Category: Yizkor
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Incantations must not be taught to anyone
Translation of an excerpt from Abraham Rechtman, Yidishe Etnografye un Folklor, p. 289-298. Rav Yokhanan had the habit of coming to sit by the gates of the mikve, and used to say that ‘if Jewish daughters as they come out from immersing themselves look at me, they will have children as beautiful as I am.’…
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‘The entire shtetl accompanied her to her eternal rest’ – reverence for the midwife
Quoted on the introduction page to midwives in Eastern Europe is the following question from the Jewish Ethnographic Program – a vast questionnaire created by S. Ans-ki’s ethnographic team in 1913, and a hugely important source on midwives. “Is there a custom that when the midwife dies, all of the children whom she brought…
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Cemetery and grave measuring
This is a translation of a 1906 German study of Feld (cemetery) and Keywer (grave – from the Hebrew and Yiddish קבֿר) measuring by Russian Jewish anthropologist S. Weissenberg. The original German article can be found here. It actually consists of two articles – the second half, in which the font changes, is an extract…
Pulling at Threads 