden (Cultural Association of German Jews), consisting of a nationwide network of theaters that was organized, sponsored, and even protected (until 1941) by the Nazis, entertained their audiences with censured jokes and monologues. Originally published 1933–1941.
  3608.  
  3609. Find this resource:
  3610.  
  3611. Leone, Massimo. “Shoah and Humor: A Semiotic Approach.” Jewish Studies Quarterly 9 (2002): 173–192.
  3612.  
  3613. DOI: 10.1628/0944570022715680Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3614.  
  3615. Analysis of the movies La vita è bella (1998) by Roberto Benigni and Train de vie (1998) by Radu Mihaileann raises the ethical question concerning the combination of humor and Shoah. Such a presentation does not occur in oral tradition but rather in film and literature, and it ridicules neither the victims nor the perpetrators.
  3616.  
  3617. Find this resource:
  3618.  
  3619. Levin, Itamar, ed. Mi-beʽad la-dmaʽot: Humor yehudi taḥat ha-shilton ha-nazi. Tel Aviv: Miskal—Yedioth Ahronoth, 2004.
  3620.  
  3621. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3622.  
  3623. An anthology and analytical commentary of Holocaust jokes and humorous songs drawn from published and archival sources. Humor was the weapon of the weak, a direct response to Nazi actions, amanifestation of hope, and a means of resistance. Translated as “Beyond the tears: Jewish humor under Nazi rule.”
  3624.  
  3625. Find this resource:
  3626.  
  3627. Lipman, Steve. Laughter in Hell: The Use of Humor during the Holocaust. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1991.
  3628.  
  3629. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3630.  
  3631. Jokes were made about every facet of life and death in the Nazi era. No target, including God himself and His prophets, was out of bounds. Starvation, disease, beating, murder and every form of persecution were grist for the victim’s joke mill. Humor was a weapon, a defense mechanism, and a means to manifest hope.
  3632.  
  3633. Find this resource:
  3634.  
  3635. Ostrower, Chaya. Le-lo humor hayinu mitʼabdim. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 2009.
  3636.  
  3637. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3638.  
  3639. In the ghettos and the concentration camps humor functioned as a defense mechanism. It reduced depression and helped people cope with their horrific reality. This psychological analysis draws upon interviews with survivors that highlight the aggressive, sexual, social, and intellectual functions of humor, and it includes, jokes, songs, cartoons, and cabaret performances. Translated as “If not for humor we would have committed suicide.”
  3640.  
  3641. Find this resource:
  3642.  
  3643. Israel
  3644. Humor continues to thrive in Israel, but is it Jewish? This question is implicit in the many studies of humor in Israel that describe humor in a Jewish society where Jews do not constitute an ethnic minority and where they maintain their political independence. The first scholarly scrutiny of humor in Israel concerns the jokes (chizbatim) of the underground Jewish units (“Palmah”) toward the end of the British mandate, which ran from 1918 to 1948 (Oring 1973, Oring 1981). Later humor was associated with wars (Nevo 1994, Nevo and Levine 1994) and with the Jewish-Arab conflict (Nevo 1984). Internally, in a multiethnic society of immigrants, humor in Israel rises in the contact situations between different ethnicities (Ofek and Cahamon 1986, Shifman and Katz 2005).
  3645.  
  3646. Nevo, Ofra. “Appreciation and Production of Humor as an Expression of Aggression: A Study of Jews and Arabs in Israel.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 15.2 (1984): 181–198.
  3647.  
  3648. DOI: 10.1177/0022002184015002006Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3649.  
  3650. Two independent samples of Jewish and Arab males in Israel were tested in the production and appreciation of humor, rating thirty-five jokes that included aggressive and nonaggressive jokes and jokes with a Jewish/Arab focus. Their results confirmed the hypothesis that social rather than ethnic minority or majority status determined the expression of aggression in humor.
  3651.  
  3652. Find this resource:
  3653.  
  3654. Nevo, Ofra. “Trumato ha-psikhologit shel ha-humor be-yisrael be-milḥemet ha-mifratz.” Psychology 4 (1994): 41–50.
  3655.  
  3656. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3657.  
  3658. During the Gulf War Israelis had to face aggression passively. Their humor functioned (a) to control anxiety, (b) to strengthen social cohesion, (c) to express aggression toward external forces, and (d) to offer alternate meanings to ambiguous situations. The war restored the qualities of Jewish humor to Israeli humor. Translated as “The psychological contribution of humor in the Gulf War.”
  3659.  
  3660. Find this resource:
  3661.  
  3662. Nevo, Ofra, and J. Levine. “Jewish Humor Strikes Again: The Outburst of Humor in Israel during the Gulf War.” Western Folklore 53.2 (1994): 125–145.
  3663.  
  3664. DOI: 10.2307/1500100Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3665.  
  3666. When conditions changed and Jews in Israel were confronted with conditions similar to those in the Diaspora, the characteristics of old Jewish humor reappeared. Jokes reflecting self-criticism and humor were used for corrective and educational purposes. Jokes made use of old Jewish stereotypes: the Jews who are experts in commentaries and letters became once again the heroes of humor.
  3667.  
  3668. Find this resource:
  3669.  
  3670. Ofek, E., and I. Cahamon. “Ha-hmor ke-mekhaneh meshutaf be-ḥevrat me’hagrim (nitu’aḥ text shel ‘ha-gashash ha-ḥiver).” Bikoret u-farshanut 21(1986): 69–85.
  3671.  
  3672. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3673.  
  3674. The comedic troupe “Pale Scout” draws upon and influences the creation of current folklore by coining new phrases and folk expressions, yet preserving old traditions and legitimizing the new, combining the two through verbal play on the phonetic, lexical, and syntactic linguistic levels, using spoonerism, shifting constants in words, and deliberate errors. Translated as “Humor as a common denominator in immigrant society.”
  3675.  
  3676. Find this resource:
  3677.  
  3678. Oring, Elliott. “‘Hey, You’ve Got No Character’: Chizbat Humor and the Boundaries of Israeli Identity.” Journal of American Folklore 86 (1973): 358–366.
  3679.  
  3680. DOI: 10.2307/539359Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3681.  
  3682. The chizbat is a humorous genre, associated with the Palmah, the underground commando during the British mandate, of jokes, anecdotes, and tall tales about known Yishuv figures and situations. Its humor involves linking the social categories of sabra and galut through a series of appropriate incongruities.
  3683.  
  3684. Find this resource:
  3685.  
  3686. Oring, Elliott. Israeli Humor: The Content and Structure of the Chizbat of the Palmah. SUNY Series in Modern Jewish Literature and Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1981.
  3687.  
  3688. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3689.  
  3690. A study and a translation of the jokes of the Palmah, published as Yalkut ha-kezavim, edited by Dan Ben-Amotz and Hayim Hefer (Tel Aviv: Hakibuts Hameuhad, 1956), and supplemented by orally recorded texts The chizbats are a humorous representation of a distinct Israeli identity, in which contrasting pairs of sabra/European, Arab/Israeli, and East/West display their incongruities.
  3691.  
  3692. Find this resource:
  3693.  
  3694. Shifman, Limor, and Elihu Katz. “Just Call Me Adonai”: A Case Study of Ethnic Humor and Immigrant Assimilation.” American Sociological Review 70 (2005): 843–859.
  3695.  
  3696. DOI: 10.1177/000312240507000506Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3697.  
  3698. Jokes told by eastern European old-timers at the expense of German Jews who migrated to Palestine/Israel beginning in the mid-1930s are about lampooning rigidity, exaggerated deference to authority, difficulty in language acquisition, and alienation from the new society. They turn the tables upon previous the social hierarchy in which eastern European Jews were denigrated, and their jokes constitute a kind of revenge.
  3699.  
  3700. Find this resource:
  3701.  
  3702. Sepharad
  3703. The concept of Jewish humor is commonly associated with the humor of eastern European Jews, yet as Alexander 1981 demonstrates humor is alive and well among the Sephardim, who also engage in the production of folk parodies (Papo 2012).
  3704.  
  3705. Alexander, T. “Ha-dmut ve-ha-ʽir: Sippurim humoristim yehudim-sephardim.” Peʽamim 7 (1981): 64–82.
  3706.  
  3707. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3708.  
  3709. Analysis of Djuha as a trickster-fool figure and of Makeda as a town of fools in comparative perspectives. Translated as “Djuha and Makeda: Humoristic folktales in Judeo-Spanish.”
  3710.  
  3711. Find this resource:
  3712.  
  3713. Papo, Eliezar. Ve-hitalta le-binkha ba-yom ha-hu: Parodyot sephardiyot-yehudiyot ʽal ha-hagadah shel Pesaḥ. 2 vols. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2012.
  3714.  
  3715. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3716.  
  3717. The Judeo-Spanish parody on the Passover Haggadah is an independent genre of humor of Parodia Sacra. A modern genre, of which only a single premodern (1778) text is known, addresses current community (Agadot de polemika) and international (Agadot de gerra) affairs and conflicts. Its humor involves burlesque, grotesque, and irony. It fosters collective memory and community solidarity in adversity. Translated as “And thou shalt jest with thy son: Judeo-Spanish parodies on the Passover Haggadah.”
  3718.  
  3719. Find this resource:
  3720.  
  3721. Collections of Jewish Humor
  3722. The anthologies of Jewish humor range in scope from the general collections that cull examples from all the historical periods of Jewish literature to limited collections defined by country, language, or Jewish ethnicity. These are the collections of the modern period jokes that come from America, eastern Europe (Ashkenaz), Israel, and the Sepharad. Cohen 2004 and Davidson 1972 are Hebrew collection of jokes and humorous anecdotes, whereas Ouaknin and Rotnemer 2001 and Spalding 1969 are volumes in French and English, respectively.
  3723.  
  3724. Cohen, Adir, ed. Sefer ha-humor ha-yehudi ha-gadol: Otzar ha-bediḥah ha-yehudit ve-hayisraelit le-dorotehah. Or-Yehudah, Israel: Kinneret, 2004.
  3725.  
  3726. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3727.  
  3728. An historical anthology of Jewish jokes from the Bible up to political, ethnic, military jokes in Israel, and American Jewish jokes. Translated as “The big book of Jewish humor: A treasury of Jewish and Israeli jokes.”
  3729.  
  3730. Find this resource:
  3731.  
  3732. Davidson, E. Sehok Pynu (Our Mouth’s Laughter): Anthology of Humor and Satire in Ancient and Modern Hebrew Literature. 2 vols. Hulon, Israel: Biblos, 1972.
  3733.  
  3734. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3735.  
  3736. Humor occurs in Hebrew literature throughout the ages. These 1,600 complete works or extracts are culled from: (1) the Hebrew Bible and the Apocrypha, (2) Talmudic and midrashic books, (3) medieval literature, (4) the literature of the Hassidism and their opponents, (5) modern literature, and (6) witty miscellaneous sources. Many texts are directly and indirectly related to folklore. Additional note by Dov Sadda.
  3737.  
  3738. Find this resource:
  3739.  
  3740. Ouaknin, Marc-Alain, and Dory Rotnemer. Tout l’humour juif. Paris: Assouline, 2001.
  3741.  
  3742. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3743.  
  3744. A thematic anthology of Jewish humor in twenty-five chapters ranging from questions of Jewish identity to last parting words, and including a gamut of institutions, relations, and figures in Jewish societies.
  3745.  
  3746. Find this resource:
  3747.  
  3748. Spalding, Henry D. Encyclopedia of Jewish Humor: From Biblical Times to the Modern Age. Glossary by Dorothy H. Rochmis. New York: Jonathan David, 1969.
  3749.  
  3750. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3751.  
  3752. An encyclopedic anthology of Jewish jokes, arranged in thirty-nine chapters, representing humor about leaders and institutions, daily life and holidays, and early and contemporary periods in Jewish eastern European society.
  3753.  
  3754. Find this resource:
  3755.  
  3756. America
  3757. Milburn 1926 is one of the earliest, if not the first, collection of Jewish jokes in English published in the United States. It was edited by an Oklahoma non-Jewish budding writer, George Milburn (b. 1906–d. 1966), who, in his twenties, edited several joke books for the “Little Blue Book” series. In the following decades other collections followed, including eastern European jokes told by immigrants and Jewish American jokes (Mendelsohn 1935, Mendelsohn 1941, Richman 1952; see also Bar-Itzhak 2013 Vol. 2, pp. 591–592 [cited under Bibliographies and Encyclopedias]). In the 1990s and in the first decade of the 21st century, the number of Jewish American jokes increased in popular humor collections (Koppman and Koppman 1996, Minkoff 2006, Minkoff 2009). Richard Dorson (b. 1916–d. 1981), a leading American folklorist, recorded Jewish jokes told by second-generation Jewish immigrants (Dorson 1960a, Dorson 1960b).
  3758.  
  3759. Dorson, Richard M. “Jewish-American Dialect Stories on Tape.” In Studies in Biblical and Jewish Folklore. Edited by Raphael Patai, F. L. Utley, and Dov Noy, 111–174. Indiana University Folklore Series 13. Memoir Series of the American Folklore Society 51. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1960a.
  3760.  
  3761. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3762.  
  3763. Seventy-six jokes, recorded from oral narration, point out, in parenthetical notations, the rhythm, accent, and Yidishisms that second generation Jewish immigrants maintain in their rendition of Jewish jokes in America.
  3764.  
  3765. Find this resource:
  3766.  
  3767. Dorson, Richard M. “More Jewish Dialect Stories.” Midwest Folklore 10.3 (1960b): 133–146.
  3768.  
  3769. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3770.  
  3771. An additional sixteen jokes recorded from oral narration.
  3772.  
  3773. Find this resource:
  3774.  
