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

A social history of Jewish women in Imperial Germany, this study synthesizes German, women's, and Jewish history. The book explores the private--familial and religious--lives of the German-Jewish bourgeoisie and the public roles of Jewish women in the university, paid employment and social service. It analyzes the changing roles of Jewish women as members of an economically mobile, but socially spurned minority. The author emphasizes the crucial role women played in creating the Jewish middle class, as well as their dual role within the Jewish family and community as powerful agents of class formation and acculturation and determined upholders of tradition.

This Festschrift celebrates the multifaceted career of Raphael Patai, presenting twenty-two articles on Jewish folklore and mythology, Jewish and Middle Eastern ethnology and anthropology, the social psychology of Arabs and Jews, Jewish cultural history, and Zionism. All of these are fields in which Raphael Patai has made major contributions.

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

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Covering customs, rituals, legends, words and images in Jewish traditions as they were kept and transmitted in different historical and cultural setting over centuries, this book presents a window into Jewish civilization as well as an original and important work of folklore scholarship. The 750 alphabetically organized entries cover Jewish folk traditions concerning the Bible, Kabbalah, astrology and mysticism; traditions from China to the Americas; folk appreciation of Jewish history; folk proverbs; folk music; traditions about sanctuary in the Holy land; the great scholars who worked to preserve traditions; folk arts; customs and practices; beliefs about afterlife, the Messiah, angles, ghosts and demons; folk medicine; and much more. Featuring illuminating sidebars and illustrations, this historical and multicultural resource on Jewish folklore should prove valuable to students and researchers, as well as general readers.