Description
Book SynopsisFocusing on interviews with elders of the Sephardic communities of the former Ottoman Empire, this title illuminates a complex of preventive and curative rituals conducted by women at home - rituals that ensured the well-being of the community and functioned as a counterpart to the public rites conducted by men in the synagogues.
Trade Review"[Lévy and Zumwalt] bring a wide perspective to their study." --
Choice"This is an important study on the role of women in the life of the community, the family, and individuals, and on their involvement in ensuring the physical and spiritual health of their acquaintances. ... This is an important contribution to the study of Jewish women, the role of women in the well-being of the community, folk medicine, and folklore." -- Rachel Simon,
Religious Studies Review"This well-written book makes a significant contribution to the study of the folklore of the Levantine Sephardim. The authors have a unique vantage point on a Sephardic world that is fast vanishing, if not vanished. They will be among the last scholars to do significant fieldwork in this area, and their testimony will be a useful mine for scholars for many years to come."--David Martin Gitlitz, author of
Secrecy and Deceit: The Religion of Crypto-Jew
