In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

xv Acknowledgments As a folktale anthology, this book presents not just the “voice of the people ,” but also the voices of many people—the narrators who tell the tales and thereby preserve, transmit and re-create the narratives that make up the Jewish folk tradition. Without them this book would not have come into being, and I would like to express to them my deepest gratitude and appreciation. The transition from oral to written texts could be accomplished only through a labor of love. In transcribing these stories, the collectors have extended the narrators’ audience beyond immediate family and community to readers worldwide. I am indebted to them for making these tales available, and I thank them for their conscientious effort to render the oral tales accurately. And my gratitude goes as well to Lenn Schramm, who translated them from the Hebrew. All these tales are now on deposit at the Israel Folktale Archives Named in Honor of Dov Noy (IFA) at the University of Haifa. The archives’ academic head, Haya Bar-Itzhak, and the archivists Edna Heichal and Idit Pintel-Ginsberg extended invaluable assistance to me throughout the preparation of these volumes. No question was too trivial or too complex for them, and they responded to my seemingly endless queries with patience and expediency. The primary research required for this anthology could not have been carried out without excellent libraries and the assistance of their librarians . I was fortunate to have access to the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library and to the library of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, both at the University of Pennsylvania. Their extensive holdings in folklore and Jewish studies facilitated the search for books and articles, old and new alike. I would like to thank the librarians who helped me, day in and day out, in my research: Aviva Astrinsky and Arthur Kiron, the former and the current directors, respectively, of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies’ library, and the librarians Josef Gulka, Seth Jerchower, and Judith Leifer. In the Van Pelt-Dietrich library, the folklorist-librarian David Azzolina and John Pollack of the Rare Books and Manuscript Library were most helpful, and Lee Pugh, the head of the Interlibrary Loan Services, and Ruth Rin, the cataloguer of Hebrew books, were very resourceful. I thank them all. During the academic year 2003–2004, I was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. During this period I was able to make significant progress in my research on these tales, and I would like to thank David Ruderman, the center’s director, for this fellowship year. The Folktales of the Jews series was conceived and initiated by Ellen Frankel, the director and editor-in-chief of The Jewish Publication Society (JPS). She accompanied this project from its inception and guided it through the obstacle course that inevitably awaits any multivolume set. I thank her for her confidence in entrusting this project to me and for her unrelenting support and counsel during the many years required to accomplish it. I also thank the JPS staff, who, each according to her area of expertise, has contributed toward the successful completion of these volumes . In particular, I would like to thank Carol Hupping, the publishing director; production manager Robin Norman; and managing editor Janet Liss. Thanks as well go to Candace B. Levy for her superb copyediting, Emily Law for her edits, Christine Sweeney for her proofreading, Gilad J. Gevaryahu for his expert fact-checking. I also thank my student Linda Lee, who assisted and facilitated the editorial process. Over many years and many tales I have incurred debts of gratitude to numerous friends who offered counsel and advice drawn from their extensive expertise. I would like thank Roger D. Abrahams, Tamar Alexander, Roger Allen, Samuel Armistead, David Assaf, Israel Bartal, Alexander Botwinik, Patricia Fann Bouteneff, Olesja Britsyna, Samuel Chalfen, Naomi Cohen, Sol Cohen, Linda Dégh, Hasan El-Shamy, Joseph Farrell, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Bill Hickman, Victoria Kirkham, Ronnie Kokhavi, Robert Kraft, Anna Kryvenko, Shuli Levinboim, Julie Lieber, Ora Limor, Victor Mair, Ulrich Marzolph, Philip Miraglia, Adrienn Mizsei, Benjamin Nathans, Arzu Ozturkmen, Gyula Paczolay, Elchanan Reiner, Uri Rubin, Shalom Sabar, Elizabeth Sachs, Ziva Shamir, Avigdor Shinan, Marcos Silber, Jonathan Steinberg, Michael Swartz, Jeffrey Tigay, Chava Turniansky, Kelly Tuttle, Michal Unger, Julia Verkholantsev , Vilmos Voigt, and Chava Weissler. Finally, last but not least, I thank my wife, Batsheva, for her constant encouragement and support. Dan Ben-Amos  xvi  Acknowledgments ...

Share