  3775. Koppman, Steve, and Lionel Koppman. A Treasury of American-Jewish Folklore. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1996.
  3776.  
  3777. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3778.  
  3779. Narratives, mostly humorous, of Jews in America as traders with the Indians, pioneers in the West, peddlers, immigrants, on the stage and in the underworld, in their synagogues, and in business and other diverse experiences. Their sources are undocumented, but a bibliography is available.
  3780.  
  3781. Find this resource:
  3782.  
  3783. Mendelsohn, S. Felix, ed. The Jew Laughs: Humorous Stories and Anecdotes. Chicago: L. M. Stein, 1935.
  3784.  
  3785. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3786.  
  3787. American Jews of European descent tell jokes either privately or publicly, and they have developed a typical humor of their own. They joke about humor and humorists, European and American Jewries, anti-Semites, business, Jews and non-Jews, misers, mothers and daughters, sages and saints, scoffers and heretics, schnorrers, making a living and the melting pot. Introduction by A. A. Brill.
  3788.  
  3789. Find this resource:
  3790.  
  3791. Mendelsohn, S. Felix, ed. Let Laughter Ring. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1941.
  3792.  
  3793. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3794.  
  3795. Edited jokes that were told by Jews and non-Jews, culled from the Yiddish and Anglo-Jewish press and sent in to the Chicago Jewish Sentinel in response to an appeal. The jokes are about different aspects of Jewish life in Europe and America and the Land of Yisrael, as well as jokes about the Third Reich.
  3796.  
  3797. Find this resource:
  3798.  
  3799. Milburn, George, ed. The Best Jewish Jokes. Little Blue Book 1082. Girard, KS: Haldeman-Julius, 1926.
  3800.  
  3801. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3802.  
  3803. One of the earliest popular collections of Jewish jokes in English in America. Collected from friends, newspaper files, humorous magazines, and recollections of college “bull” fests, their spelling and syntax is intended to indicate rather than reproduce “Yidgin” (Yiddish-English) dialect and is one of the sources of humor.
  3804.  
  3805. Find this resource:
  3806.  
  3807. Minkoff, David. Oy! The Ultimate Book of Jewish Jokes. New York: St. Martin’s, 2006.
  3808.  
  3809. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3810.  
  3811. Collected from diverse sources, censored for any racial, political, and sexually offensive jokes, and edited to minimize Yiddish and Hebrew words. See Minkoff 2009.
  3812.  
  3813. Find this resource:
  3814.  
  3815. Minkoff, David. Oy Vey: More: Oy! The Ultimate Book of Jewish Jokes: Part 2. New York: St. Martin’s, 2009.
  3816.  
  3817. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3818.  
  3819. These jokes are about childhood, family, daily and working life, religion, health, sex, sports, travel, and old age. See Minkoff 2006.
  3820.  
  3821. Find this resource:
  3822.  
  3823. Richman, Jacob. Jewish Wit and Wisdom: Examples of Jewish Anecdotes, Folk Tales, Bon Mots, Magic, Riddles and Enigmas since the Canonization of the Bible. New York: Pardes, 1952.
  3824.  
  3825. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3826.  
  3827. Collected from readers and published in a column in the New York Evening World, and others written down from oral narration or culled from traditional sources, these are tales and jokes about Jewish life in America, Israel, eastern Europe, and Nazi Germany as well as tales about religious functionaries, community leaders, paupers, and matchmakers.
  3828.  
  3829. Find this resource:
  3830.  
  3831. Ashkenaz
  3832. The humor anthologies of eastern European Jewish jokes were published for Jewish readers who left the Pale of Settlement and moved to central and western Europe, the United States, and Israel. They were published in Germany (Nuél 1907, Präger and Schmitz 1964), in Yiddish (Rawnitzki 1950), and in Hebrew (Druyanow 1935–1938). Olsvanger, who studied folklore, prepared a collection (Olsvanger 1936) and others for both Jewish and non-Jewish scholarly readers, rendering the texts in Roman letters. After the Holocaust more anthologies appeared in Hebrew (Sadan 1952, Sadan 1953), English (Learsi 1961, Olsvanger 1947, Olsvanger 1949), and German (Landmann 1966).
  3833.  
  3834. Druyanow, Alter. Sefer ha-bediḥah ve-ha-ḥiddud. 3 vols. Tel Aviv: Author’s publication, 1935–1938.
  3835.  
  3836. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3837.  
  3838. A second expanded edition of a book first published in Frankfurt am Main (1922) and later published in many editions to become a comprehensive collection of eastern European Jewish jokes about merchants and rabbis, wise men and fools, tricksters and matchmakers, interethnic Jewish jokes, and laughter about the goyim. Translated as “The book of jokes and wit.”
  3839.  
  3840. Find this resource:
  3841.  
  3842. Landmann, Salcia. Jüdische Anekdoten und Sprichwörte. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1966.
  3843.  
  3844. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3845.  
  3846. Written down by Alexander Litwin and Horacy Safran and translated by Salcia Landmann, these are anecdotes about famous Jews, the jesters Hershele Ostropoler and Motke Habad, the Wise Men of Chelm, beggars, merchants, matchmakers, doctors, rabbis, heretics and Christians, religious schools, and Israel.
  3847.  
  3848. Find this resource:
  3849.  
  3850. Learsi, Rufus. Filled with Laughter: A Fiesta of Jewish Folk Humor. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1961.
  3851.  
  3852. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3853.  
  3854. Retold and edited jokes, collected from oral circulation and from Jewish humor anthologies, about biblical themes, the Wise Men of Chelem, Hershele Ostropolyer, eastern European Jewish society, and Israel.
  3855.  
  3856. Find this resource:
  3857.  
  3858. Nuél, M. Das Buch der jüdischen Witze. Berlin: Gustav Rieckes Buchhandlung, 1907.
  3859.  
  3860. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3861.  
  3862. Historically significant, and aimed at the assimilated Jews, Manuel Schnitzer (b. 1861) under a pseudonym, redefines the nature of Jewish jokes. Mocking the eastern European Jewish past, he tells jokes about important and unimportant rabbis, students and pupils, merchants and traders, marriage brokers and beggars.
  3863.  
  3864. Find this resource:
  3865.  
  3866. Olsvanger, Immanuel. Rêjte Pomeranzen: Ostjüdische Schwänke und Erzälungen. Berlin: Schocken, 1936.
  3867.  
  3868. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3869.  
  3870. Selected jokes from Olsvanger (1920) (first edition of Rosinkess mit Mandlen) with additional anecdotes recorded from oral tradition.
  3871.  
  3872. Find this resource:
  3873.  
  3874. Olsvanger, Immanuel. Röyte Pomerantsen, or How to Laugh in Yiddish. Introduction by Harry Golden. New York: Schoken, 1947.
  3875.  
  3876. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3877.  
  3878. Most of the stories were originally published by Olsvanger in 1920 and 1935 with a different transliteration.
  3879.  
  3880. Find this resource:
  3881.  
  3882. Olsvanger, Immanuel. L’Chayim! Jewish Wit and Humor. New York: Schocken, 1949.
  3883.  
  3884. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3885.  
  3886. This volume completes the publication of Olsvanger’s collection of classical Yiddish wit and humor.
  3887.  
  3888. Find this resource:
  3889.  
  3890. Präger, Max, and Siegmund Schmitz. Jüdische Schwänke: Eine Volkskundliche Studie. Wiesbaden, Germany: Rheinische Verlags-Anstalt, 1964.
  3891.  
  3892. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3893.  
  3894. A total of 356 jokes in colloquial Yiddish in Roman alphabet on the Wise Men of Chelem, the three jesters (Hershel Ostropoler, Motke Chabad, and Efraim Graidinger), matchmakers, rabbis, preachers, cantors, the rich and the poor, to which two introductory essays, twenty-nine tales, riddles, nursery tales, sayings and proverbs are added. Originally published 1920.
  3895.  
  3896. Find this resource:
  3897.  
  3898. Rawnitzki, Yehoshua. Yidishe Witzn. 2 vols. New York: Morris S. Sklarsky, 1950.
  3899.  
  3900. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3901.  
  3902. A total of 817 jokes, first published in 1922, culled from diverse sources, ranging from popular Yiddish joke books to scholarly publications, from oral circulation to responses to requests in newspapers, the jokes are classified primarily in terms of personal types, characters, figures, and professions. Translated as “Jewish wit.”
  3903.  
  3904. Find this resource:
  3905.  
  3906. Sadan, Dov. Kaʽarat tsimukim, o ʼelef bediḥah u-bediḥah: ʼAsufat humor be-Yisrael. Tel Aviv: Neuman, 1952.
  3907.  
  3908. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3909.  
  3910. A total of 1,001 jokes and anecdotes, recorded from oral sources, about rabbis, Hasidim, intellectuals, scholars, writers, artists, jokers, naive people, relations between Jews and non-Jews, witty sayings, and Israeli jokes. Translated as “A bowl of raisins or a thousand and one jokes: An anthology of humor in Israel.”
  3911.  
  3912. Find this resource:
  3913.  
  3914. Sadan, Dov. Kaʽarat ʼegozim, o ʼelef bediḥah u-bediḥah: ʼAsufat humor be-Yisrael. Tel Aviv: Neuman, 1953.
  3915.  
  3916. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3917.  
  3918. A total of 1,001 jokes and anecdotes about the same subjects as the previous anthology, recorded from oral sources. Translated as “A bowl of raisins or a thousand and one jokes: An anthology of humor in Israel.”
  3919.  
  3920. Find this resource:
  3921.  
  3922. Tricksters
  3923. The figure of a prankster appeared in popular literature in the early 19th century (Zalkin 1997 [originally published 1824]). However, in eastern European Jewish humor there are jokes about four tricksters: Hershel Ostropoler, Motke Chabad, Efraim Graidinger, and Shayke Pfaifer, of whom the most popular is Hershel Ostropoler. He was an individual whose historical personality was anything but his image in the joke cycle in which he figured. Eye witness accounts provided in Sherman 1930 and Bloch 1921 attest that he was a respected member of the community rather than a poverty-stricken trickster. In his jokes his acts resonate with those of earlier pranksters (Zalkin 1997), and they were also the subject of literary works (Trunk 1953). Toward the end of the 19th century these jokes appeared as chapbooks in market literature (Anonymous 1895, Moldawsky 1884), and later in anthologies (Bloch 1921, Sherman 1930), fictive literature (Babel 2002 [originally published 1918], Trunk 1953 and children’s literature (Bastomski 1938–1940, Hertsberg 1959.
  3924.  
  3925. Anonymous. R’ Hershele Esterpoler zeier shayne vitzen. Vilnius, Russia: Funk, 1895.
  3926.  
  3927. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3928.  
  3929. A Hershele joke chapbook; two parts.
  3930.  
  3931. Find this resource:
  3932.  
  3933. Babel, I. “Shabos-Nakhamu.” In The Complete Works of Isaac Babel. Edited by Nathalie Babel, 88–94. New York: Norton, 2002.
  3934.  
  3935. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3936.  
  3937. A literary rendition of tale type 1540 “The Student from Paradise (Paris).” (originally published on March 16, 1918, under the subheading “From the Hershele Cycle.” None of the other Babel’s stories about Hershele has survived. Translated with notes by Peter Constantine, introduced by Cynthia Ozick.
  3938.  
  3939. Find this resource:
  3940.  
  3941. Bastomski, S. Mayselekh vegen Motke Khabad. Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania: Grininke Baymelekh, 1938–1940. Translated as “Tales about Motke Khabad.”
  3942.  
  3943. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3944.  
  3945. Tales about the trickster Motke Khabad for young readers. In three parts.
  3946.  
  3947. Find this resource:
  3948.  
  3949. Bloch, Chajim. Hersch Ostropoler: Ein jüdischer Till-Eulenspiegel des 18. Jahrhunderts, seine Geschichten und Streiche. Berlin: Benjamin Harz, 1921.
  3950.  
  3951. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3952.  
  3953. The first collection of Hershele Ostropoler jokes in German, citing oral testimonies, describing him as a short and slim person with dark eyes and dark curly hair.
  3954.  
  3955. Find this resource:
  3956.  
  3957. Hertsberg, Isaac. Hershele ha-Ostropoli melekh ha-letsanim: Sefer ḥayav ve-taʽalulav, maʽasav u-bediḥotav. 3d ed. Tel Aviv: Šreberk, 1959.
  3958.  
  3959. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3960.  
  3961. Prepared for juvenile readers, the jokes are about Hershele’s childhood, studies, family, professional life as a merchant, physician, matchmaker, and as court jester in the service of his rabbi. Translated as “Hershele from Ostropoly, king of the jesters: A book of his life, tricks, actions and jokes.”
  3962.  
  3963. Find this resource:
  3964.  
  3965. Moldawsky, F. Di tzveite tahyl fun R’ Hershele Ostropoler. Warsaw: N. P., 1884.
  3966.  
  3967. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3968.  
  3969. A Yiddish chapbook of the jokes and pranks of Hershele Ostopoler.
  3970.  
  3971. Find this resource:
  3972.  
  3973. Olsvanger, Immanuel. Rosinkess mit Mandlen: Aus der Volksliteratur der Ostjuden: Schwänke, Erzählungen, Sprichwörter, Rätsel. 3d ed. Zürich: Verlag der Arche, 1965.
  3974.  
  3975. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3976.  
  3977. Recorded from oral tradition and noted down in the Lithuanian Yiddish dialect of the author’s home town, Grajewo in northern Poland, the 356 jokes, the twenty-nine tales, and the sprinklings of riddles, humorous riddles, and proverbs sample folklore forms that are performed among eastern European Jews, regardless of their origin. German translation of the first edition.
