Books in the Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology series

A comprehensive study of Jewish magic in late antiquity and the early Islamic period-the phenomenon, the sources, and method for its research, and the history of scholarly investigation into its nature and origin.

Explores how American Jewish post-Holocaust writers adapted pre-Holocaust works, such as Yiddish fiction and documentary photography, for popular consumption by American Jews in the post-Holocaust decades. The book argues these texts helped clarify the role of East European Jewish identity in the construction of a post-Holocaust American one.

Examines a pan-ethnic style of music created by North African and Middle Eastern Israeli musicians in the late 20th century. This title focuses on the work of three artists - Avihu Medina, Zohar Argov, and Zehava Ben - who pioneered a recognizable Mizrahi style and moved this musical formation from the Mizrahi neighborhoods to the national arena.

In 1839, Muslims attacked the Jews of Meshhed, murdering 36 of them, and forcing the conversion of the rest. While some managed to escape across the Afghan border, and some turned into true believing Muslims, the majority adopted Islam only outwardly, while secretly adhering to their Jewish faith. Jadid al-Islam is the fascinating story of how this community managed to survive, at the risk of their lives, as crypto-Jews in an inimical Shi'i Muslim environment. Based on unpublished original Persian sources and interviews with members of the existing Meshhed community in Jerusalem and New York, this study documents the history, traditions, tales, customs, and institutions of the Jadid al-Islam-"e;New Muslims."e;

Focuses on two central elements: textual research to examine the aesthetic qualities of the narrative, their division into genres, the various versions and their parallels, and acculturation in Israel, as well as contextual research to examine the performance art of the narrator and the role of the narrative as a communicative process in the narrating society.

Between 1977 and 1992, practically all Ethiopian Jews migrated to Israel. As the sole Jewish community from sub-Sahara Africa in Israel, the Ethiopian Jews have met with unique difficulties. Based on fieldwork conducted over several years, For Our Soul describes the ongoing process of adjustment and absorption that the Ethiopian Jewish immigrants experienced in Israel.

Within two years of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, an astounding 45,000 of Bulgaria's 50,000 Jews left voluntarily for Israel. From Sofia to Jaffa chronicles the fascinating saga of a population relocated, a story that has not been told until now.

In the thirteenth century, an anonymous scribe compiled sixty-nine tales that became Sefer ha-ma'asim, the earliest compilation of Hebrew tales known to us in Western Europe. The author writes that the stories encompass "e;descriptions of herbs that cure leprosy, a fairy princess with golden tresses using magic charms to heal her lover's wounds and restore him to life; a fire-breathing dragon . . . a two-headed creature and a giant's daughter for whom the rind of a watermelon containing twelve spies is no more than a speck of dust."e; In Tales in Context: Sefer ha-ma'asim in Medieval Northern France, Rella Kushelevsky enlightens the stories' meanings and reflects the circumstances and environment for Jewish lives in medieval France. Although a selection of tales was previously published, this is the first publication of a Hebrew-English annotated edition in its entirety, revealing fresh insight. The first part of Kushelevsky's work, "e;Cultural, Literary and Comparative Perspectives,"e; presents the thesis that Sefer ha-ma'asim is a product of its time and place, and should therefore be studied within its literary and cultural surroundings, Jewish and vernacular, in northern France. An investigation of the scribe's techniques in reworking his Jewish and non-Jewish sources into a medieval discourse supports this claim. The second part of the manuscript consists of the tales themselves, in Hebrew and English translation, including brief comparative comments or citations. The third part, "e;An Analytical and Comparative Overview,"e; offers an analysis of each tale as an individual unit, contextualized within its medieval framework and against the background of its parallels. Elisheva Baumgarten's epilogue adds social and historical background to Sefer ha-ma'asim and discusses new ways in which it and other story compilations may be used by historians for an inquiry into the everyday life of medieval Jews. The tales in Sefer ha-ma'asim will be of special value to scholars of folklore and medieval European history and literature, as well as those looking to enrich their studies and shelves.

Brings together a collection of fifty-three folktales celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA) at the University of Haifa. For this jubilee volume, contributors each selected stories from the more than 24,000 preserved in the archives and wrote an accompanying analytic essay. Stories selected represent 26 different ethnic groups in Israel, 22 of them Jewish.

Continues the dialogue surrounding the social history of Jerusalem. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, the book juxtaposes Israeli and Palestinian personal narratives about the past with contemporary museum exhibits, street plaques, tourism, and real estate projects that are reshaping the city since the decline of the peace process and the second intifada.

The life story of a Jewish healer who worked in the Western High Atlas Mountain region of Morocco. Based on interviews with Moroccan Jews, this biography recreates the important moments in Wazana's life and evaluates his character from psychological and anthropological perspectives.

While Israel is a small country, it has a diverse and continually changing society. As a result, since the 1960s Israeli anthropology has been a fertile ground for researchers. This collection introduces readers to the diverse field of social anthropology in Israel, pointing to both its rich history and promising future.

Explores the cultural connection between Syrian Jewish life and Arab culture in Brooklyn, New York, through liturgical music. This book investigates the multidimensional interaction of music and text in Sabbath prayers of the Syrian Jews to trace how Arab and Jewish traditions have merged in this particular culture.

In 1908, Solomon Schechter published his groundbreaking essay on the city of Safed (Tzfat) during the sixteenth century. In The Legend of Safed, Eli Yassif utilizes "new historicism" methodology in order to use the non-canonical materials to better understand the culture of Safed.

Examination the legends of origin of the Jews of Poland and discloses how the community is created.

Offers a rich depiction of contemporary life in one marginalized development town in the Israeli Negev. Placing the stories of five women at the centre, author Pnina Motzafi-Haller depicts a range of creative strategies used by each woman to make a meaningful life within a reality of multiple exclusions.

This fascinating case study describes the work of the people responsible for creating festive lore and its system of ceremonies and festivities-an inseparable part of every culture. In the case of the new modern Hebrew culture of Eretz Israel (modern Jewish Palestine)-a society of immigrants that left behind most of their traditional folkways-the creation of festival lore was a conscious and organized process guided by a national ideology and aesthetic values. This creative effort in a secular national society served as an alternative to the traditional religious system, adapted the ceremonies and festivals to a new historical reality, and created a new festival cycle that would give expression and joy to the values and symbols of the new Jewish society.Staging and Stagers in Modern Jewish Palestine claims that the system of ceremonies and festivals, in general, and each separate ceremony and festival were staged according to the staging instructions written by a defined group of cultural activists. The book examines three main stages-the educational network, rural society (particularly the cooperative sector), and urban society (most notably Tel Aviv)-and looks at the stagers themselves, who were schoolteachers, writers, artists, and cultural activists. Though cultural systems of festivals and ceremonies are often researched and described, scholarly literature rarely identifies their creators or studies in detail the manner in which these systems are created. Staging and Stagers in Modern Jewish Palestine sheds important light on the stagers of modern Jewish Palestine and also on the processes and mechanisms that created the performative lore in other cultures, in ancient as well as modern times.

Traces the ways utopian visions of communication have played themselves out in particular contexts of Israeli society through the twentieth century, encapsulating central trends in the evolving Israeli cultural conversation over the years.

Orality has been central to the transmission of Sephardic customs, wisdom, and values for centuries. This is a selection of 54 folktales from Matilda Koen-Sarano's collection of stories recorded in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) and translated by Reginetta Haboucha into fluent and idiomatic English that preserves the flavour and oral nuances of each text.