This is a collection of 50 tales drawn from nearly every age and every part of the world, reflecting the length of Jewish history and the diversity of the Judaic culture. Some of the characters and plots will be familiar from other folk-tales but these stories also include Jewish figures and themes such as Elijah the Prophet, Golem, rabbis, the mysteries of the cabbala, pogroms, the longed-for arrival of the Messiah and the return to Israel. The tales come from Palestine, Babylon, Persia, Eygpt, Morocco, Holland, Germany, Eastern Europe, Italy, France, Spain, India, Afghanistan and many other lands. In addition, there is a section of annotation giving a brief history and analysis of each story, providing cultural background and an interpretation of biblical and mystical symbolism, a glossary of Jewish terms and a bibliography.

 

This book is part of a book series called Oxford .

There are 432 pages in this book. It is an anthology. This book was published 1988 by Oxford University Press .

Howard Schwartz is a Jewish folklorist and anthologist. He is author of Elijah's Violin and Other Jewish Fairytales and The Captive Soul of the Messiah: New Tales of Rabbi Nachman and editor of several celebrated anthologies of Jewish poetry and literature.

This book has the following chapters: Foreword. Introduction - the world of the Jewish folktale. The stories. Sources and commentary. Glossary.