  3978.  
  3979. Find this resource:
  3980.  
  3981. Sherman, Eliezar L. Hershele Ostropoler: ʼAmtzaʼotav, ve-taʽalulav, bediḥotav ve-halatzotav, toldotav ve-harpatkaʼtav. Translated by M. Hrizman. Tel Aviv: Le-Maʽan ha-Sefer, 1930.
  3982.  
  3983. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3984.  
  3985. Hershele Ostropoler was not a fictive personality but rather a historical one, as attested in oral historical testimonies. Contrary to his popular image, he was a respected community member. The jokes are about his adolescence, and as an adult, his dealings with a broad range of figures in East European Jewish society. Translated as “Hershele Ostropoler: His inventions, his tricks, his jokes, his jests, his adventures and life history.”
  3986.  
  3987. Find this resource:
  3988.  
  3989. Trunk, Yehiel Y. Der freilekhster yid in der velt, oder Hersheles lern-yor: Folkstimlekher roman fun lebn fun Hershele Ostrapoler. Buenos Aires: IDBUI, 1953.
  3990.  
  3991. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  3992.  
  3993. A novel that builds upon episodes and anecdotes about Hershele Ostropoler. Translated as “The most amusing Jew in the world, or, Hershele’s school years: A folkloric novel about the life of Hershele Ostrapoler.”
  3994.  
  3995. Find this resource:
  3996.  
  3997. Zalkin, Mordechai, ed. Sefer ha-kundas (Kundes): “Kuntresim.” Texts and Studies 82. Jerusalem: Ben-Zion Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, Hebrew University, 1997.
  3998.  
  3999. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4000.  
  4001. A critical edition of an 1824 chapbook that was published in Hebrew in Vilna (Vilnius), Lithuania, as a parody on the Shulhan ʽArukh (code of Jewish law) authored by Joseph Karo (b. 1488–d. 1575), at the center of which is the figure of the prankster, who causes havoc in the daily life of the community.
  4002.  
  4003. Find this resource:
  4004.  
  4005. The Wise Men of Chelem
  4006. In the town of Chelem in eastern Poland, Jewish eastern European folklore located a fictional Jewish community of fools, analogous to the English Gotham, the German Schilda, and the Greek Abdera—albeit these were Jewish fools, who occupied themselves with Jewish religious laws and holidays and ethics. Implicit in their logic are allusions to Talmudic ways of thinking. The jokes about them circulated orally and later became an integral part of collections of eastern European Jewish humor anthologies. They were also collected in special volumes of Chelem jokes in Yiddish (Bastomski 1938–1940, Frid 1966, Simon 1942), Hebrew (Halperin 1920, Halperin 1939), and English (Simon 1945), and they were the subject of a literary work (Trunk 1951).
  4007.  
  4008. Bastomski, S. Mayselekh vegen khelemer naronim. Vilna (Vilnius): Lithuania: Grininke Baymelekh, 1938–1940.
  4009.  
  4010. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4011.  
  4012. The tales about the fools of Chelem, adopted for younger readers. In three parts.
  4013.  
  4014. Find this resource:
  4015.  
  4016. Frid, F. [Fried, P]. Di Hakhomim fun Khelem. Edited by D. Sfard. Warsaw: Yidish Bukh, 1966.
  4017.  
  4018. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4019.  
  4020. A literary rendition in Yiddish of classical folktales and jokes about the wise men of Chelem, including a few in verse. Translated as “The wise men of Chelem.”
  4021.  
  4022. Find this resource:
  4023.  
  4024. Halperin, F. Ḥakhmei Ḥelem: Bediḥot ve-halatzot ʽamamiyot. Warsaw: Ahisefer, 1920.
  4025.  
  4026. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4027.  
  4028. A collection of tales about the wise men of Chelem, geared to young readers. Translated as “The wise men of Chelem: Jokes and funny folk tales.”
  4029.  
  4030. Find this resource:
  4031.  
  4032. Halperin, F. Ḥelem ve-ḥakhamehah. Tel Aviv: Jezreel, 1939.
  4033.  
  4034. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4035.  
  4036. A literary rendition of popular Chelem tales. Translated as “Chelem and its wise men.”
  4037.  
  4038. Find this resource:
  4039.  
  4040. Mordekhai, Ben. Khelemer naronim: Geklibene mayselakh. New York: Hebrew Publishing, 1929.
  4041.  
  4042. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4043.  
  4044. An anthology of Chelem tales. Translated as “The fools of Chelem: Collected tales.”
  4045.  
  4046. Find this resource:
  4047.  
  4048. Simon, Solomon. Di Helden fun Chelm. New York: Posy-Shoulson, 1942.
  4049.  
  4050. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4051.  
  4052. A literary rendition in Yiddish of Chelem tales. Translated as “The heroes of Chelem.”
  4053.  
  4054. Find this resource:
  4055.  
  4056. Simon, Solomon. The Wise Men of Helm and Their Merry Tales. New York: Behrman House, 1945.
  4057.  
  4058. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4059.  
  4060. A literary rendition of some recurrent narratives in the Chelem tradition.
  4061.  
  4062. Find this resource:
  4063.  
  4064. Trunk, Yehiel Y. Khelemer Khakhomim oder Yidden fun der kligster shtot in der velt: Maʽasiyyot fun dem khelemer pikas, vos men hot nisht long zurik gefunen oyf a boydem fun a mikveh. Buenos Aires: Idbuj, 1951.
  4065.  
  4066. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4067.  
  4068. Chelem as an allegory. Literary rendition of the Chelem tradition in Jewish folklore. Translated as “The wise men of Chelem, or, Jews from the wisest city in the world: Tales from the chronicle of Chelem, found not long ago in the attic of a bathhouse.”
  4069.  
  4070. Find this resource:
  4071.  
  4072. Israel
  4073. At the end of the 20th century the jokes that prevailed in the earlier days of the “Yishuv” acquired historical significance (Yanai 1991), but in a country where political pressures are constant, humor permeates every aspect of life, from private to public spaces (Margolin 1972).
  4074.  
  4075. Margolin, Michael. Mivḥar ha-bediḥah ha-yisraelit. Tel Aviv: Zelikovitch, 1972.
  4076.  
  4077. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4078.  
  4079. A collection of erotic, family, social, military, political, and children’s jokes that are presented with neither comments nor documentation. Translated as “The best Israeli jokes.”
  4080.  
  4081. Find this resource:
  4082.  
  4083. Yanai, Y., ed. Yemei ha-ḳuḳu: ʻAl mah she-tsaḥaḳu avotenu ha-halutsim le-min shenot ha-20 ʻad emtsaʻ shenot ha-30. Tel Aviv: Tamuz-Modan, 1991.
  4084.  
  4085. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4086.  
  4087. A selection of jokes, anecdotes, and sayings that appeared in popular humorous publications from the 1920s to the mid-1930s in Palestine (Eretz-Yisrael). Their subjects are life of the pioneers, economy, politics, women and family life, newspapers, artists and theatre, British and Arabs, and daily life. Translated as “The pigtail days: About what our pioneering fathers laughed at from the 1920s to the mid-1930s.”
  4088.  
  4089. Find this resource:
  4090.  
  4091. Sepharad
  4092. The humorous narratives of the Sephardic Jews are not well known outside their own community, and the only published collections are Koén-Sarano 1991 and Koén-Sarano 2003, which includes tales about Djoha, the Judeo-Spanish trickster-fool figure.
  4093.  
  4094. Koén-Sarano, Matilda. Djoha ke dize? Kuentos populares Djudeo-Espanyoles. Jerusalem: Kana, 1991.
  4095.  
  4096. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4097.  
  4098. A bilingual edition in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish of Djoha tales about his childhood, business, contacts with royalty, marriages, his wives and children, his relations with animals and neighbors, his adventures and travels alone and in the company of beggars and thieves, his actions as a judge, and his belief in God and his fear of death.
  4099.  
  4100. Find this resource:
  4101.  
  4102. Koén-Sarano, Matilda, ed. Folktales of Joha: Jewish Trickster. Translated by David Herman. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2003.
  4103.  
  4104. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4105.  
  4106. The English translation of many of the tales that first appeared in Koén-Sarano 1991; includes about three hundred tales recorded from 1979 until 2000 from narrators mostly from Turkey, Israel, and Italy.
  4107.  
  4108. Find this resource:
  4109.  
  4110. Studies of Folk Drama
  4111. Traditional theatrical performances took place on the Purim holiday, when plays on biblical themes were performed by amateur players, and in wedding celebrations, when a professional entertainer performed alone.
  4112.  
  4113. Purim Shpil
  4114. The Purim shpil plays which have been documented among the Ashkenaz since the 17th century, were performed by lower-class actors in the homes of the elite members of the community. In America only the Hasidic community has maintained this tradition, shifting it, however, to a public space.
  4115.  
  4116. America
  4117. Epstein 1998 is the only scholarly documentation and analysis of a Purim play performance in the United States in a Hasidic community.
  4118.  
  4119. Epstein, Shifra. ‘Daniel-shpil’ be-ḥasidut Bovov: Me-maḥazeh ʽamami le-text purimi. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1998.
  4120.  
  4121. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4122.  
  4123. The Daniel shpil, written by Rabbi Shalom Kesler, on the basis of the first three chapters of the Book of Daniel, was performed in Brooklyn, New York, on March 15, 1987, in the central hall of the central Beit Midrash of Bovov Hasidic community. Its study includes a history of the Purimshpil, the Bovov Hasidim, and their Purim celebration. Translated as “The Daniel-shpil in the Bobover Hasidic community: From a folk play to a Purim text.”
  4124.  
  4125. Find this resource:
  4126.  
  4127. Ashkenaz
  4128. Texts of Purim plays about biblical themes in Yiddish have been available since the 17th century (Shmeruk 1979). Literary, theatrical, anthropological, folkloristic, and historical perspectives converge in the analysis of these folk plays, as found in Belkin 1995, Belkin 2002, Belkin 2003, Belkin 2009, and Sion 2012.
  4129.  
  4130. Belkin, Ahuva. “Joyous Disputation around the Gallows: A Rediscovered Purim Play from Amsterdam.” JTD: Haifa University Studies in Jewish Theatre and Drama 1 (1995): 31–60.
  4131.  
  4132. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4133.  
  4134. “Simhat Purim” is a Hebrew Purim shpil that was published in Amsterdam in 1650. It precedes in print the first Yiddish Purim shpil “Eine shayn purimshpil” (a nice Purimshpil), which was available in a manuscript from 1697 and likely was available in oral circulation beforehand. Quite likely the play was performed for the Sephardic community in Amsterdam.
  4135.  
  4136. Find this resource:
  4137.  
  4138. Belkin, Ahuva. Ha-Purim shpil: ʽIyunim b-teʼatron ha-yehudi ha-ʽamami. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2002.
  4139.  
  4140. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4141.  
  4142. Performed in Yiddish, the Purim shpil is a saturnalian comic theater of inversion. With biblical themes that include the “Sale of Joseph,” the “Sacrifice of Isaac,” and the Book of Esther story, the actors introduce the carnivalesque into sedate homes. The term appears first in 1555, its earliest extant manuscript is from 1697, and the date of the earliest print is 1708. Translated as “The Purim shpil: Studies in Jewish folk theater.”
  4143.  
  4144. Find this resource:
  4145.  
  4146. Belkin, Ahuva. “The ‘Low’ Culture of the Purimshpil.” In Yiddish Theatre: New Approaches. Edited by J. Berkovits, 29–43. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2003.
  4147.  
  4148. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4149.  
  4150. Enlightened Jews during the 19th century criticized the Purim shpil for its low-culture humor, but, in fact, it was a Jewish folk theater that had its own artistic integrity and performed both a serious and a subversive social function. The lower-class players masked themselves as giving expression to “national otherness” so as to express revolt against “social otherness,” debunking the values of the upper classes.
  4151.  
  4152. Find this resource:
  4153.  
  4154. Belkin, Ahuva. “Ritual Space as Theatrical Space in Jewish Folk Theatre.” In Jewish Theatre: A Global View. Edited by Edna Nahshon, 15–24. Institute of Jewish Studies, Studies in Judaica 8. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2009.
  4155.  
  4156. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4157.  
  4158. The Purim shpil is an “environmental theater” that takes place not on a designated stage, but in a negotiated space within the mundane world. It brings the spectators into the dramatic process, merging the festive ritual and the theatrical ritual into a single holiday catharsis.
  4159.  
  4160. Find this resource:
  4161.  
  4162. Shmeruk, C., ed. Maḥazot mikraʼim be-yidish, 1697–1750. Publications of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Section of Humanities. Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences, 1979.
  4163.  
  4164. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4165.  
  4166. A comprehensive introduction to the history of the Purim shpil precedes the texts of eight plays, five of which deal with the biblical Book of Esther, and the rest are about “The Selling of Joseph,” “David and Goliath the Philistine,” and “The Play of Moses, Our Teacher.” Translated as “Yiddish biblical plays, 1697–1750.”
  4167.  
  4168. Find this resource:
  4169.  
  4170. Sion, B. “From Purimspiel to Polish Masquerade: Performing Jewish Memory in Tykocin.” In Jews and Theater in an Intercultural Context. Edited by Edna Nahshon, 319–330. Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies 46. Leiden, The Netherlands/Boston: Brill, 2012.
  4171.  
  4172. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4173.  
  4174. For many centuries at least half of the population of Tykocin, near Bialystok, was Jewish. An imposing synagogue was built there in 1642. Jews no longer live in Tykocin, but around Purim an amateur production of a Purim shpil is performed in Polish by Poles for Poles about Jews.
  4175.  
  4176. Find this resource:
  4177.  
