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The Lost World of Russia's Jews
Ethnography and Folklore in the Pale of Settlement
Abraham Rechtman (Author), Nathaniel Deutsch (Translated by), Noah Barrera (Translated by)
9780253056931
Paperback / softback, published 1 June 2021
330 pages, 54 b&w illus. - 54 Illustrations, black and white
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.485 kg
The very existence of this new volume will push forward the project of broadening a base of knowledge that will allow future projects to go deeper in achieving a fluid and fine-grained representation of Yiddish language and culture in translation.
In 1913, Abraham Rechtman journeyed through the Russian Pale of Settlement on a mission to record its Jewish folk traditions before they disappeared forever. The Lost World of Russia's Jews is the first English translation of his extraordinary experiences, originally published in Yiddish, documenting a culture best known until now through romanticized works like Life Is with People and Fiddler on the Roof. In the last years of the Russian Empire, Abraham Rechtman joined S. An-sky's Jewish Ethnographic Expedition to explore and document daily life in the centuries old Jewish communities of the Pale of Settlement. Rechtman described the key places where Jewish life and death were experienced and connected these sites to local folklore and customary practices. Among the many unique contributions of his memoir are riveting descriptions of traditional Jewish healers and exorcists—many of them women—and their methods and incantations. Rather than a nostalgic portrait of an imagined shtetl, Rechtman succeeded in producing an intimate account of Jewish life and death that is highly nuanced and richly detailed. The Lost World of Russia's Jews powerfully illuminates traditional Jewish life in Eastern Europe on the eve of its transformation and, ultimately, destruction.
Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration
Introduction
1. Sh. An-sky and the Jewish Ethnographic Expedition: The Participants in the Expedition
2. Synagogues and Prayerhouses
3. Headstones, Graves, and Tombs
4. Communal Pinkesim
5. Tales About Nigunim [Melodies] and Prayers
6. Exorcisms, Charms, and Remedies
7. Scribes and Scribal Writing
Bibliography
Index