Mira Z. Ami­ras was raised on her mother’s accounts of the Inqui­si­tion and Holo­caust, and her father’s tales of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet let­ters and their role in the cre­ation of the uni­verse. She has taught Jew­ish mys­ti­cism, mag­ic, and folk­lore along with many oth­er top­ics in Jew­ish and Islam­ic Stud­ies and the anthro­pol­o­gy of reli­gion, com­bin­ing ani­mat­ed film, schol­ar­ship, folk­lore, art, and music to con­vey con­cepts that would­n’t stay put on the chalkboard.