Jewish folklore overflows with vivid stories that both entertain and teach. And why shouldnt it? The Jewish culture has branches in just about every nationality in the world but despite being exposed to different cultures it has retained it's distinctiveness. In 1919, "Aunt Naomi" (Gertrude Landa) wrote Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends, a book of 27 fairy tales based on stories of the Jewish interpretations of the Bible. While some of the themes are familiar from contemporary fairy tales and folklore, other stories in this collection are infused with the inimitably Jewish struggle for survival and dignity; all are flavoured with a large helping of gentle
humour.
Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends, illustrated by Sol Aronson, Alfred Feinberg and others, tells of the boyish exploits of Abraham, Moses, and David, but also includes stories of higgledy-piggledy palaces, beggar kings, quarreling cats and dogs, waterbabes, bogey-men, magic red slippers, a talmudic Sinbad, Alexander the Great, and even the story of a certain "Star Child".
Aunt Naomi strove to create a collection of Jewish delights that boys and girls could add to their treasuries of general fairy-lore and childish romance. In this she succeeded—Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends not only preserves a cultural history, but also is richly entertaining.
We invite you to curl up with this unique sliver of Jewish folklore not seen in print for over ninety years; immerse yourself in the tales and fables of yesteryear.
£3, or approx NZ$6.40, of the Publisher's profit from the sale of every copy of this book will be donated to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal.
For more information, a table of contents, to order or to view a sample of the text, go to http://www.abelapublishing.com/Jewish.html
To view titles rasining funds for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal
follow this link http://www.abelapublishing.com/christchurch.html
Unfortunately not much can be found on Gertrude Landa, aka Aunt Naomi. However an insight into her publishing this book can be found in the intoduction where she wrote
"The very cordial welcome given to my earlier volume of Jewish Fairy Tales and Fables" has prompted me to draw further upon Rabbinic lore in the interest, chiefly, of the children. How the wise Rabbis of old took into account the necessities of the little ones, whose minds they understood so perfectly, is obvious from such legends as those dealing with boyish exploits of the great Biblical characters, Abraham, Moses, and David. These I have rewritten from the stories in the Talmud and Midrash in a manner suitable for the children of to-day."
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John Halsted is CEO of Abela Publishing which has been estabvlished as a Social Enterprise. By this he means the organisation donates 33% of its profits to charities around the world.
He specialise in publishing new and old children's stories, fairy tales, folklore, myths and legends.