On Thursday evening, Howard Schwartz spoke at the Union on “Jewish Tales of the Supernatural”. Howard Schwartz is a writer whose focus is on Jewish folklore. I had never heard of Jewish folklore before and I was interested in what this is like. Because I was raised Jewish, I wanted to see if the morals presented in these Folktales are ones that I would like to identify myself with.
At the presentation, there were many picture books lying out with Jewish folklore stories. I had a couple minutes to look through one of the books, and I also stayed to hear the speaker talk about a couple Jewish folktales.
Like other folktales I have read or heard of, there were underlying themes and personification with animals. The themes, however, were different from other folktales. For example, in the book I read, the theme was to keep the Sabbath.
Some of the main themes in the folklore Howard Schwartz shared were ideas I do not necessarily agree with. This led me to reflect on many things, including folklore itself. What significance does folklore play in religion? What is the difference between biblical stories and religious folklore?
If any of you are interested, he is giving another lecture on Saturday, March 29 at Noon, on the topic “Is There a Jewish Mythology?” You can contact Congregation Shaarey Zedek for more information.
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2 comments:
Do you remember any of the titles or authors he had out? In TE 448 we look at some of Eric Kimmel's work, although we don't tend to spend much time on folklore in the course.
I think all of the children's folklore picture books he had out were ones that were retold by him. The one I looked at was called The Sabbath Lion - A Jewish Folktake From Algeria.
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