> I was surprised to hear that >there is no history of Jewish storytelling, which >surprised because I thought there was. I mean, at >least the Chasidim told/tell stories. ======== "There is no folklore that can claim such a long and continuous history as the Jewish," begins a section of the introduction to Ausubel's "A Treasury of Jewish Folklore."....I think that what you experienced may be an example of common thinking/prejudice about Jews - as a people who haven't grown or changed in 2000 years, who are frozen in time, relics of the Biblical age. Here in my city, about 20 years ago, a local citizen went to Israel and caused a ruckus (and was not allowed to enter the country) because before he deboarded the plane, he went into the bathroom and changed into flowing robe, sandals, headdress, and so on. He wanted to be dressed appropriately, he truly thought Israelis still dress as in those pictures he'd seen of life in the Bible days. Perhaps this belies an attitude more common than one would think.
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