On Jewish Folklore

On Jewish Folklore spans a half-century of scholarly inquiry by the noted anthropologist and biblical scholar Raphael Patai. He essays collected in this volume, some of which are presented for the first time in English translation, provide a rich harvest of Jewish customs and traditional beliefs, gathered from all over the world and from ancient to modern times. Among the subjects Dr. Patai investigated and recorded are the history and oral traditions of the now-vanished Marrano community of Meshhed, Iran; cultural change among the so-called Jewish Indians of Mexico; beliefs and customs in connection with birth, the rainbow, and the color blue; Jewish variants of the widespread custom of earth-eating; and the remarkable parallels between the rituals connected with enthroning a new king as described in the Bible and as practiced among certain African tribes.

This multicultural reference work on Jewish folklore, legends, customs, and other elements of folklife is the first of its kind.

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Full of Jewish folktales like "The Lazy Artist," and "Cheating the Inquisitor," this collection offers young readers 16 different riddles and stories that will challenge and entertain.

A Most Anticipated in 2021 Pick for The Independent | Buzzfeed | The Nerd Daily When we came to America, we brought anger and socialism and hunger. We also brought our demons. In Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes crosses borders and genres with stories of fierce women at the margins of society burning their way toward the center. This debut collection introduces readers to a fantasist in the vein of Karen Russell and Kelly Link, with a voice all her own. Emma Goldman—yes, that Emma Goldman—takes tea with the Baba Yaga and truths unfold inside of exquisitely crafted lies. In "Among the Thorns," a young woman in seventeenth century Germany is intent on avenging the brutal murder of her peddler father, but discovers that vengeance may consume all that it touches. In the showstopping, awards finalist title story, "Burning Girls," Schanoes invests the immigrant narrative with a fearsome fairytale quality that tells a story about America we may not want—but need—to hear. Dreamy, dangerous, and precise, with the weight of the very oldest tales we tell, Burning Girls and Other Stories introduces a writer pushing the boundaries of both fantasy and contemporary fiction. With a foreword by Jane Yolen At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Shiloah (musicology, Hebrew U. of Jerusalem ) discusses the manner in which the 2,000-year-old Jewish musical heritage meshes with the complex web of Jewish history by way of central themes such as the relation of music to religion, music and the world of the Kabbalah, and music in communal life. He considers technical and theoretical approaches, as well as art music, folk music, and performance practices of poets, vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

From tales of Adam, Moses, and other biblical figures, to the fall of Lucifer and the quarrel of the sun and moon, an anthology of Jewish myth presents seven hundred key stories and through extensive commentary places them in context with the literature of the world.