Non­fic­tion

Bubbe Meis­es: Jew­ish Myths, Jew­ish Realities

Ronald H. Isaacs
  • Review
By – January 26, 2012
Bubbe meis­es: the Yid­dish term for old wives’ tales, super­sti­tions, and cul­tur­al mis­un­der­stand­ings. Some of these ideas have been hand­ed down for gen­er­a­tions and many are still accept­ed today. Rab­bi Isaacs, the pro­lif­ic author of over 100 books, many of them guides to Jew­ish liv­ing for the layper­son, grew up liv­ing with his grand­moth­er, Bubbe Sadie, from whom he learned many of the ideas that he tries to explain or debunk in these pages. The chap­ters are divid­ed into top­ics rang­ing from Jew­ish Beliefs; Med­ical Ethics; Jew­ish Hol­i­days; Rit­u­al Objects and Obser­vances; Death and Dying; Bible, Israel and Prayers to Hebrew and Jew­ish Expres­sions; Opin­ions about Jews; Jew­ish Super­sti­tions; even Sex. Rab­bi Isaacs’ inter­est­ing expla­na­tions are easy to fol­low and read­ers with any lev­el of Jew­ish knowl­edge can learn some­thing from this book.

Miri­am Brad­man Abra­hams, mom, grand­mom, avid read­er, some­time writer, born in Havana, raised in Brook­lyn, resid­ing in Long Beach on Long Island. Long­time for­mer One Region One Book chair and JBC liai­son for Nas­sau Hadas­sah, cur­rent­ly pre­sent­ing Inci­dent at San Miguel with author AJ Sidran­sky who wrote the his­tor­i­cal fic­tion based on her Cuban Jew­ish refugee family’s expe­ri­ences dur­ing the rev­o­lu­tion. Flu­ent in Span­ish and Hebrew, cer­ti­fied hatha yoga instructor.

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