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Contributors, Jewish Folkore & Ethnology Editors

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Contributors to Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Volume 2

In Memoriam: Tamar Alexander-Frizer (1945–2023), Eli Yassif

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Memorial Essay for Professor Tamar Alexander (1945-2023)

(Candle)Sticks On Stone: The Representation Of Women In Jewish Tombstone Art, Ruth Ellen Gruber

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Candles and candlesticks are a common and potent symbol on the gravestones of Jewish women because lighting the Sabbath candles is one of the three so-called “women’s commandments” carried out by female Jews; it is the only one easily represented in visual terms. This essay describes the author’s field research, photographic, and writing project, “(Candlesticks) on Stone,” carried out mainly in 2009–2011, to explore the variety of ways candles and candlesticks are depicted on women’s gravestones in Eastern Europe. It also questions the transmission of the candle-lighting tradition from her East European ancestors to later generations.

“In Proverbiis Non Semper Veritas”: Reflections On The Reprint Of An Antisemitic Proverb Collection, Wolfgang Mieder

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

This article concerns the highly questionable 2016 reprint of Ernst Hiemer’s antisemitic proverb collection Der Jude im Sprichwort der Völker (1942, The Jew in the Proverbs of the People). It begins with a glance at earlier antisemitic proverb collections while also reviewing some of the superb Yiddish and Jewish/Hebrew proverb collections and serious studies on this rich repertoire of proverbs. This is followed by a discussion of the misguided antisemitic publications of the nineteenth century that were precursors of even more slanderous and prejudiced collections that appeared during the time of National Socialism. It is shown that both traditional …

Why Were There No Jokes After The 2021 Meron Crowd Crush? On Israeli “Joking Relationships”, Tsafi Sebba-Elran

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

The vast research literature on disaster jokes demonstrates that no calamity is too horrific to be followed by jokes that typically recontextualize traumatic events and channel the threatening voices that these events provoke. Why, then, did no jokes circulate after the deadliest civil disaster in Israel’s history, which occurred on Mount Meron during the Lag Ba’Omer celebrations in April 2021? Drawing upon the ethnographic concept of “joking relationships,” this essay documents representations of ultra-Orthodox Jews (Haredim) in contemporary Israeli memes and explains the restraint that Israeli society shows toward this group with whom the Meron disaster is associated. …

The Besht As Ba’Al Shem: Magic In The Life And Legacy Of Israel Ba’Al Shem Tov, Elly Moseson

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Israel Ba’al Shem Tov (the Besht), the purported founder of the Hasidic movement, achieved renown during his lifetime as a holy man and a ba’al shem—a magician and folk healer. This paper surveys the sources containing evidence pertaining to the Besht’s medico-magical activities, presents the variety of recipes and rituals that have been preserved in his name, and explores the implications these hold for understanding his life and legacy. It further argues that the centrality of magic we find in the life of the Besht did not disappear with his death but was maintained within the Hasidic movement that …

“Let Me Tell You Some Stories, And You Will Record Them”: Dan Ben-Amos And The Study Of Jewish Folklore And Ethnology, Simon J. Bronner

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

Dan Ben-Amos (1934–2023) was associated with groundbreaking work beginning during the 1960s on concepts of context and performance and the paradigm shift in folkloristics with his groundbreaking essay “Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context.” His odyssey from Israel to the United States, including formative experiences as a youth absorbing ideas about social reality and Jewish folklore as counterculture, has a profound influence on an equally profound shift in the understanding of Jewish experience as well as on the globalization of folkloristics as a discipline. In addition to interpreting his culminating work of the Folktales of the Jews series of …

Note On Transliteration

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

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Ritual Bela Diri Kutau Dalam Masyarakat Desa Suro, Kabupaten Musi Rawas, Aulini Lidiantari, Roza Muliati, Nursyirwan Nursyirwan, Rosta Minawati

Paradigma: Jurnal Kajian Budaya

This paper discusses the Kutau martial arts ritual practiced by the people of Suro Village, Muara Beliti District, Musi Rawas Regency, South Sumatra Province. Kutau is one of the ancestral heritages consisting of a set of rituals. Kutau takes the form of traditional martial arts that has been developed by the Suro Village community. Applying the qualitative approach, this study aimed to systematically document all forms of rituals in Kutau and its functions within the Suro community. Data were collected through observation, interviews, and documentation, which were then analyzed using Victor Turner’s ritual approach and Talcot Parsons’ function approach. Results …