  4178. Sepharad
  4179. In the Sephardic community the Purim play performances were not as common as in the Ashkenazic community; still, the written text (Alexander and Weich-Shahak 1994) combines classical and traditional folk influences.
  4180.  
  4181. Alexander, T., and S. Weich-Shahak. Le-ʽet ca-zot: Maḥazeh musikali le-purim be-saloniki. Tel Aviv: Tag Editorial, 1994.
  4182.  
  4183. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4184.  
  4185. A traditional drama that was written by Shlomó Reuvén (b. 1908–d. 1985) and performed by amateur young actors in Salonica in 1932. It was an adaptation of Racine’s play Esther (1689). Infused with traditional Jewish themes and performed in a traditional style, the play constitutes a synthesis between classical baroque and popular local drama.
  4186.  
  4187. Find this resource:
  4188.  
  4189. Badhan
  4190. The Badhan is a traditional “stand-up comedian” that appeared in family wedding celebrations in east Europe. Inverting religious seremonizing his art injected humor into ethics.
  4191.  
  4192. Ashkenaz
  4193. As oral performing artists, the badhanin drew upon literary religious resources (Baumgarten 1999) and transformed their own art from improvisational oral performances to scripted literary texts (Krasney 1998, Krasney 2003, Mazor 2003).
  4194.  
  4195. Baumgarten, Jean. “L’art de ‘badhanim’ dans la société hassidique: Pensée religieuse, rites matrimoniaux et traditions orales en langue yiddish.” In Le Yiddish: Langue, culture, société. By Jean Baumgarten, 97–135. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 1999.
  4196.  
  4197. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4198.  
  4199. The badhan is an oral poet who employs a number of cliché phrases, formulas, and citations, which make up his “cultural baggage.” With learned phrases, motifs, quotations, and following stylistic procedures, he combines his themes and composes his texts. They employ Hebrew and Aramaic words and phrases and midrashic techniques, and their art has its roots in the medieval performances of piyyutim and pizmonim.
  4200.  
  4201. Find this resource:
  4202.  
  4203. Krasney, Ariela A. Ha-Badḥan. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University, 1998.
  4204.  
  4205. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4206.  
  4207. The role of the badhan, the comedian at weddings, developed in the Middle Ages and blossomed in the 16th century under the influence of the Commedia dell’arte. By the 19th century it acquire a complex social function and meaning as an ironic and often sarcastic social critic, who directed his wit and humor also at the wedding itself. Translated as “The jester.”
  4208.  
  4209. Find this resource:
  4210.  
  4211. Krasney, Ariela. “The Badkhn: From Wedding Stage to Writing Desk.” Polin 16 (2003): 7–28.
  4212.  
  4213. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4214.  
  4215. The badkhn emerged in Europe in the Middle Ages alongside similar artists found among other peoples. By the 19th century, he had crystalized into a two-face figure: one of topsy-turvy jesting, rooted in Dionysian tendency of social subversiveness, and the other of learned ethical sermonizing. Toward the end of the 19th century the badkhn added written poetry to his oral art.
  4216.  
  4217. Find this resource:
  4218.  
  4219. Mazor, Y. “The ‘Badkhan’ in Contemporary Hasidic Society: Social, Historical and Musical Observations.” Polin 16 (2003): 279–296.
  4220.  
  4221. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4222.  
  4223. The Hasidic leadership channeled the activity of the badkhonim in weddings into preferred directions, discarding earlier practices that clashed with Hasidic customs and beliefs, strengthening thereby the badkhan’s position. The shift from form to content resulted in the formation of new constraints, yet greater individual creativity. The itinerate badkhanim reinforced the eclectic nature of the badkhan’s music and performance.
  4224.  
  4225. Find this resource:
  4226.  
  4227. Dance and Festivals
  4228. Dances and festivals were an integral part of celebrating the life cycle and annual rituals and holidays. Many ancient Jewish texts refer to them positively and negatively, but they rarely offer sufficient description for their reconstruction. Therefore, the study of folk dances and festivals concerns primarily their new performances in Israel. The dances of different Jewish ethnic groups are also examined as an aspect of Israeli culture. The late Zvi Fridhaber is one of the early scholars who examined the role and function of dance in Jewish society throughout history. He wrote a dissertation about the subject, which Fridhaber 1984 is an abbreviated version.
  4229.  
  4230. Fridhaber, Zvi. Ha-Maḥol be-ʽam Yisrael. Tel Aviv: Hotsaʽat sefarim ʽal shem ʽImanuel Gil, 1984.
  4231.  
  4232. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4233.  
  4234. Dance was an integral part of Israelite and Jewish societies from biblical to modern times in playing a role in life and annual cycle rituals and agricultural and historical holidays. Hasidim danced as part of their ecstatic worship, and new dances were created in Israel, before and after the establishment of the state, as a formative aspect of cultural renewal. Translated as “The dance among the Jews.”
  4235.  
  4236. Find this resource:
  4237.  
  4238. Israel
  4239. Folk dances in Israel are a new cultural creation that fuses Jewish ethnic, particularly Yemenite, dances (Bahat-Ratzon 1999) with dances of other Jewish ethnic groups (Ingber 2011) and with Arabic dances (Kaschl 2003) to create the modern Israeli folk dances, which have become an integral part of modern Israeli society (Roginsky 2006, Roginsky 2007, Rottenberg and Roginsky 2009). Ingber 2011 and Ronen 2011 examine these dances historically, socially, and ideologically, and Goldschmidt 2001 examines their relations to the Bible.
  4240.  
  4241. Bahat-Ratzon, Naomi, ed. Be-regel yeḥefah: Masoret yehudei taiman ba-maḥol be-yisrael. Tel Aviv: ʾEʽeleh be-Tamar and ʽInbal Dance Theater, 1999.
  4242.  
  4243. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4244.  
  4245. The characteristics and circumstances of the entire phenomena of Jewish-Yemenite dance in Israel is explored by eight authors who consider the history of Jewish-Yemenite dance in Israel, its influence on Israeli folk dances, and its significance as a reflection and representation of Jewish-Yemenite culture in modern Israel. Translated as “Barefooted: Jewish-Yemenite Tradition in Israeli Dance.”
  4246.  
  4247. Find this resource:
  4248.  
  4249. Delakova, Katya, and Fred Berk. Dances of Palestine. Drawings by Myril Adler. New York: Hillel Resources, 1947.
  4250.  
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  4252.  
  4253. An educational dance manual for Jewish-American youth that considers the Horah to signify freedom and liberation and that aims to transform the circle dances of the Balkans and peasant dances of many countries that require the eyes to be downcast to dances that exhibit a sense of exuberance and gayety, which is characteristic of Jewish community life in Palestine.
  4254.  
  4255. Find this resource:
  4256.  
  4257. Delakova, Katya, and Fred Berk. Jewish Folk Dance Book. Music arranged by S. Marshall, illustrated by J. Feingold. New York: National Jewish Welfare Board, 1948.
  4258.  
  4259. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4260.  
  4261. An educational dance manual for Jewish American youth that considers participation in Jewish folk dancing to be a joyful affirmation of belonging to the community. Jewish folk dances have their roots in the Orient, the Slavic countries, the Jewish ghetto and shtetl life, and in America, namely in American dance culture.
  4262.  
  4263. Find this resource:
  4264.  
  4265. Goldschmidt, Matti. The Bible in Israeli Folk Dances. Viersen, Germany: Choros, 2001.
  4266.  
  4267. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4268.  
  4269. The Hebrew Bible is a source of verses to which dance melodies were composed. The Song of Songs and Psalms are the primary source books for these verses, and, to a lesser extent, the books of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Their listing includes typology and information about their choreographers and the year of their creation as well as dance instruction.
  4270.  
  4271. Find this resource:
  4272.  
  4273. Ingber, Judith Brin, ed. Seeing Israeli and Jewish Dance. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2011.
  4274.  
  4275. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4276.  
  4277. The views of the dancers of their art are combined with a scholarly examination to present Jewish Hasidic, Yemenite, Kurdish, Ethiopian and European dances as well as the creation of Jewish folk dances in the Palestine under the mandate and in Israel.
  4278.  
  4279. Find this resource:
  4280.  
  4281. Kaschl, Elke. Dance and Authenticity in Israel and Palestine: Performing the Nation. Social, Economic and Political Studies of the Middle East and Asia 89. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2003.
  4282.  
  4283. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4284.  
  4285. The Arab dabkeh became an Israeli debkah, a defining feature of the new Israeli folk dance tradition. With the emergence of folklore movements in the Arab context, dabkeh turned into folk dance and became a national symbol. Dabkeh/debkah have now a contested cultural essence for both Israeli and Palestinian nationalism, and it is performed by folk dance troupes of both nations.
  4286.  
  4287. Find this resource:
  4288.  
  4289. Roginsky, Dina. “Orientalism, the Body and Cultural Politics in Israel: Sara Levi Tanai and the Inbal Dance Theater.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender 11 (2006): 164–197.
  4290.  
  4291. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4292.  
  4293. Sara Levi Tanai (b. 1910–1911–d. 2005) held a unique position in the artistic scene of the yishuv and the first decades of independent Israel. A Yemenite woman educated by European teachers, she created a “Mizrahi [oriental] art.” Consequently, she has recently become a focal figure in the sociological analysis of Mizrahi ethnicity, folklore, the body, and cultural politics in Israel.
  4294.  
  4295. Find this resource:
  4296.  
  4297. Roginsky, Dina. “Folklore, Folklorism, and Synchronization: Preserved-Created Folklore in Israel.” Journal of Folklore Research 44.1 (2007): 41–66.
  4298.  
  4299. DOI: 10.2979/JFR.2007.44.1.41Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4300.  
  4301. The distinction between a “pure past” and the “utilitarian present” portrays sixty years of “invented tradition” of Israeli folk dancing as long-lasting “folklore,” whereas the last twenty-five years are labeled as “folklorism.” From a theoretical standpoint, both phenomena express different kinds of modern folklorism (governmental and commercial) and are, in fact, synchronized: they coexist and negotiate with one another.
  4302.  
  4303. Find this resource:
  4304.  
  4305. Ronen, D. Rikudei ʽam be-Yisrael. Jerusalem: Carmel, 2011.
  4306.  
  4307. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4308.  
  4309. Folk dances are formative and defining feature of Israeli culture. Their roots are in Jewish and non-Jewish societies in eastern Europe, the Arab lands, and Palestinian peasant culture. As a manifestation of Zionist ideology, they evolved in the kibbutzim, resonating with biblical themes, texts, and holidays. They are featured in theatrical performances and play a part in urban and rural adult communal entertainment. Translated as “Folk dances in Israel.”
  4310.  
  4311. Find this resource:
  4312.  
  4313. Rottenberg, Henia, and Dina Roginsky, eds. Rav-koliyut ve-si’aḥ maḥol be-Yisrael, Fetish: Sidrat makor le-bikoret ha-tarbut. Tel Aviv: Resling, 2009.
  4314.  
  4315. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4316.  
  4317. This interdisciplinary collection of ten essays approaches dance in Israel from historical, sociological, anthropological, folkloristic, educational, and communicative perspectives, dealing directly and indirectly with ethnic dance, folk dances, and the interrelations between folk and artistic dances. Translated as “Dance discourse in Israel.”
  4318.  
  4319. Find this resource:
  4320.  
  4321. Spiegel, Nina S. Embodying Hebrew Culture: Aesthetics, Athletics, and Dance in the Jewish Community of Mandate Palestine. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2013.
  4322.  
  4323. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4324.  
  4325. During the British mandate period from 1917 to 1948, the Yishuv created cultural forms through festivals and dance celebrations, emphasizing physicality in Jewish life that resonates in present-day Israeli culture. Four events demonstrate this trend: The Purim beauty competitions for Queen Esther in Tel Aviv, held from 1926 to 1929, the 1932 Maccabiah Games, the theatrical dance competition of 1937, and the Dalia folk dance festivals in 1944 and 1947.
  4326.  
  4327. Find this resource:
  4328.  
  4329. Festivals
  4330. Unlike Jewish holidays, which are celebrated at homes and in the synagogues, festivals are celebrated in public spaces in Israel and as pilgrimages in Arab lands, the Ashkenaz, and Israel. The urban holiday festivals were celebrated primarily in Tel Aviv on Hanukkah (Arieh-Sapir 2002) and Purim (Arieh-Sapir 2003, Carmiel 1999, and Shoham 2013). Even an agricultural holiday, such as the festival of “First Fruits,” was celebrated first in Tel Aviv (Shavit and Sitton 2004), before it became a rural institution.
  4331.  
  4332. Arieh-Sapir, N. “Tahalukhat ha-ʾor: Ḥanukkah ke-ḥag leʾumi be-tel-aviv ba-shanim, 1909–1936. Cathedra 103 (2002): 131–150.
  4333.  
  4334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4335.  
  4336. In making traditional Jewish holidays compatible with the socialist-Zionist ideology, new symbolic representations were created for the Hanukkah celebration in Tel Aviv from 1909 to 1936. Light, the major symbol of Hanukkah, was imbued with national rather than religious significance and was represented by torches in processions in public spaces rather than candles at home. Translated as “The procession of lights: Hanukkah as a national festival in Tel Aviv, 1909–1936.”
  4337.  
  4338. Find this resource:
  4339.  
  4340. Arieh-Sapir, N. “Karneval be-tel-aviv: Purim ba-ʽir ha-ʽvrit ha-rishonah.” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Folklore 22 (2003): 99–122.
  4341.  
  4342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4343.  
