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This article engages the transformation of fieldwork as an idea based on specific methodological practices, and the way different conceptions of fieldwork circulated and adapted to the study of the folklore of Jews. Doing fieldwork is not a theory, but as a concept and practice it travels between different disciplinary and ethnographic contexts. This article engages a number of synchronic episodes in which fieldwork was applied to Jewish subjects, tracing the scholarly contexts from which it was borrowed, among them: networks of corresponding authors at the end of nineteenth century in Central Europe; Russian political agendas of “going to the people”; Russian imperial expeditions to Siberia; German diffusionist works in Africa; Boasian anthropology; and studies of Japanese culture from a distance during the Second World War. On the diachronic level, these different crossroads of Jewish folkloristics with other ethnographic initiatives reflect a turbulent history of mobility, displacement, and immigration that underlies Jewish life in the twentieth century. These different adaptations, paths in which fieldwork was translated to the study of Jews, enables an examination of fieldwork as an idea that keeps traveling, or better, in Tim Ingold’s terms, “meshwork”—a texture of interwoven threads.

This article examines the development of Zionist folkloristics in the 1940s when two separate scholarly organizations were formed: Yeda Am Society in Tel Aviv and The Palestine Institute of Folklore and Ethnology in Jerusalem. Members of both societies engaged the folklore of Jewish communities in the diaspora, but they diverged in important ways. Since Jewish folklore studies developed separately in different places in Europe, the two Zionist societies were modelled on disparate scholarly traditions. Because of that, any attempt to purify their work from diasporic negotiations of Jewish folklore is bound to fail—they followed diasporic practices and diasporic ideals as to what Jewish folklore signified. However, in the face of the Shoah, both societies related to diasporic Jewish culture in different ways: the Jerusalem Institute turned to salvage traditions of Jewish communities from the Middle East, which were less affected by the atrocities of the Shoah. The Tel Aviv Yeda Am Society did not evade the Shoah, and in fact its leader Yom-Tov Lewinsky directed his attention to Jewish culture in Eastern Europe by adopting avant-garde techniques in his editorial practice. This radical move allowed Lewinsky to stress the way Jewish culture thrived in catastrophic situations.

Variants and versions are key concepts in narrative studies. This article reconsiders these concepts in light of Walter Anderson's pioneering studies of Yiddish folklore in the 1920s. Anderson collected Yiddish narratives in Minsk while he was a teacher in Jewish gymnasia, turning them into versions of international tale types in his publications. An analysis of these studies demonstrate how folk narratives and scholarly narratives are intertwined. By examining teacher-pupil relations and the political context of these Yiddish narratives, this article stresses the collaborative nature of version-making, substituting the question of which stories are versions with the question of when a story becomes a version.

When and where does ethnography begin? When and where does it end? With the recognition that knowledge is in constant flux, it may be helpful to think in terms of ethnographic moments, which form at one and the same time the beginning and the end of any ethnography. After a short conceptual discussion, this chapter analyzes two moments of encounter—two fragments in the history of Jewish ethnography. This analysis informs a reflection on the project of Jewish ethnography in broader terms, leading to a discussion of the complex relations between folk-narratives, performance, literature, historical writing, and ethnographic sciences. Several

In this article I discuss the concept of \"Volk\" as it was formulated by Max Grunwald, the founder of jüdische Volkskunde (1871-1953). I show that his concept of \"Volk\" constructed a vision of Jewish culture as multiplicity in ways that stood in opposition to sociological views of Jewish cultural singularity that was occasionally formulated in racial terms. I trace Grunwald's conceptual legacy as it continued shaping the development of folklore-studies in Israel. I suggest viewing this legacy not as an \"exception\" to the history of Volkskunde. Rather, I argue that in the context of the internationalization of studies of cultures, disciplinary history ought to accommodate different perspectives that may enable viewing jüdische Volkskunde and its continuities in folklore-studies in Israel as part of an entangled history with Volkskunde/European Ethnology. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

My discussion traces the early career of Raphael Patai (1910-1996) as it began in Palestine in the 1930s and developed in the United States in the 1940s and early 1950s. Patai's career demonstrates the complex power relations involved in both national and international academic interactions. In light of the marginalization of folklore studies in Palestine, Patai's experiences as a folklorist there can be conceptualized as a \"habitus of rejection.\" Given these circumstances, Patai tried to establish himself internationally, hoping that international recognition would strengthen his scholarly position in Palestine. As he internationalized his approach, he changed his ethnological perspective-turning to American anthropology rather than to comparative folkloristics.

A Companion to Folklore contains an original and comprehensive set of essays from international experts in the field of folklore studies. This state-of-the-art collection uniquely displays the vitality of folklore research across the globe. The Companion covers four main areas: the first section engages with the practices and theoretical approaches developed to understand the phenomena of folklore; the second discusses the distinctive shapes that folklore studies have taken in different locations in time and space; the third examines the interaction of folklore with various media, as well as folklore's commoditization. In the final section on practice, essays offer insights into how folklorists work, what they do, and ways in which they have institutionalized their field. Throughout, contributors investigate the interplay of folklore and folkloristics in both academic and political arenas; they evaluate key issues in the folk life of communities from around the world, including China, post-communist Russia, post-colonial India, South America, Israel and Japan. The result is a unique reflection and understanding of the profoundly different research histories and current perspectives on international research in the field.

Focusing on Eastern and Central Europe before WWII, this collection explores various genres of \"ethnoliterature\" across temporal, geographical, and ideological borders as sites of Jewish identity formation and dissemination. Challenging the assumption of cultural uniformity among Ashkenazi Jews, the contributors consider how ethnographic literature defines Jews and Jewishness, the political context of Jewish ethnography, and the question of audience, readers, and listeners. With contributions from leading scholars and an appendix of translated historical ethnographies, this volume presents vivid case studies across linguistic and disciplinary divides, revealing a rich textual history that throws the complexity and diversity of a people into sharp relief.

Schrire reviews Framing Sukkot: Tradition and Transformation in Jewish Vernacular Architecture by Gabrielle Anna Berlinger.