Jewish Tales from Eastern Europe - Hardcover

Nadia Grosser Nagarajan's selection of some fifty-six legends and three folktales from Eastern European Jewish tradition will delight readers interested in nostalgic Judaica. These twenty-eight Czech, sixteen Polish, thirteen Hungarian, and two Slovak, Jewish narratives so skillfully translated and artfully retold by the author provide a poignant portrait of the plight of Jews whose oppression by despotic rulers was only occasionally relieved by the miracles wrought by famous wise rabbis. From the difficulties of finding a suitable mate to the unwelcome visitations of the Angel of Death, the engaging vignettes of individuals from centuries past show the remarkable consistency of Jewish life. A substantial final annotations section provides helpful information concerning the sources of each narrative, sources which range from Nagarajan's own grandmother, to whose memory the book is dedicated, to earlier major literary collections. More than one third of the narratives were adapted from texts contained in the Israel Folktale Archives located at the University of Haifa. -- Alan Dundes, University of California, Berkeley

Many of the stories included in this book may be considered treasures that have yet to be presented to the Jewish and general public. Some versions of these tales have been published in different anthologies and languages over the years, but most are basically unknown. The author includes stories from varied oral and written sources, mainly Czech, Slovak, German, some Yiddish, as well as Polish and Hungarian. 'Storytelling,' says Nagarajan, 'is perhaps the only tool that creates a path leading through the many layers of the past, shedding light on it without destroying the mystery and magic.'