  4344. The annual Purim carnival in Tel Aviv reflected the city’s dual character in being both Zionist and European. The processions were dedicated to three main subjects: the Zionistic enterprise, satirical-political performances, and Purim’s traditional themes. They were celebrations of free expression, national identity, modernity, and tradition. Translated as “Carnival in Tel Aviv: The Purim festival in the ‘first’ Hebrew City.”
  4345.  
  4346. Find this resource:
  4347.  
  4348. Carmiel, Batia. Tel Aviv be-taḥposet ve-keter: Ḥagigot purim ba-shanim, 1912–1935. Tel Aviv: Ertz Israel Museum, 1999.
  4349.  
  4350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4351.  
  4352. Festivals performed in Tel Aviv merged traditional European forms with new local Hebrew content, aspiring to create an original Israeli culture and folklore. Through 1935, the carnival procession, known as Adloyada, dominated Tel Aviv’s Purim celebration, which featured the masquerade balls of Agadati (b. 1895–d. 1976) and the children processions sponsored by the Jewish National fund that promoted Zionistic ideas and ideals. Translated as “Tel Aviv in costume and crown: Purim celebrations in Tel Aviv, 1912–1935.”
  4353.  
  4354. Find this resource:
  4355.  
  4356. Shavit, Y., and Shoshana Sitton. Staging and Stagers in Modern Jewish Palestine: The Creation of Festive Lore in a New Culture, 1882–1848. Translated by C. Naor. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004.
  4357.  
  4358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4359.  
  4360. In the modern Hebrew culture of Eretz Israel, the creation of festival lore was a conscious and organized process motivated by national ideology and aesthetic values. In a secular society, celebrating Purim, First Fruits Festivity, and New Years for the Trees served as an alternative to the traditional religious system, adapting the ceremonies and festivals to a new historical reality.
  4361.  
  4362. Find this resource:
  4363.  
  4364. Shoham, H. Mordecai rokhev ʽal sus: Ḥagigat Purim be-Tel-Aviv (1908–1936) u-bniyatah shel ʾumah ḥadashah. Interpretation and Culture. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2013.
  4365.  
  4366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4367.  
  4368. The Purim celebrations in Tel Aviv from 1908 to 1936 were part of the Zionist civil religion. An invented tradition, it had its beginnings in communal balls and neighborhood processions, and developed into massive balls and a local as well as a national carnival. This celebration projected the relationship between the city and the countryside in Zionistic ideology and praxis, and the role of tradition in nation-building. Translated as “Mordecai is riding a horse: Purim celebrations in Tel Aviv (1908–1936) and the building of a new nation.”
  4369.  
  4370. Find this resource:
  4371.  
  4372. Life-Cycle Rituals
  4373. The French anthropologist and folklorist Arnold van Gennep (b. 1873–d. 1957) identified the human life cycle in terms of the rituals that universally accompany birth, puberty, marriage, and death, which he considered as “rites of passage.” Jewish societies share the core symbols of these rituals and introduce into their performance ethnic and historical transformations. Sperber 2008 provides a comprehensice description and analysis of the life-cycle rituals in Jewish societies, focusing on their religious laws and modifications in local and historical customs (minhagim), while Goldberg 2003 and Greenspoon 2010 examine their celebrations in modern Jewish communities. Marcus 2004 is a study of their historical developments while Sabar 2006 describes their celebrations in Jewish ethnic groups of the East, focusing on the symbolic art and material culture of these rituals. Ochs 2007 describes new rituals inspired, for example, by feminism that are introduced into life-cycle celebrations.
  4374.  
  4375. Goldberg, Harvey E. Jewish Passages: Cycles of Jewish Life. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
  4376.  
  4377. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4378.  
  4379. Approached anthropologically, the life-cycle rituals and ceremonies of birth, bar mitzvah, wedding, and death in Jewish societies construct identities, affirm community relations, and, in modern societies, merge traditional symbols with individual experiences and expressions and become a stage for performing ethnicity and ideology.
  4380.  
  4381. Find this resource:
  4382.  
  4383. Greenspoon, Leonard E., ed. Rites of Passage: How Today’s Jews Celebrate, Commemorate, and Commiserate. Studies in Jewish Civilization 21. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2010.
  4384.  
  4385. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4386.  
  4387. Eleven essays about life-cycle rituals in American Jewish life as they are renewed, modernized, and adjusted, from bar mitzvah celebrations to weddings and to specific issues regarding Jewish life in midwestern small towns, the need for new rituals, and the transition of women to orthodoxy.
  4388.  
  4389. Find this resource:
  4390.  
  4391. Marcus, Ivan G. The Jewish Life Cycle: Rites of Passage from Biblical to Modern Times. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.
  4392.  
  4393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4394.  
  4395. The life-cycle rites of passage, births, bar mitzvahs, weddings, and funerals, their symbols and performances, shaped the Jewish experience, and were themselves transformed historically and culturally, maintaining their vitality with innovations introduced in modern times. While each ritual has its own set of symbols, some, like the circle, recur, with different meanings in all of them.
  4396.  
  4397. Find this resource:
  4398.  
  4399. Ochs, Vanessa L. Inventing Jewish Rituals. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2007.
  4400.  
  4401. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4402.  
  4403. Motivated by new trends, ideologies, and cultural changes, Jews invented new life-cycle rituals and symbolic acts, such a naming ceremonies for baby girls to complement traditional rituals.
  4404.  
  4405. Find this resource:
  4406.  
  4407. Sabar, S. Maʽagal Ḥayim. With E. Arazi, A. Bar-Levav, and R. Weinstein. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute and Ministry of Education, 2006.
  4408.  
  4409. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4410.  
  4411. Anxieties and beliefs in supernatural forces accompany life-cycle stages and transitions such as pregnancy, childbirth, childhood, bar mitzvah, marriage, death, burial, and mourning. Rituals, amulets, talismans, scripted invocations, and designs and decorations function to alleviate and ward off dangers. They are in use in Jewish communities in Asia and North Africa and comparable objects are available in Jewish European communities. Translated as “The life cycle.”
  4412.  
  4413. Find this resource:
  4414.  
  4415. Sperber, D. The Jewish Life Cycle: Custom, Lore and Iconography. Jewish Customs from the Cradle to the Grave. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar Ilan University Press, 2008.
  4416.  
  4417. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4418.  
  4419. The life-cycle passages of birth, wedding, and death in Jewish society are regulated by religious laws, but each has its own associated customs (minhagim) that have their roots in the traditional life of Jewish communities and evolved under the influence of the customs of other peoples, and they are documented in words and images in rabbinical and other literatures.
  4420.  
  4421. Find this resource:
  4422.  
  4423. Birth Rituals
  4424. The Jewish basic birth ritual is the male circumcision, which is studied in Rubin 1995 in examining accounts in the Talmud and Midrash, while Mark 2003 examines its subsequent development.
  4425.  
  4426. Mark, Elizabeth W., ed. The Covenant of Circumcision: New Perspectives on an Ancient Jewish Rite. Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2003.
  4427.  
  4428. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4429.  
  4430. Circumcision (brit milah) is an ancient Jewish rite, sanctioned by a biblical narrative and religious law, that has evolved over history, in respect to custom, ritual, interpretation, and technique. The ritual intersects with gender, culture, science, and philosophy, and it invites discussion to which the essays in this volume contribute.
  4431.  
  4432. Find this resource:
  4433.  
  4434. Rubin, N. Reshit ha-Ḥayim: Tiksei leidah, mila u-pidyon ha-ben bimekorot Ḥaza”l. Tel Aviv: Hakkibutz Hameuchad, 1995.
  4435.  
  4436. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4437.  
  4438. Employing a method of historical anthropology enables the construction of ideal types of the rituals that accompany birth, circumcision, and first-born redemption, as accounted for in the Talmud and the Midrash, and relate any changes in them to structural social changes. Translated as “The beginning of life: Rites of birth, circumcision, and redemption of the first-born in the Talmud and the Midrash.”
  4439.  
  4440. Find this resource:
  4441.  
  4442. Weddings
  4443. The marriage celebrations are joyous ceremonies in which music, song, and dance are employed, offering occasions for their diversified performance in different Jewish ethnic groups. They are described in traditional literature (Rubin 2004) and in Jewish communities, such as Baghdad (Avishur 1991), Morocco (Chetrit 2003), and other communities (Ben-Ami and Noy 1974).
  4444.  
  4445. Avishur, Y. Ha-ḥatunah ha-yehudit be-bagdad u-bhi-bhnoteha.minhagim, ve-tekasim, mismakhim ve-shirim, begadim ve-takhshitim. 2 vols. Haifa, Israel: University of Haifa, 1991.
  4446.  
  4447. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4448.  
  4449. This description of the Jewish wedding in Baghdad and other cities in Iraq is based on manuscripts, books, and oral sources, Jewish internal documents and accounts of non-Jews, literature, and ephemeral wedding-related prints. Translated as “The Jewish wedding in Baghdad and its filiations: Customs and ceremonies, documents and songs, costumes and jewelry.”
  4450.  
  4451. Find this resource:
  4452.  
  4453. Ben-Ami, I., and Dov Noy, eds. Prakim be-ḥeker minhagei ḥatuna. Folklore Research Center Studies 4. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1974.
  4454.  
  4455. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4456.  
  4457. Studies in English, French, and Hebrew on marriage customs of the Jews in Alsace, Iran, Kurdistan, and Morocco as well as Arab villages in Israel, and comparative essays on Jus Primae Noctis, the hero destined to die on his wedding day, the canceled wedding, kings’ parables and weddings, and the wardrobe of a Jewish bride in medieval Egypt, among others. Translated as “Studies in marriage customs.”
  4458.  
  4459. Find this resource:
  4460.  
  4461. Chetrit, Joseph. Ha-ḥatunah ha-yehudit ha-mesortit be-Maroko. Miqqedem umiyyam 8. Haifa, Israel: University of Haifa, Faculty of the Humanities and the Center for the Study of Jewish Culture in Spain and Muslim Lands, 2003.
  4462.  
  4463. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4464.  
  4465. A collection of essays about the traditional Jewish wedding in Morocco, including a sociocultural analysis and interpretative and documentary studies that deal with specific customs, such as ceremony, its poems, the role of the shoshbin, and specific towns, such as Tangier, Tatuan, Fèz, Salé, Mogador, and Debdu. Translated as “The Jewish traditional marriage in Morocco.”
  4466.  
  4467. Find this resource:
  4468.  
  4469. Rubin, Nissan. Simḥat Ḥayim: Tiksei eirusim ve-nisuʾim bi-mekorot Ḥaza”l. Tel Aviv: Hakkibutz Hameuchad, 2004.
  4470.  
  4471. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4472.  
  4473. Employing a method of historical anthropology enables the construction of ideal types of the rituals that accompany engagement and marriage, as accounted in the Talmud and the Midrash, and relate any changes in them to structural social changes. Translated as “The joy of life: Rites of betrothal and marriage in the Talmud and Midrash.”
  4474.  
  4475. Find this resource:
  4476.  
  4477. Funerals
  4478. Completing his studies of life-cycle rituals in the Talmud and the Midrash in which he applies to their analysis an anthropological approach, Rubin 2004 concludes the series with the life concluding ritual of the funeral, while Gamliel 2014 studies mourning rituals among the Jewish Yemenites.
  4479.  
  4480. Gamliel, Tovah. Aesthetics of Sorrow: The Wailing Culture of Yemenite Jewish Women. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2014.
  4481.  
  4482. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4483.  
  4484. Studied from an eclectic theoretical perspectives of anthropology, sociology, psychology, folklore and philosophy, the special genre of wailing combines speech, sobbing and lyrical poetry and is performed in death rituals by professional women, a symbolic type, in Yemenite-Jewish communities. It has a unique therapeutic effect, and, tradition and modernity intersect in its practice in Israel.
  4485.  
  4486. Find this resource:
  4487.  
  4488. Rubin, Nissan. Ketz ha-Ḥayim: Tiksei kvurah va-ʾevel bi-mekorot Ḥaza”l. Tel Aviv: Hakkibutz Hameuchad, 2004.
  4489.  
  4490. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4491.  
  4492. Employing a method of historical anthropology enables the construction of ideal types of the rituals that accompany funerals and mourning, as recounted in the Talmud and the Midrash, and relate any changes in them to structural social changes. Translated as “Rites of burial and mourning in the Talmud and Midrash.”
  4493.  
  4494. Find this resource:
  4495.  
  4496. Tombs of Saints
  4497. The veneration of the tombs of the saints involved a transformation of Jewish customs and religious laws concerning cemeteries and the dead. Such veneration was influenced by customs in the Mediterranean Basin as they were transformed from contaminated to holy sites, as Lichtenstein 2007 demonstrates. Following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, Jerusalem stopped serving as a pilgrimage destination. Instead the tombs of saints became sites of pilgrimage in Israel and in Arab lands, particularly Morocco, as well as in Europe, shifting their dates from the three traditional pilgrimage holidays (Passover, Shavuʽot, and Sukkot) to the saints’ anniversaries, or the 33rd of the Omer counting.
  4498.  
  4499. Lichtenstein, Y. S. Mi-tumʾah li-kdushah: Tfilah ve-ḥeftzei mitzvah be-vatei kvarot ve-ʽaliyah le-kivrei tsaddikim. Tel Aviv: Hakibutz Hameuchad, 2007.
  4500.  
  4501. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4502.  
  4503. The veneration of, and pilgrimages to, the tombs of the pious that evolved in Mediterranean Jewish societies in the Middle Ages and spread into European communities persists in modern times, standing in sharp contrast with Jewish religious laws (halakhot) concerning the dead; a comparison between the law and the custom (minhag) that treats historical, cultural, theological, and philosophical issues. Translated as “Consecrating the profane: Ritual performed and prayers recited at cemeteries and burial sites of the pious.”
