Galit Hasan Rokem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem; The Bildner Visiting Scholar, Rutgers
Folkore scholar, poet, and translator
Thursday, February 20, 2014 at 4:00 p.m.
Douglass Student Center, 100 George Street, New Brunswick

sarah-ethnic-traditions-200pxIsraeli culture has incorporated a large variety of folk cultures, local and incoming, in a relatively short time. This lecture will explore the rich variation of communal traditions in an ongoing process of transformation. The examples include wedding traditions of Moroccan Jews, proverbs of Georgian Jews , laments by Yemeni Jews, German Jewish expressions, and tales of place names of Israeli Palestinians. All these, and many others, do not necessarily produce a peaceful harmony, but rather vibrant dialogues and confrontations which often echo in public modes of communication and artistic production.