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JEWels : teasing out the poetry in Jewish humor and storytelling / edited by Steve Zeitlin ; lead commentary by Peninnah Schram.
Van Pelt Library PN6109.5 .J49 2023
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Jewish poetry.
- Jewish wit and humor.
- Jews--Anecdotes.
- Jews.
- Genre:
- Anecdotes.
- Humor.
- Poetry.
- Physical Description:
- xxiv, 291 pages ; 26 cm
- Other Title:
- Teasing out the poetry in Jewish humor and storytelling
- Place of Publication:
- Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press ; Philadelphia : Jewish Publication Society, [2023]
- Summary:
- "JEWels is the first of its kind: the living tradition of Jewish stories and jokes transformed into poems, recording and reflecting Jewish experience from ancient times through the present day. In this novel hybrid--jokes and stories boiled down to their essence in short poems--Jewish witticism is preserved side by side with evocative storytelling and deepened with running commentary and questions for discussion. Illuminated here are jewels from journeys, from the Old Country, from Torah, shaped by the Holocaust, in glimpses of Jewish American lives, in Jewish foods, in conversations with God, and on the meaning of life. Jewish comedians (Lenny Bruce, Jackie Mason) appear alongside writers and musicians (Elie Wiesel, Sholem Aleichem, Itzhak Perlman) and Hasidic rabbis (the Baal Shem Tov, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov), yet most of the tellers are ordinary Jews. In this cacophony of ongoing dialogue, storytellers, rabbis, poets, and scholars chime in with interpretations, quips, and related stories and life experiences. In JEWels each of us can see our own reflection."-- Provided by publisher.
- Contents:
- Machine generated contents note: 1. Jewels ... in Stories
- Now the Story / Rabbi Nachman
- Stories / Edgar Hilsenrath
- TalesL Lined Out From An Inscription In Elie Wiesel's Souls On Fire
- The Lubavitcher Rebbe on Stories / Esther Cohen
- Burning the Scrolls / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- A Table with People / Marc Kaminsky
- 2. Jewels ... on a Journey
- Paradise / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- The Guru / Steve Zeitlin
- Mameloshen / Steve Zeitlin
- Bubba Truth / Jane Yolen
- Traveler's Prayer / Rabbi Sheila Peltz Weinberg
- 3. Jewels ... from the Old Country
- The Sabbath Fish / Cherie Karo
- The Magic Ship / Howard Schwartz
- Tales of the Razbash / Zev Shanken
- The Rabbis' Convocation / Robert J. Bernstein
- The Sweeper
- The Shammes: A Response / Rabbi Edward
- Once Upon a Time in the Old Country / Rabbi David Holtz
- The Hunchback / Steve Zeitlin
- A Cold Ass / Sylvia Cole
- An Offspring's Answer / Steve Zeitlin
- The Cart / Rabbi David Holtz
- Blessing the New Moon in Wintertime / Rachel Ray Lehrer Faust
- The Rabbi and the Balagola / Steve Zeitlin
- Elijah / Amy Shuman
- Parable of the Horse / Jack Tepper
- Who Said the Jews Killed Jesus? / Baruch Lumet
- The Hasid
- A Nineteenth-Century Hasid Contemplates the Modern World / Martin Buber
- Philosophy with Noodles / Peninnah Schram
- The Rooster Prince / Rabbi Nachman
- Publishing / Elie Wiesel
- The Teller of Tales / Marc Kaminsky
- The Temples Rise / Roslyn Bresnick-Perry
- Conversations over a Glass Tea / Peninnah Schram
- Fresh Rolls and Butter / I. L. Peretz
- How We Lived: A Tribute to Mayer Kirshenblatt / Barbara Kirshen Blatt-Gimblett
- 4. Jewels ... in jokes
- Passementerie / Jack Tepper
- Telling Jokes in the Shtetl
- My Mother Liked Telling Jokes / Esther Cohen
- Taxi
- Einstein's Theory of Relativity
- Schwartz
- Abe and Becky / Herb Shore
- The Theater / Herb Shore
- The Perfect Girl
- Two Old Jews at a Urinal
- Time Stamp
- The Plotkin Diamond
- Rich Man
- Golda / Golda Meir
- The Commandments / Rubin Levine
- Perfect / Peninnah Schram
- Toyota
- Worry
- The Summum Bonum / Abe Lass
- Zoom / Marc Wallace
- Self-Critique / Sparrow
- Jewish Mother Telegram / Zev Shanken
- A Freudian Analysis / Julia Sweeney
- Jewish Mothers
- Twenty Years
- Seven Differences between a Joke and a Poem / Zev Shanken
- Optimism/Pessimism
- 5. Jewels ... from Torah
- The Tsimtsum / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- Rabbi Simon Said / Rabbi Simon Jacobson
- Hillel and Shammai / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- What I Would Tell Adam and Eve / Francine Witte
- The Original Adam and Eve / Steve Zeitlin