Everyday Heroism And The Journey Of The Community In The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet By Becky Chambers, Jari Käkelä

Heroism Science

This article examines the impact of everyday heroism on community in the science fiction novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2014) by Becky Chambers. While science fiction often features superhuman action or scientist heroes and technocratic dystopian futures, Chambers’s novel represents the recent trend of hopepunk, which sets stories within mundane social interactions to imagine gradual positive change. Instead of its action-adventure potential, the narrative in Chambers’s novel focuses on the relationships between a multi-species crew of a spaceship, creating a heightened sense of the crew as a found family where individuals come to accept and support …

Defending Against Extermination: A Comparative Approach To Self-Defense In The Case Of Mass Atrocity, Christopher Davey

The Microdynamics of Mass Atrocity Working Paper Series

This paper is a comparative study of three contemporary cases of self-defense in the context of mass atrocity. I define self-defense as violence deployed by armed groups as non-state or quasi-state actors to preserve life and social group integrity. This definition acknowledges power relations as complex and violence as multidirectional. Actors include informal defenders, civilians, military actors each overlapping with varying interests. I pose the research question: what is legitimate self-defense in the context of mass atrocity, and how is it presented in the public sphere, regionally and internationally for the purpose of political support or sympathy? In doing so …

Welcome Back Picnic, University Of Maine Provost's Office

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

On Thursday Sept 12th [2024] starting at 5:30pm, the UMaine 2SLGBTQ+ Faculty & Staff Affinity Group is hosting its first Welcome Back Pizza Party.

Review Of Chadian Sister Engages Kansas City Youth About Peace And Justice/ Citoyenne Du Monde En Construction A Kansas City, Tiffany Hunsinger

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Our Trespasses: White Churches And The Taking Of American Neighborhoods, Peter R. Gathje

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Thoman Merton’S Tree Of Life: The Growth Of A Radical Ecologist, Paul Pynkoski

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Merton And Hinduism: The Yoga Of The Heart, Dhinakaran Savariyar

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (And Do) About Anti-Muslim Discrimination, Carl Chudy

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Call: The Spiritual Realism Of Sargent Shriver Review Of Spiritualizing Politics Without Politicizing Religion: The Example Of Sargent Shriver, William Droel

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of No Edges: Swahili Stories, Joseph L. Mbele

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Born In Blackness: Africa, Africans, And The Making Of The Modern World, 1471 To The Second World War, Brittany Merritt Nash

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Radical Utu: Critical Ideas And Ideals Of Wangari Muta Maathai, Wanjiru G. Mbure

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Building Peace In A State Of War: South Sudan's Fateful Struggle, Hogr Tarkhani

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Emmanuel Mounier’S Four Books On Communitarian Personalism: Engaging With Existentialism, Marxism, And & Teilhard De Chardin, Joe Holland

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Conscientious Objector To The Apartheid Army And Whites And Democracy In South Africa, Gary Prevost

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Sermons On The Parables, Wendy L. Pohlhaus

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Monastic Ecological Wisdom: A Living Tradition, Katherine Howard

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Dialogue & Dissent: A Constitution In Search Of A Country Kenya, Robert M. Press

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Spiritual Audacity: The Abraham Joshua Heschel Story, John C. Merkle

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Kingdom, The Power, And The Glory: American Evangelicals In An Age Of Extremism, Jeff Vanderwerff,

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Selected Open Access Studies On Nonviolent Collective Action: Preventing Mass Atrocities, Transforming Civil Wars, Democratizing Regimes, Ronald Pagnucco

The Journal of Social Encounters

These summaries are researched and presented to:

1. provide free access to information about hundreds of cases of nonviolent action for learning and for citizen action. We research campaigns that have reached a point of completion. The cases are drawn from all continents and most countries. People are shown struggling for human rights, economic justice, democracy, national and ethnic identity, environmental sustainability, and peace.

2. make available comparative information that will support researchers and writers to develop strategic knowledge and theory.