  4504.  
  4505. Find this resource:
  4506.  
  4507. Arab Lands
  4508. The tombs of saints with magical capacities became pilgrimage destination sites in Morocco (Ben-Ami 1998, Bilu 2000) as well as the tombs of martyrs (Hassine 2012, Vance 2011)
  4509.  
  4510. Ben-Ami, Issachar. Saint Veneration among the Jews in Morocco. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1998.
  4511.  
  4512. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4513.  
  4514. Moroccan Jews practice their belief in the holiness of their deceased saints in annual pilgrimages and ritual celebrations (hillulot) at their sanctuaries. Then they tell legends about them. The traditional biographies of eighty-two holy men and twenty-three holy women and descriptions of their hillulot are in this edition as compared to, respectively, 615 and 25 in the original Hebrew edition.
  4515.  
  4516. Find this resource:
  4517.  
  4518. Bilu, Yoram. Without Bounds: The Life and Death of Rabbi Yaʾaqov Wazana. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000.
  4519.  
  4520. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4521.  
  4522. Rabbi Yaʽaqov Wazana was a Jewish healer in the western High Atlas in southern Morocco who died in the early 1950s. Moroccan Jews remember him for his lifestyle of dissolving the boundaries of the major social categories of human and demon, holy and impure, Jew and Muslim, and old and young in integrating them into his own identity.
  4523.  
  4524. Find this resource:
  4525.  
  4526. Hassine, Juliette. Solika ha-Tzadeket harugat malkhut. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 2012.
  4527.  
  4528. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4529.  
  4530. A comprehensive monograph about the righteous Sol, a teenage martyr who was executed in Fez, Morocco, in 1834, accused of having renounced Islam. She became a subject of songs and tales in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic, and her grave became a pilgrimage destination for Jews and Muslims alike. Translated as “The martyr Solika the pious.”
  4531.  
  4532. Find this resource:
  4533.  
  4534. Vance, Sharon. The Martyrdom of a Moroccan Jewish Saint. Brill’s Series in Jewish Studies 44. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2011.
  4535.  
  4536. DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004207004.i-240Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4537.  
  4538. The martyrdom in 1834 of Sol Hatchuel, a Jewish girl from Tangier, traumatized the Jewish community and inspired a literary response in Morocco and beyond. Literary writings Hebrew, Judeo-Arabic, Judeo-Spanish, Spanish, and French about her reveal the complex relations between Jews and Muslims in North Africa and the Ottoman Empire and the intersection between religious polemics and gender discourse.
  4539.  
  4540. Find this resource:
  4541.  
  4542. Ashkenaz
  4543. The 1912–1914 Ethnographic expedition into the Pale of Settlement, which was led by An-Sky, discovered tomb celebrations and other festivals in Ashkenaz in the context of general ethnographic and folkloristic description of Jewish society.
  4544.  
  4545. Deutsch, Nathaniel. The Jewish Dark Continent: Life and Death in the Russian Pale of Settlement. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011.
  4546.  
  4547. DOI: 10.4159/harvard.9780674062641Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4548.  
  4549. A historical essay about, and a translation and annotation of, the Yiddish questionnaire that guided the ethnographic expedition that Shloyme Zanvil Rapoport (b. 1863–d. 1920), known as An-sky, led into the Pale of Settlement (1912–1914), recording tales, songs, jokes, and proverbs, exploring beliefs, customs and life-cycle and annual rituals, and photographing individuals and communities.
  4550.  
  4551. Find this resource:
  4552.  
  4553. Israel
  4554. In Israel it is possible to distinguish four kinds of holy pilgrimage sites: old tombs (Ilan 1997, Ish-shalom 1948, Lissovsky 2006, Vilnay 1963), new sites dedicated to transferred saints (Bilu 2010, Weingrod 1990), newly dedicated sites (Bar 2007), and traditional holy trees (Dafni 2010).
  4555.  
  4556. Bar, D. Le-kadesh eretz. Ha-mekomot ha-kdoshim ha-yehudiim bi-medinat yisrael. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi/Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 2007.
  4557.  
  4558. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4559.  
  4560. During the nineteen years between the war of independence and the Six-Day War, when Jews were barred from their historical holy sites, the Ministry of Religion developed an alternate set of holy sites, some of which had roots in tradition, while for others a new set of symbols, ceremonies and memorials were created that became pilgrimage destinations. Translated as “Sanctifying a land: The Jewish holy places in the State of Israel, 1948–1968.”
  4561.  
  4562. Find this resource:
  4563.  
  4564. Bilu, Yoram. The Saints’ Impresarios: Dreamers, Healers, and Holy Men in Israel’s Urban Periphery. Translated by H. Watzman. Israel: Society, Culture, and History. Brighton, MA: Academic Studies Press, 2010.
  4565.  
  4566. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4567.  
  4568. The renewal of the cult worship of Jewish-Moroccan saints in Israel involves complex social and political issues that are represented in the lives of four individuals—two men and two women—who initiated such a translocation through visions and dreams, healing thereby themselves and others, establishing cult centers in the Israeli urban periphery and in Moroccan immigrant towns and neighborhoods.
  4569.  
  4570. Find this resource:
  4571.  
  4572. Dafni, A. ʽEtzim mekudashim be-Yisrael. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2010.
  4573.  
  4574. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4575.  
  4576. Sacred trees are mentioned in the Bible and in travel books describing journeys to and in the land of Israel, and they are known today throughout the land. Legends are associated with them, the attempts to destroy them in the course of land development and transportation, and their survival. This study concerns only trees in northern Israel. Translated as “Sacred trees in Israel.”
  4577.  
  4578. Find this resource:
  4579.  
  4580. Ilan, Z. Kivrei tzaddikim be-Eretz-Israel. Jerusalem: Kanah, 1997.
  4581.  
  4582. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4583.  
  4584. Tomb worship existed in prehistoric times, and it was performed by Israelites and Jews in biblical and post-biblical periods. Lists of tombs, mostly in the Galilee, began to be available toward the end of the first millennium, and they were found in the Cairo Geniza, pilgrims’ letters and travelers’ accounts, which draw upon folk traditions and represent cultural memory. Translated as “Tombs of the righteous in the land of Israel.”
  4585.  
  4586. Find this resource:
  4587.  
  4588. Ish-Shalom, M. Kivrei ʾavot: Le-ḥeker masorot ha-kvarim ha-ʽivriim be-Eretz-Israel. Studies in Folklore and Ethnology 5. Jerusalem: Rabbi Kook Foundation and the Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology, 1948.
  4589.  
  4590. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4591.  
  4592. In spite of rabbinical objection tomb veneration, visitation, pilgrimages, and supplications were ancient Jewish customs and rituals that were practiced from ancient times through Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages up to modern times, and theywere documented in the Bible, post-biblical traditions, and medieval literature and travel accounts. They persist in the names of localities and personalities. Translated as “Holy tombs: A study of traditions concerning Jewish holy tombs in Palestine.” Reprinted (Jerusalem: Ariel, 2001).
  4593.  
  4594. Find this resource:
  4595.  
  4596. Lissovsky, Nurit. “Kituv ba-nof: Shimush be-mekorot historiim ba-mimtza ha-archaeologi, u-va-mofa ha-ḥazuti le-shiḥzur ha-temurot she-ḥalu be-mekomot kdoshim ba-galil.” Cathedra 120 (2006): 55–78.
  4597.  
  4598. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4599.  
  4600. Holy sites existed in Eretz-Israel throughout its history from biblical times to the present. The rituals enacted at the sites were documented in historical and literary sources. The sites underwent changes. Their stable components were large burial caves, sarcophagi, prominent rocks, and flowing springs. Unstable components were heaps of stones, dry springs, and trees resulting in site migration. Translated as “Written in the landscape: Using historical sources, archaeological findings, and the visual evidence to reconstruct transformations in Galilean holy sites.”
  4601.  
  4602. Find this resource:
  4603.  
  4604. Vilnay, Zev. Matzevot kodesh be-Eretz-Yisrael: Te’ur ha-kvarim ha-kdoshim be-livyat tziyurim u-temunot. 2d ed. Jerusalem: Rav Kook Institute, 1963.
  4605.  
  4606. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4607.  
  4608. Gravestones, monuments, and burial caves that are traditionally identified as the tombs of biblical personalities, post biblical and medieval rabbis and holy men, are scattered throughout the lands and have been sites of memory, pilgrimage destinations, and supplicatory visitations. They are listed in an encyclopedic format, together with sources, legends, and citing documents. Translated as “Sacred tombstones in the land of Israel: A description of holy graves accompanied with drawings and photographs.”
  4609.  
  4610. Find this resource:
  4611.  
  4612. Weingrod, Alex. The Saint of Beersheba. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.
  4613.  
  4614. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4615.  
  4616. After his death in 1950, Rabbi Chayim Chouri became famous as the “Saint of Beersheba,” who was known for his miracles. He acquired a cult following, with annual pilgrimages to his grave and the performance of annual festivities in his honored memory.
  4617.  
  4618. Find this resource:
  4619.  
  4620. Customs, Material Culture, and Daily Life
  4621. Curiosity about customs is a consequence of travel and encounters with the other. However, in Jewish societies all over the world, the process is reversed. Because theirs is a history of migration and dispersion from a single country, Jews made contacts among different Jewish ethnic groups whom they encountered with whom they shared an identity but that also led to changes in aspects of behavior. The concept of cultural tapestry that Lowenstein 2000 employs constitutes an attempt to cope, descriptively and theoretically, with the diversity in unity that is characteristic of Jewish societies.
  4622.  
  4623. Lowenstein, Steven M. The Jewish Cultural Tapestry: International Jewish Folk Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  4624.  
  4625. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4626.  
  4627. A broad introductory survey of Jewish folk traditions concerning regional and ethnic cultures, Jewish languages, names, religious practices, cuisine, costumes, music, appearance and ancestry, and modernity and tradition.
  4628.  
  4629. Find this resource:
  4630.  
  4631. Arab Lands
  4632. Gabai 1988 is a description of customs, festivals, and holidays of Moroccan Jewry, while Muller-Lancet 2010, written by a former ethnography curator of the Israel Museum, focuses the on material culture of the Yemenite Jews, and in particular the clothing of the women.
  4633.  
  4634. Gabai, Moshe. Shorashim: Yehudit, masoret ve-folḳlor Yehudi maroḳo. Beersheba, Israel: Ministry of Education and the Beer Sheba Labor Council, 1988.
  4635.  
  4636. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4637.  
  4638. A trilingual book, in French, English, and Hebrew, of recollected illustrations of daily and festive life in Morocco with interpretations and explanations describing a broad range of activities in the community. The chapters focus on life-cycle rituals, the annual cycle of festivals and holidays, traditions, different aspects of folklore, and craftsmen and their art. Translated as “Roots: Judaism, traditions, and the folklore of the Moroccan Jews.”
  4639.  
  4640. Find this resource:
  4641.  
  4642. Muller-Lancet, Aviva, ed. Ḥayei ha-yehudim be-maroko. Catalogue no. 103. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1973.
  4643.  
  4644. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4645.  
  4646. The essays in this exhibition catalogue are about the history and the towns of the Jews in Morocco, the religious and spiritual life of Jews, the synagogue and its ritual objects, the annual holiday cycle, the life cycle, folklore and tradition, administrative roles, crafts, the family residence and its interior, clothing and jewelry. Translated as “Jewish life in Morocco.”
  4647.  
  4648. Find this resource:
  4649.  
  4650. Muller-Lancet, Aviva. Ksut va-meser: Levusham shel yehudim be-artsot ha-islam. Jerusalem: Ben-Zvi Institute, 2010.
  4651.  
  4652. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4653.  
  4654. Studies of Jewish, mostly, women’s clothing in Yemen, Morocco, Bukhara, and Iraq, analyzing their embroidery and its symbolic significance. Translated as “Garment with a message: Ethnography of Jewish wear in Islamic lands.”
  4655.  
  4656. Find this resource:
  4657.  
  4658. Ashkenaz
  4659. In Jewish European communities new customs developed around core religious festivals and holidays in the Middle Ages (Ta-Shma 1992) and in later periods (Zimmer 1996). The communities negotiated between these new customs and the religious laws and regulations in their daily and festive life.
  4660.  
  4661. Ta-Shma, I. S. Minhag Ashkenaz ha-Kadmon: Ḥeker ve-′iyun. Jerusalem: Magnes, 1992.
  4662.  
  4663. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4664.  
  4665. Custom (minhag) has a relation to normative Judaism, on the one hand, and to folklore, on the other hand. These issues are examined in reference to Sabbath, Passover, and prayer customs. Translated as “Early Franco-German ritual and custom: Research and analysis.”
  4666.  
  4667. Find this resource:
  4668.  
  4669. Zimmer, E. ′Olam ke-minhago noheg: Prakim be-toldot ha-minhagim, halakhotehem ve-gilgulehem. Jerusalem: Zalman Shazar Center, 1996.
  4670.  
  4671. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4672.  
  4673. Nineteen essays about the history and diversity of a broad spectrum of customs in Jewish societies, ranging from ethnic identity markers, ranging from head coverings and earlocks to ritual behavior and abstinence observed after delivery and menstruation to Sabbath, Passover, day of atonement, and Hanukkah customs in Jewish European communities. Translated as “Society and custom: Studies in the history and metamorphosis of Jewish customs.”
  4674.  
  4675. Find this resource:
  4676.  
  4677. Israel
  4678. Hanauer 1907 reports about customs, traditions, rituals, and beliefs in Palestine under the Ottoman Empire, before the radical changes that took place during the 20th century, while Torstrick 2004 focuses on the material culture and social life of the diverse ethnic groups that could be found after the establishment of the State of Israel.