- The Birth of Memory / Steve Zeitlin
- Enough! / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- The Razbash Describes God's Test / Zev Shanken
- The Prophet / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- Moses and the Superhero / Jack Santino
- Rabbi Hayim Vital Dreams of Moses / Steve Zeitlin
- Miriam's Wandering Well / Steve Zeitlin
- Lamb's Blood / Steve Zeitlin
- A Rabbinical Love Poem / Zev Shanken
- Twelve Rabbis Went to a Party / Annie Lanzillotto
- The Lamed Vavniks / Arthur Strimlinc
- 6. JEwels ... Shaped, the Holocaust
- Tickling the Corpse / Steve Zeitlin
- Holocaust Jokes / Zev Shanken
- It Is Raining on the House of Anne Frank / Linda Pastan
- Riding with the Moon / Roslyn Bresnick-Perry
- Last Supper in the Krakow Ghetto / Steve Zeitlin
- Hovering above the Pit / Yaffa Eliach
- In the Janowska Street Ghetto / Yaffa Eliach
- The Twig / Steve Zeitlin
- In Memory of Those Who Died in Vain in the Holocaust / Renee Fodor Schwarz
- Forgotten Acts of Courage / Marc Kaminsky
- Rachel / Linda Pastan
- Death Train / Andre Schwartz-Barts
- Kaddish in the Boxcar of Death / Aaron Zeitlin
- Face in the Mirror / Toby Blum-Dobk
- 7. JEwels ... in Glimpses of Jewish American Lives
- Rummage / Marc Kaminsky
- Yiddishe Mama during World War II / Alter Yisrael Shimon Feuerman
- Plucking the Chicken / Abe Lass
- Getting Dressed / Steve Zeitlin
- No More Birthdays / Hal Sirowitz
- A Short History of Judaic Thought in the Twentieth Century / Linda Pastan
- At a Bungalow in the Rockaways
- Tradition!
- Jewish and Goyish / Lenny Bruce
- The Great Trick Is to Know Who You Are / Jackie Masons
- Skin Check / Esther Cohen
- It Reminds Me of Those Old Jokes
- The Rabbi / Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett
- Reflection / Zev Shanken
- True Story / Carol Klenfner
- To Kvell or Not to Kvell / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- The Free-Yarmulke Bin / Steve Zeitlin
- The Kiss / Mark Solomon
- The Driver Said / Robert Hershon
- Clara / Steve Zeitlin
- Alicia / Steve Zeitlin
- Sally / Anita Nacer
- Moishe Said / Jack Kucelmass
- Abraham Joshua Heschel Goes to Selma / Quoting Abraham Joshua Heschel
- 8. JEwels ... in Jewish Foods
- The Bagel / David Ignatow
- The Fish / Lila Zeiger
- Happiness / Moishe Sacks
- A Jewish Blessing Sung When Placing the Bread in the Oven / Anonymous
- The Atheist / Steve Zeitlin
- The Jews and Chinese Food
- The Jewish Waiter
- The Strudel
- Aging Parents / Marc Wallace
- The Schtup / Lisa Lipkin
- Fresh Fish Sold Here / Cherie Karo Schwartz
- How to Make Blintzes / Cherie Karo Schwartz
- 2nd Avenue Kosher / Warren Lehrer
- From "The Whole Soul" / Philip Levine
- 9. JEwels ... in Conversations with God
- The Messiah #1 / Michael Golds Jews
- The Messiah #2
- Closer / Aaron Zeitlin
- Wrestling with God / Bob Mankoff
- Somebody Up There Likes Me / Bob Mankoff
- It's All Relative / Peninnah Schram
- Tevye the Milkman Said / Sholem Aleichem
- My Aunt's Ninetieth Birthday / Ann Katz
- The Tailor's Prayer
- A Pair of Pants
- The Do-Over / Richard Rabinowitz
- The DNA in My Coffee
- -A True Story / Lisa Lipkin
- Deconstructing Heaven / Rabbi Avraham Weiss
- Levi Yitzhak Burns the Evidence
- Six Lines / Aaron Zeitlin
- To the Rescue
- Lifeline
- 10. JEwels ... on the Meaning of Life
- The Meaning of Meaning / Bob Holman
- Who Knows? / Flash Rosenberc
- Hineni / Flash Rosenberg
- The Angel of Death / Steve Zeitlin
- The Land / Steve Zeitlin
- If Not Higher! / I. L. Peretz
- Time All at Once / Caroline Harris
- Soul Sight / Steve Zeitlin
- The Burning Twig / Robert J. Bernstein
- Oy / Eli Levi Ne
- The Philosopher
- Life
- The Razbash on Old Age / Zev Shanken
- Doctor, Doctor / Doris Kirshenblatt
- Yizkor / Zev Shanken
- The Razbash on Forgiveness / Zev Shanken
- The Womb / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- Moishe's Wisdom
- The Angel of Forgetfulness
- The Laughing Man
- Wiesel's Response
- The Fiftieth Gate / Martin Buber
- Whitewater Rapids / Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
- The Ring / Steve Zeitlin
- The Beautiful Question / Steve Zeitlin
- Lost in the Woods / Peninnah Schram
- Shmuel Discovers a Purpose in Life / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- Coda / Rabbi Edward Schecter
- Concerto / Rabbi Eli Rubenstein
- 11. Final Thoughts.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780827615526
- 0827615523
- OCLC:
- 1337154731
- Publisher Number:
- 99992818390
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