Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Bar-Yitsḥaḳ, Ḥayah, author.

Title Jewish Poland : legends of origin : ethnopoetics and legendary chronicles / Haya Bar-Itzhak
Published Detroit : Wayne State University Press, 2018

Copies

Description 1 online resource (195 pages) : illustrations
Series Raphael Patai Series in Jewish Folklore and Anthropology
Raphael Patai series in Jewish folklore and anthropology.
Contents Cover; Title Page; Copyright; Contents; List of Illustration; Preface; 1. The Geography of the Jewish Imagination: Po-Lin among Trees with Leaves from the Gemara; 2. Legends of Acceptance: Segregation versus Involvement; 3. The Legend of Abraham the Jew, King of Poland; 4. The Legend of Esther the Jewess and King Casimir the Great of Poland; 5. ""My Eyes Shed Tears, Because the Enemy Has Overcome"": The Transformation of Legends of Origin into Legends of Destruction; Afterword; Notes; Bibliography; Index of Names; Index of Places
Summary The first appearance of Jews in Poland and their adventures during their early years of settlement in the country are concealed in undocumented shadows of history. What survived are legends of origin that early chroniclers, historians, writers, and folklore scholars transcribed, thus contributing to their preservation. According to the legendary chronicles Jews resided in Poland for a millennium and developed a vibrant community. Haya Bar-Itzhak examines the legends of origin of the Jews of Poland and discloses how the community creates its own chronicle, how it structures and consolidates its identity through stories about its founding, and how this identity varies from age to age. Bar-Itzhak also examines what happened to these legends after the extermination of Polish Jewry during the Holocaust, when the human space they describe no longer exists except in memory. For the Polish Jews after the Holocaust, the legends of origin undergo a fascinating transformation into legends of destruction. Jewish Poland⁰́₄Legends of Origin brings to light the more obscure legends of origin as well as those already well known. This book will be of interest to scholars in folklore studies as well as to scholars of Judaic history and culture
Notes The publication of this volume in a freely accessible digital format has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation through their Humanities Open Book Program
26 black-and-white images
Haya Bar-Itzhak is head of folklore studies and chair of the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa, Israel. She is the author of numerous essays and books and is co-author of Jewish Moroccan Folk Narratives from Israel, which was selected as an honor book of the 1994 National Jewish book Award in Folklore/Anthropology by the Jewish Book Council
Subject Jewish legends -- Poland -- History and criticism
Jews -- Poland -- Folklore
Jewish legends -- Poland
Jews -- Poland -- Origin -- Folklore
SOC049000.
HISTORY -- Jewish.
LITERARY CRITICISM -- Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology.
Jewish legends
Jews
Jews -- Origin
Poland
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Folklore
Form Electronic book
ISBN 0814343929
9780814343920
Other Titles Wayne State University Libraries Digital Collections
Wayne State University Libraries Digital Collections