Jewish Studies

Folklore and Anthropology

Narrative Community: Voices of Israeli Backpackers

Chaim Noy

An intertextual examination of the storytelling of Israeli backpackers that analyzes their unique patterns of communication to create a thorough picture of this “narrative community.”

The Stains of Culture: An Ethno-Reading of Karaite Jewish Women

Ruth Tsoffar

Portrays the experiences of Egyptian Karaites in the San Francisco Bay Area as it explores the relationship between text and everyday life, between literal reading and its translation into bodily practices—especially as related to the female body.

Israeli Folk Narratives: Settlement, Immigration, Ethnicity

Haya Bar-Itzhak

Provides a broad, engaging view of Israeli society through folk stories that have circulated among settlers in the kibbutz, immigrants, and ethnic groups.

Mystical Bodies, Mystical Meals: Eating and Embodiment in Medieval Kabbalah

Joel Hecker

Examining the mystical practices associated with food in zoharic kabbalah and the ways they inform us about the kabbalistic experience of embodiment.

Dialogic Moments: From Soul Talks to Talk Radio in Israeli Culture

Tamar Katriel

An original ethnographic study about communication and culture in Palestine and Israel during the Twentieth Century, examining three modes of communication—soul talks, straight talk, and talk radio.

King Solomon and the Golden Fish: Tales from the Sephardic Tradition

Texts Collected and Edited by Matilda Koén-Sarano  •  Translated and Annotated by Reginetta Haboucha

A collection of fifty-four Judeo-Spanish folktales taken from the rich heritage of Sephardic oral storytelling and translated into English for the first time.