At 10:59 07/27/03 -0400, you wrote: >Shalom all, > >Are the Chelm stories Polish stories?Yiddish stories? Jewish stories? Or >all of these?
They are probably all of the above. Similar stories circulated in other cultures. That is a person or group doing silly activities. The storyteller relates the events to the audience to show that we are much better off than the characters. While the stories are probably very old. Shalom Aleichem retold a few stories. However, the earliest comprehensive written versions are from the 1930's. They first appeared in Yiddish and were quickly translated into English. I have tried to find the actual history of the stories, but have not been successful. Daniel Stuhlman Chicago, IL 60645 ddstuhlman @ earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~ddstuhlman/liblob.htm =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
