Legends of the Hasidim: An Introduction to Hasidic Culture and Oral Tradition in the New World

By Jerome R. Mintz

Book Overview

This study of the New York Hasidim was originally published in 1968 by the University of Chicago. The author, a professor of anthropology and Jewish Studies, explores the relaitonship of the community... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226531031
• ISBN13: 9780226531038
• Release Date: June 1968
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 472 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Another great classic back in print!

This book was first published back in 1968, and I have referred to my old, worn, second-hand copy again and again in my own writing about Hasidic stories. One of the earliest studies of Hasidism in America, it includes material collected right after WWII, from the last generation of Jews to actually experience the pre-Holocaust Hasidic culture in Eastern Europe. There are Hasidic stories in this book that appear nowhere else, including some about the Holocaust that would be considered "politically incorrect" today -- which is one of the things that makes the book so valuable. Mintz did not attempt to censor his subjects, nor did he try to polish up their storytelling styles. These are field-collected stories in all their original candor. The result is a book that speaks to us across the decades.