  4679.  
  4680. Hanauer, James Edward. Folk-Lore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish. Edited by M. Pickthall. London: Duckworth, 1907.
  4681.  
  4682. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4683.  
  4684. James E. Hanauer (b. 1850–d. 1938), a photographer with the Palestine Exploration Fund, reports biblical and post-biblical narratives, often told as local legends among Muslims, Christians, and Jews in 19th-century Palestine. He describes places, tombs, and caves and their stories, holidays and their stories (the Saragossan Purim), beliefs, ideas, customs, plants, and magical cures. He also relates legends and anecdotes with their possible factual basis and stories illustrating social ideas and superstitions.
  4685.  
  4686. Find this resource:
  4687.  
  4688. Torstrick, Rebecca L. Culture and Customs of Israel. Culture and Customs of the Middle East. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004.
  4689.  
  4690. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4691.  
  4692. Cuisine and traditional dress, gender, marriage, family, social customs and life style, music and dance are discussed in the context of a broader survey of the history and culture of Israel.
  4693.  
  4694. Find this resource:
  4695.  
  4696. Other Lands
  4697. The Jews of the Caucasus Mountains lived on the margins of European and Asian Jewish societies, and consequently their histories, societies, and material cultures are only now beginning to be documented and described, as they are in Benzoor 1992, Mikdash-Shemailov 2002, and Shwartz-Be’eri 2000. Brauer 1993 is an ethnography of a migrant community, based on research conducted in mandated Palestine in the 1930s.
  4698.  
  4699. Benzoor, Nina, ed. Azerbaijan: Mountain Jews, Urban Muslims. Haifa, Israel: Museum of Music and Ethnology, 1992.
  4700.  
  4701. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4702.  
  4703. The material culture of the mountain Jews of Azerbaijan includes embroidery, jewelry, musical instruments, and utensils. Jews arrived in Azerbaijan from the Assyrian, Babylonian and Iranian exiles, flourished during the occupation by the Khazars, and survived the rule of Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, and Russians until their migration to Israel.
  4704.  
  4705. Find this resource:
  4706.  
  4707. Brauer, Erich. The Jews of Kurdistan. Jewish Folklore and Anthropology Series. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1993.
  4708.  
  4709. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4710.  
  4711. The ethnography of the Kurdish-Jewish community was conducted at a distance involving interviews of Kurdish immigrants in Jerusalem, and it was first published in Hebrew in 1946. The expanded English edition includes a description and analysis of life-cycle rituals and annual cycles of holidays and festivals and material culture such as architecture, housing furniture, culinary folklore, and clothing. Edited by Raphael Patai.
  4712.  
  4713. Find this resource:
  4714.  
  4715. Mikdash-Shamailov, L., ed. Mountain Jews: Customs and Daily Life in the Caucasus. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 2002.
  4716.  
  4717. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4718.  
  4719. The essays in this exhibition catalogue treat the history, religion, traditions, and material culture of the Jewish community in the Caucasus Mountains. They are accompanied by valuable photographs, illustrating structures, people, and their material culture.
  4720.  
  4721. Find this resource:
  4722.  
  4723. Shwartz-Be’eri, Ora. The Jews of Kurdistan: Daily Life, Customs, Arts and Crafts. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 2000.
  4724.  
  4725. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4726.  
  4727. The essays and the photographs in this exhibition catalogue treat daily life, clothing, weaving, embroidery and ornamentation, amulets, metalwork and jewelry, illuminated manuscripts, the synagogue and its ceremonial and ritual objects, and paintings of Kurdish women.
  4728.  
  4729. Find this resource:
  4730.  
  4731. Jewish Magic
  4732. The belief in and the practice of magic is condemned by normative Judaism, but it has been widespread in Jewish society historically and ethnically. Individual and communal crises, situations of uncertainty and anxiety generated resort to magic for protection, assurance, and restoration of confidence. Magic responds to basic human needs and its effect is so powerful that normative Jewish religion and thought succumbed on many occasions and incorporated its practices and belief in Jewish social and religious life. For general discussions and specific studies see Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies article Ancient Jewish Magic. Relevant for folklore research, in particular, are available publications of collected studies of magic among the Sepharadim and research about alchemy and astrology, amulets and magical objects and well-known narratives about spirit possession and anthropoid.
  4733.  
  4734. Sepharad
  4735. Alexander, et al. 2011 explores magic belief and practice among the Sepharadim and the scholarship about them.
  4736.  
  4737. Alexander, Tamar, Yaakov Bentolila, and Eliezer Papo, eds. Magic and Folk Medicine. El Prezente Studies in Sephardic Culture 5. Beersheba, Israel: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 2011.
  4738.  
  4739. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4740.  
  4741. Fourteen essays on magic in Jewish society, including about the history and trends of research Sephardic magic, and an overview of Jewish magic in general, medieval medical magic, amulets, and medical magic in literature and folktales. 1–202 [Hebrew], 1–192 [English, French, Spanish].
  4742.  
  4743. Find this resource:
  4744.  
  4745. Alchemy and Astrology
  4746. Historically Jews engaged in, and at times played a leading role in, alchemy, as Patai 1994 demonstrates. Astral magic is known to have existed in Jewish folk society, as is evident from its condemnation. Since the Middle Ages, however, the writings of medieval Jewish intellectuals have been integrated into philosophical thought, as Schwarts 1999 discusses.
  4747.  
  4748. Patai, Raphael. The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.
  4749.  
  4750. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4751.  
  4752. Jews engaged in alchemy from ancient to modern times. They were major players in this field and explored the relationship between alchemy and medicine, magic and mysticism.
  4753.  
  4754. Find this resource:
  4755.  
  4756. Schwarts, Dov. Astrologyah u-magyah ba-hagut ha-yehudit bi-ymei ha-beinayim. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1999.
  4757.  
  4758. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4759.  
  4760. Astral magic was well known among Jewish intellectuals from the 12th century and throughout the Middle Ages. It is based on the assumption that the solar bodies emanate spirituality which man can harness for his own purposes of divination and medical therapy. Jewish rational philosophers rejected astral magic, but its effectiveness was debated by Jewish medieval thinkers. Translated as “Astral magic in medieval Jewish thought.”
  4761.  
  4762. Find this resource:
  4763.  
  4764. Amulets and Magical Objects
  4765. Amulets and other objects are the basic tools of magic. They are found in traditional Jewish communities (Davis and Frenkel 1995, Schrire 1966, Shachar 1981), used as protection from the evil eye (Ulmer 1994) and they were known in particular communities (Itzhaky 1981). Jewish philosophers thought about them (Schwartz 2004), and they are put into practice in modern Jewish societies (Davis and Frenkel 1995, Sabar 2010). Moreover, central religious objects, such as the Torah scroll, are used magically (Sabar 2009).
  4766.  
  4767. Davis, E., and D. A. Frenkel. Ha-kame′a ha-′ivri: Mikraʹi—refuʹi—klali. Jerusalem: Institute for Jewish Studies, 1995.
  4768.  
  4769. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4770.  
  4771. Amulets were in use in all Jewish communities from early to modern times to ward off diseases and the evil eye and to ensure fertility, livelihood, and protection against evil powers. People have used them in spite of rabbinical objection. After World War I there was a decline in their use, but now there is a resurgence in their practice. Translated as “The Hebrew amulet: Biblical—medical—general.”
  4772.  
  4773. Find this resource:
  4774.  
  4775. Itzhaky, I. Laḥash ve-kame′a. Jerusalem: Keter, 1981.
  4776.  
  4777. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4778.  
  4779. A copy of a manuscript concerning folk medicine, dream interpretations, and incantations, written in Sephardic-Hebrew script and obtained in Tiberias in 1925. Translated as “Amulets and incantations.”
  4780.  
  4781. Find this resource:
  4782.  
  4783. Sabar, Shalom. “Torah and Magic: The Torah Scroll and Its Appurtenances as Magical Objects in Traditional Jewish Culture.” European Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (2009): 135–170.
  4784.  
  4785. DOI: 10.1163/102599909X12471170467448Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4786.  
  4787. In Jewish life Torah scroll and its accessories are used in the context of sympathetic magic. Select Torah scrolls, especially in the lands of Islam, were considered as possessing extraordinary protective powers. Stories and popular beliefs in the power of the Torah scroll are best reflected in the ornamental appurtenances that enhanced the physical appearance of the sacred object.
  4788.  
  4789. Find this resource:
  4790.  
  4791. Sabar, Shalom. “From Sacred Symbol to Keychain: The Hamsa in Jewish and Israeli Societies.” In Jews at Home: The Domestication of Identity. Edited by Simon J. Bronner, 140–162. Jewish Cultural Studies 2. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2010.
  4792.  
  4793. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4794.  
  4795. The hamsa, an image of a hand, is an amulet against the “evil eye,” common among Sephardic Jews and Jews in Arab lands. This traditional object of sacred and protective significance has been transformed, even secularized, in modern times while its original essence, form, and symbolism have been preserved.
  4796.  
  4797. Find this resource:
  4798.  
  4799. Schrire, T. Hebrew Amulets: Their Decipherment and Interpretation. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966.
  4800.  
  4801. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4802.  
  4803. Hebrew amulets are concerned with warding off from the wearer the effects of the “evil eye” and with protecting women from the dangers of childbirth. Letters and symbols appear on them, and their combinations vest in them their special power. They haveoccurred in Jewish societies from earliest times, but most information is available from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
  4804.  
  4805. Find this resource:
  4806.  
  4807. Schwartz, D. Kame′ot, segulot ve-sakhlatanut ba-hagut ha-yehudit bi-ymei ha-beinayim: Gugiyot u-mekorot. Ramat Gan, Israel: Bar-Ilan University Press, 2004.
  4808.  
  4809. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4810.  
  4811. The use of astral magic for medical purposes restored it to Jewish medieval rational-theological thought in Spain in the 14th–15th centuries and it continued in use until the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. Translated as “Amulets, properties, and rationalism in medieval Jewish thought.”
  4812.  
  4813. Find this resource:
  4814.  
  4815. Shachar, Isaiah. Jewish Tradition in Art: The Feuchtwanger Collection of Judaica. Translated by R. Grafman. Jerusalem: Israel Museum, 1981.
  4816.  
  4817. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4818.  
  4819. Heinrich Feuchtwagner (b. 1898–d. 1963) began his collection of Jewish art in Germany during the Nazi era and continued to build his collection after his move to then Palestine in 1936. The exhibition catalogue includes more than just magical art; substantial items (pp. 237–315, nos. 775–1078) include amulets in different forms and for different functions.
  4820.  
  4821. Find this resource:
  4822.  
  4823. Ulmer, Rivka. The Evil Eye in the Bible and in Rabbinic Literature. Hoboken, NJ: Ktav, 1994.
  4824.  
  4825. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4826.  
  4827. Jewish belief in the power of the “evil eye” that jealousy generates was a common concern from earliest to modern times. It has many permutations in rabbinic literature, causing death, sickness, sexual transgressions, and it requires magic to ward it off.
  4828.  
  4829. Find this resource:
  4830.  
  4831. Dybbuk
  4832. The belief in spirit possession and the necessity for its exorcism has been the subject of folk narratives in Jewish societies since the late Middle Ages (Goldish 2003, Nigal 1983, Winkler 1981) as well as in Yiddish popular literature (Neugroschel 2000), but its prominence in modern Jewish society emerged after Shloyme Zanvil Rapoport (b. 1863–d. 1920), known as An-sky, wrote the play Der Dybbuk, which was produced in Yiddish by the Vilne Troupe in 1920 and in Hebrew by Ha-Bimah in 1921 in Moscow and in 1937 as a film in Warsaw. Dybbuks and their exorcism became a major topic of scholarship (Chajes 2003, Elior, et al. 2013). Mostly women are known to be afflicted by such a possession (Elior 2008).
  4833.  
  4834. Chajes, Jeffrey H. Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism. Jewish Culture and Context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.
  4835.  
  4836. DOI: 10.9783/9780812201550Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4837.  
  4838. Accounts of spirit possession and magical exorcism began to proliferate in the Jewish world in the 16th century. With analogues in Christian and Islamic societies, they built upon the doctrine of reincarnation and became a form of religious expression largely dominated by women that bridged learned and ignorant, rich and poor, men and women, the living and the dead.
  4839.  
  4840. Find this resource:
  4841.  
  4842. Elior, Rachel. Dybbuks and Jewish Women in Social History, Mysticism and Folklore. Jerusalem: Urim, 2008.
  4843.  
  4844. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4845.  
  4846. The dybbuk reflects a unique feminine response to the constraints of the dominant masculine order. Silenced and marginalized voices are brought to the fore in the context of a gender-based reading of terms that embody social values and preserve thought constructs and ways of life. Elior examines the dybbuk, its societal and kabbalistic background, its context, and its manifestations in magical rituals.
  4847.  
  4848. Find this resource:
  4849.  
  4850. Elior, Rachel, Y. Bilu, A. Shinan, and Y. Zakovitch, eds. Ka-ḥalom ya′uf ve-ka-dibuk yeʹaḥez: ʹAl ḥalomot ve-dibukim be-yisrael u-bh-ʹamim. Jerusalem: Magnes, 2013.
  4851.  
  4852. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4853.  
  4854. Twenty-one essays about dreams and possessions (dybbuks) as they occur in the Hebrew Bible, Apocrypha, Talmud and Midrash, kabbalah and Hasidism, Holocaust diaries and modern Jewish literature, and their ethnographic descriptions among Ethiopian Jews, Hasidic courts, and in non-Jewish cultures, such as among the Bedouin and in the Roman Catholic Church. Translated as “Fleeting dreams and possessive dybbuks: On dreams and possession in Jewish and other cultures.”
