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Bergmann, Ha-Folklor ha-Yehudi (“Jewish Folklore,” Jerusalem ,
Reuben Mass, 1956, and later reprints); and K. Ter-Laan, Folk
lore van de Joden (Amsterdam, 1949). Of much interest is also
the late Yehuda Leib Cahan’s Shtudies Vegn Yiddisher Folks-
shafung (“Studies in Yiddish Folklore,” New York, Y ivo Insti
tute for Jewish Research, 1952), containing va luab le material on
Jewish folksongs, folktales, w itty tales, customs and magic cures.
Much material bearing on Jewish folk-beliefs and practices as
well as on other folklore aspects has been collected among East
European Jews by the famous author of the Dybbuk, the late
Sh. Ansky (1863-1920). W ith much energy and earnest devotion
Ansky organized, during the years 1912-1914 , the famous First
Jewish Ethnographic Expedition. The only printed book that
appeared as a result of that expedition was Dos Yiddishe Etno-
grafishe Program: vol. I : Der Mensch, edited by L. Y. Sternberg
(Petersburg, 1915). It contains 2,087 questions bearing on Jewish
folk-beliefs, habits and customs, starting w ith b irth and ending
with death. The questions themselves are illum inating; they
constitute a trustworthy guide, a sort of key or index to the most
important phenomena of Jewish folk-ways and folklore. An
English translation of this rare publication would be of incalcul
able importance to folklore students. Abraham Rechtman in his
comprehensive work, Yiddishe Etnografie un Folk lor (“ Jewish
Ethnography and Folklore”) , surveys and evaluates Ansky’s First
Jewish Ethnographic Expedition (Buenos Aires, Yivo Institute,
1958).
Theodor H. Gaster has given a general picture of the evolution
of Jewish folkways beginning w ith birth and ending w ith death
practices in his admirable work, The Holy and the P rofane
(New York, Sloane Associates, 1955). The same has been done
by Haim Schauss in his The Lifetime of a Jew Throughout the
Ages of Jewish History (Cincinnati, Union of American Hebrew
Congregations, 1950). The traditiona l viewpoint is presented by
S. M. Lehrman in his Jewish Customs and Folklore (London,
Shapiro, Valentine, 1949).
A systematic picture of the whole folk-culture and folkways
of the East European Jewish little town or shtetel is be found in
Mark Zborowski and Elizabeth Herzog’s fascinating work L ife is
W ith People (New York, International Universities Press, 1952).
This study is based on intensive interviews w ith 128 informants
and on about 50 extensive life histories. The methods employed
are those devised by such eminent anthropologists as Ru th Bene
dict and Margaret Mead. Another most useful and compre
hensive book on the folk-beliefs and practices of a Jewish com
munity, that of Salonika, is Michael Molho’s Usos y Costumbres
de los Sefardies de Salonica (Madrid, Consejo Superior de Inves-
tigaciones Cientificas, Instituto Arias Montano, 1950). The last
mentioned two works give a rather complete picture of the folk-