A clear and well-illustrated guide to the main characters and legends of Judaism This book captures the richness and vitality of traditional Jewish culture: a web of legend, folklore and superstition that is crucial to understanding Judaism. Topics include Jewish law, literature and poetry; the festivals of the Jewish year; the languages and sub-groups within the Jewish community; and the many countries that Jews have lived in. The book also reveals another side of Judaism, a world populated by angels and demons, sages and Kabbalists, and creatures unknown to zoologists.

A Most Anticipated in 2021 Pick for The Independent | Buzzfeed | The Nerd Daily When we came to America, we brought anger and socialism and hunger. We also brought our demons. In Burning Girls and Other Stories, Veronica Schanoes crosses borders and genres with stories of fierce women at the margins of society burning their way toward the center. This debut collection introduces readers to a fantasist in the vein of Karen Russell and Kelly Link, with a voice all her own. Emma Goldman—yes, that Emma Goldman—takes tea with the Baba Yaga and truths unfold inside of exquisitely crafted lies. In "Among the Thorns," a young woman in seventeenth century Germany is intent on avenging the brutal murder of her peddler father, but discovers that vengeance may consume all that it touches. In the showstopping, awards finalist title story, "Burning Girls," Schanoes invests the immigrant narrative with a fearsome fairytale quality that tells a story about America we may not want—but need—to hear. Dreamy, dangerous, and precise, with the weight of the very oldest tales we tell, Burning Girls and Other Stories introduces a writer pushing the boundaries of both fantasy and contemporary fiction. With a foreword by Jane Yolen At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Drawing from the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud and Midrash, the kabbalistic literature, medieval folklore, Hasidic texts, and oral lore collected in the modern era, Schwartz has gathered together nearly 700 of the key Jewish myths. For each myth, he includes extensive commentary, revealing the source of the myth and explaining how it relates to other Jewish myths as well as to world literature --from publisher description

This multicultural reference work on Jewish folklore, legends, customs, and other elements of folklife is the first of its kind.