  4855.  
  4856. Find this resource:
  4857.  
  4858. Goldish, Matt, ed. Spirit Possession in Judaism: Cases and Contexts from the Middle Ages to the Present. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003.
  4859.  
  4860. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4861.  
  4862. Twelve essays that examine spirit possession in Judaism from interdisciplinary perspectives, including religious studies, mysticism, literature, anthropology, psychology, history, and folklore, focusing on cases from 16th-century Safed, 17th-century Gaza and Italy, Hasidic and contemporary societies and including historical texts and a bibliographical essay. Foreword by E. Bourguignon. Introduction by J. Dan.
  4863.  
  4864. Find this resource:
  4865.  
  4866. Neugroschel, Joachim, ed. and trans. The Dybbuk and the Yiddish Imagination: A Haunted Reader. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2000.
  4867.  
  4868. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4869.  
  4870. Thirty Yiddish, mostly literary, works about dybbuks, possessions, and demons from the 17th to the 20th centuries, ranging from a folktale that is included in the Maaseh Book to short stories by Dik (b. 1814–d. 1893) Sholem Aleichem (b. 1859–d. 1916), Y. L. Peretz (b. 1852–d. 1915), Der Nister (b. 1884–d. 1950), S. Ansky (b. 1863–d. 1920), and others.
  4871.  
  4872. Find this resource:
  4873.  
  4874. Nigal, G. Sippurei Dibuk be-sifrut Yisrael. Jerusalem: Rubin Mas, 1983.
  4875.  
  4876. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4877.  
  4878. Accounts and tales of spirit possessions and exorcism among men and women from the 16th to the 20th centuries from the Near East, Mediterranean, and central and eastern European countries, that are introduced by an essay about the genre of spirit possession tales and its features, including reincarnation belief, timing and location of possession, sin, the exorcist, and the exorcism ritual. Translated as “Dybbuk tales in Jewish literature.”
  4879.  
  4880. Find this resource:
  4881.  
  4882. Winkler, Gershon. Dybbuk. New York: Judaica, 1981.
  4883.  
  4884. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4885.  
  4886. An attempt to answer questions concerning spirit-possession and exorcism from psychological, anthropological, historical, and theological perspectives with insights culled from a wide range of classical Judaic teachings, including adaptation of six Jewish accounts of spirit possession, and an essay about the soul, reincarnation, death, ghosts, magic, and superstition.
  4887.  
  4888. Find this resource:
  4889.  
  4890. Golem
  4891. The legend of the golem of Prague, a story of an anthropoid that was created to save a Jewish community, is one of the Jewish tales of magic that became a universal symbol because of its relevance to the modern world. The scholarship about it explores its roots in Jewish tradition and its integration in Jewish and modern world culture.
  4892.  
  4893. The Legend of the Maharal of Prague
  4894. The legend of the golem is directly related to the inception of Jewish folklore research (Dolezelova 1976, Kieval 1997). It has deep roots in Antiquity in the Near East and in ancient Jewish traditions (Idel 1990). Its current popularity is associated with the Maharal, the rabbi of Prague (Sadek 1987, Thieberger 1955, Winkler 1980), the story of which was introduced to European readership in Bloch 1925, which is a translation of earlier texts that are now available in Rosenberg 1991 and Rosenberg 2007.
  4895.  
  4896. Bloch, Chayim. The Golem: Legend of the Ghetto of Prague. Translated from the German by H. Schneiderman. Vienna: Golem, 1925.
  4897.  
  4898. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4899.  
  4900. The tale of the creation and destruction of the golem (an anthropoid] by Rabbi Judah Bezalel Loew (Marahal) of Prague in the 16th century. First published in German in 1919.
  4901.  
  4902. Find this resource:
  4903.  
  4904. Dolezelova, J. “Questions of Folklore in the Legends of the Old Jewish Town Compiled by Leopold Weisel, 1804–1870.” Judaica Bohemiae 12 (1976): 35–50.
  4905.  
  4906. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4907.  
  4908. Leopold Weisel, a country physician, wrote ethnographic descriptions and stories based on folktales and published them in local newspapers in the 1840s. In his student days he recorded stories in the Old Jewish Town in Prague, and some of them, the story of the golem among them, were published in Wolf Pascheles Sippurim: Eine Sammlung Jüdischen Volkssagen (1847).
  4909.  
  4910. Find this resource:
  4911.  
  4912. Goldsmith, Arnold L. The Golem Remembered, 1909–1980: Variations of a Jewish Legend. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1981.
  4913.  
  4914. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4915.  
  4916. The golem that, according to legend was created by Rabbi Judah Bezalel Loew of Prague in 1580, had a literary career in the 20th century, ranging from Rosenberg’s 1909 book to Abraham Rothberg’s 1970 publication, with variations in art, literature, and popular culture that reflected responses to history and the desires and ideas of their tellers.
  4917.  
  4918. Find this resource:
  4919.  
  4920. Idel, Moshe. Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990.
  4921.  
  4922. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4923.  
  4924. Traditions about the creation of the artificial anthropoid (golem) are available in ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, and Roman sources. In Jewish traditions they occur in Sefer Yezirah, the Talmud, and the Midrash as well as, with elaborations and often with precise techniques, in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Early Modern period, and modern times, related to the intellectual history of these respective periods.
  4925.  
  4926. Find this resource:
  4927.  
  4928. Kieval, Hillel J. “Pursuing the Golem of Prague: Jewish Culture and the Invention of a Tradition.” Modern Judaism 17 (1997): 1–23.
  4929.  
  4930. DOI: 10.1093/mj/17.1.1Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4931.  
  4932. The literary-historical approach encounters difficulties in dating the change of heroes of the golem legend from Rabbi Elijah of Chelem (d. 1583) to Maharal of Prague (b. 1525–d. 1609), but, according to the ethnographic-folkloristic approach, this change could be a by-product of an early-18th-century “invented tradition,” first documented in 1841 by the non-Jewish journalist and folklorist Franz Klutschak (b. 1814–d. 1886).
  4933.  
  4934. Find this resource:
  4935.  
  4936. Rosenberg, Y. Y. Ha-golem mi-prag u-maʹasim niflaˋim aḥerim (The Golem of Prague and other tales of wonder). Edited by Eli Yassif. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1991.
  4937.  
  4938. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4939.  
  4940. A selection of sixteen tales from niflaʹot maharal (1909) sefer eliyahu ha-navi (1911), sefer tifʹeret maharal mi-shpoli (1912), and sefer nifla’ot ha- zohar (1927), with a literary-historical introduction about Yehudah Yudil Rosenberg (b. 1859–d. 1935) as an author of folk books.
  4941.  
  4942. Find this resource:
  4943.  
  4944. Rosenberg, Yudl. The Golem and the Wondrous Deeds of the Maharal of Prague. Translated by C. Leviat. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007.
  4945.  
  4946. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4947.  
  4948. Considered the most important contribution of Hebrew literature to world literature in the 20th century, the story of the golem, the defender of the Jews, does not date back to the sixteenth century; rather, it is a brilliant modern literary invention by Yudl Rosenberg that was published in 1909.
  4949.  
  4950. Find this resource:
  4951.  
  4952. Sadek, V. “Stories of the Golem and Their Relation to the Work of Rabbi Löw of Prague.” Judaica Bohemiae 23 (1987): 85–91.
  4953.  
  4954. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4955.  
  4956. Rabbi Löw is not only a religious philosopher of the Renaissance, a forerunner of Hasidism, but also a thinker endeavoring to make Aggada as highly respected as Halakha, and thus he became, not by mere chance, the hero of the most popular Aggada in modern times, the story of the golem.
  4957.  
  4958. Find this resource:
  4959.  
  4960. Thieberger, Friedrich. The Great Rabbi Loew of Prague, His Life and Work and the Legend of the Golem with Extracts from His Writings and a Collection of the Old Legends. London: East and West Library, 1955.
  4961.  
  4962. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4963.  
  4964. The Great Rabbi Loew (b. c. 1512–d. 1609) lived in Prague, a 16th-century intellectual European center, where he served as chief rabbi in his last years. Magic is associated with him in his writing since 1709; however, the golem legend is not in a 1727 family chronicle. It is available in print, for the first time, in 1847 in Pascheles’s Sippurim (tales), attributed to a local narrator.
  4965.  
  4966. Find this resource:
  4967.  
  4968. Winkler, Gershon. The Golem of Prague. New York: Judaica, 1980.
  4969.  
  4970. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4971.  
  4972. The golem creation by Rabbi Yehuda Loevy ben Bezalel (the Maharal of Prague, b. 1513–d. 1609) is a factual rather than fictional event, as attested by the firsthand testimony of Rabbi Yitzhak ben Shimshon Katz, the Maharal’s son-in-law, who was involved in the creation of the golem and whose testimony was published for the first time in 1909 in Rosenberg’s Niflaʹot Maharal.
  4973.  
  4974. Find this resource:
  4975.  
  4976. The Golem in Literature and Popular Culture
  4977. The Golem, a traditional robot, is the subject of modern fiction and film (Baer 2012, Gelbin 2011, Mayer 1975, Rosenfeld 1934, Sherwin 1985), art (Bilski, 1988), and Yiddish literature (Neugroschel 2006).
  4978.  
  4979. Baer, Elizabeth Roberts. The Golem Redux: From Prague to Post-Holocaust Fiction. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2012.
  4980.  
  4981. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4982.  
  4983. The golem legend was retold by authors such as Gustav Meyerink, Der Golem (Leipzig: K. Wolff, 1916); Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Golem (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1982); Elie Wiesel, The Golem (New York: Summit, 1983); Frances Sherwood, The Book of Splendor (New York: W. W. Norton, 2002); Cynthia Ozick, The Puttermesser Papers (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997); Thane Rosenbaum, The Golems of Gotham (New York: HarperCollins, 2002); and others, and in comic books and in films such as Paul Wegener’s Der Golem (1920) and Julien Duvivier’s Le golem (1936).
  4984.  
  4985. Find this resource:
  4986.  
  4987. Bilski, Emily D. Golem! Danger, Deliverance and Art. New York: Jewish Museum, 1988.
  4988.  
  4989. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4990.  
  4991. The legend of the Golem of Prague was represented in an exhibition that included twenty-seven books and manuscripts, twenty-one illustrated books and related drawings, fourteen film-related pictures, twenty-five pictures and drawings related to theatrical production, forty-eight paintings, twenty-one music and dance items, and eight popular culture items. Foreword by I. Bashevis Singer with essays by M. Idel and E. Ledig.
  4992.  
  4993. Find this resource:
  4994.  
  4995. Gelbin, Cathy S. The Golem Returns: From German Romantic Literature to Global Jewish Culture, 1808–2008. Social History, Popular Culture, and Politics in Germany. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2011.
  4996.  
  4997. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  4998.  
  4999. The image of the golem, born in magic and mysticism, and fashioned by folktales, was constructed in the discourse on popular culture in modern literary and scholarly texts as a signifier of the essence of Jewishness in Jewish and non-Jewish worlds. It transformed from a contested signifier of a contested Jewish cultural authenticity to a global symbol of Jewish heterogeneity.
  5000.  
  5001. Find this resource:
  5002.  
  5003. Mayer, Sigrid. Golem: Die literarische Rezeption eines Stoffes. Utah Studies in Literature and Linguistics 2. Frankfurt: Herbert Lang, 1975.
  5004.  
  5005. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  5006.  
  5007. A historical overview of the golem theme and legend is followed by an analysis of its occurrence in literature and drama in the 19th and 20th centuries and concludes with a discussion of its representations in dramatic works,
  5008.  
  5009. Find this resource:
  5010.  
  5011. Neugroschel, Joachim, ed. and trans. The Golem. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.
  5012.  
  5013. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  5014.  
  5015. The literary representation of the golem that was created by Rabbi Judah Leyb ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague (b. 1525–d. 1609), in the works of Yudl Rosenberg (b. 1860–d. 1935), David Frishman (b. 1859–d. 1922), H. Leivick (b. 1888–d. 1962), and in the folktales published by S. Bastomski (b. 1891–d. 1941).
  5016.  
  5017. Find this resource:
  5018.  
  5019. Rosenfeld, Beate. Die Golemsage und ihre Verwertung in der deutschen Literatur. Sprach und Kultur der germanisch-romanischen Volker. Band Germanistische Reihe 5. Breslau, Germany: Dr. Hans Friebatsch, 1934.
  5020.  
  5021. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  5022.  
  5023. The golem legend occurred in the writings of Achim von Arnim, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Otto von Skepsgardh, Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Theodor Storm, Leopold Kompert, Abraham Tendlau, Ludwig Philippson, Berthold Auerbach, Leopold Weisel, Moritz Bermann, Daniel Ufo Horn, Friedrich Hebbel, Ludwig Kalisch, Detlev von Liliencron, Carl Baron von Torresani, Walter Rathenau, Georg Münzer, Johannes Hess, Hugo Salus, Rudolf Lothar, Arthur Holitscher, Paul Wegener, Ferdinand Lion, Auguste Hauschner, Gustav Meyrink, Horst Nottebohm, and Irma Singer.
  5024.  
  5025. Find this resource:
  5026.  
  5027. Sherwin, Byron L. The Golem Legend: Origins and Implications. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1985.
  5028.  
  5029. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  5030.  
  5031. The golem legend that originated in Late Antiquity, and its version about the Maharal of Prague, has become well known since the 19th century and it has influenced authors, painters, musicians, filmmakers, and scientists. It has emerged as a mythic image for modernity, warning against the mechanization and dehumanization of mankind. Bibliography and filmography included.
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