#Joshua Trachtenberg

[ouroboros8ontology]

The mezuzah was also an object of suspicion, and at the same time desire. That it was regarded as a magical device by Christians we know, for a fifteenth-century writer admonished his readers to affix a mezuzah to their doors even when they occupied a house owned by a non-Jew, despite the fact that the landlord might accuse them of sorcery. Indeed, the Jews in the Rhineland had to cover over their mezuzot, for, as a thirteenth-century writer complained, “the Christians, out of malice and to annoy us, stick knives into the mezuzah openings and cut up the parchment,” Out of malice, no doubt—but the magical repute of the mezuzah must have lent special force to their vindictiveness. Yet even Christians in high places were not averse to using these magical instruments themselves. Toward the end of the fourteenth century the Bishop of Salzburg asked a Jew to give him a mezuzah to attach to the gate of his castle, but the rabbinic authority to whom this Jew turned for advice refused to countenance so outrageous a prostitution of a distinctively religious symbol.

Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; The Legend of Jewish Sorcery

[sagescented]

The legend of the Jew as Sorcerer Supreme was of Gentile making, fashioned after […] up-to-date Thaumaturge, but like most ready-made fables it fitted the truth none too closely. For if Jews were not the malefic Sorcerers that Christian animosity made them out to be, they still [at least] possessed an ancient and honorable tradition of magic which had been solicitously nourished until, in the Middle Ages, it reached its highest stage of development. Sheltered from Christian eyes by secrecy and the impenetrable wall of a strange tongue and an even stranger mystical vocabulary and method peculiar [unto] itself, there flourished in Jewish circles a magic lore as extensive and potent as any known to the non-Jewish world- yet markedly different in [both] character and technique.

From Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study In Folk Religion, published 2004; Joshua Trachtenberg (My Ko-Fi Here)

[creature-wizard]

Do you have any book recommendations about the Satanic Panic and/or debunking conspiracy theories (particularly the ones that are pervasive in "mystical" communities) in general?

You might check out Richard Beck's We Believe The Children: A Moral Panic In The 1980s, The Devil and the Jews The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism by Joshua Trachtenberg, and the works of Bart D. Ehrman. (Ehrman's works aren't really about debunking, but the historical realities about early Christianity that he talks about basically preclude many conspiracy theories about the origins of Christianity.)

[alchemy-fic]

My book wishlist!

Egyptian Magic by E.A. Wallis Budge (1901)

Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism by Gershon Winkler, David Carson (2003)

Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews by Deatra Cohen, Adam Siegel (2021)

Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion by Joshua Trachtenberg (1939)

Ancient Jewish Magic: A History by Gideon Bohak (2008)

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic & Mysticism: Second Edition by Geoffrey W. Dennis (2007)

The Green Mysteries: An Occult Herbarium by Daniel A Schulke, Benjamin A Vierling (2023)

Reading Sumerian Poetry (Athlone Publications in Egyptology & Ancient Near Eastern Studies) by Jeremy Black (2001)

The Literature of Ancient Sumer by Jeremy Black, Graham Cunningham (2006)

Handbook to Life in Ancient Mesopotamia by Stephen Bertman (2002)

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East by Amanda H. Podany

Auguste Racinet. The Costume History (Bibliotheca Universalis) by Françoise Tétart-Vittu

The Arthur of the Welsh: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature by Rachel Bromwich (2009)

The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English: Seventh Edition (Penguin Classics) by Geza Vermes

Thomas Aquinas: Selected Writings (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Aquinas, Ralph McInerny

The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion by Thorkild Jacobsen

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: First Complete Translation (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Graham Coleman, Thupten Jinpa

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Penguin Classics) by Wallace Budge, John Romer

History Begins at Sumer: Thirty-Nine Firsts in Recorded History by Samuel Noah Kramer (1981)

The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character (Phoenix Books) by Samuel Noah Kramer

Welsh Witchcraft: A Guide to the Spirits, Lore, and Magic of Wales by Mhara Starling

An Annotated Sumerian Dictionary by Mark E. Cohen

A Sumerian Chrestomathy by Konrad Volk

Toward the Image of Tammuz and Other Essays on Mesopotamian History and Culture by Thorkild Jacobsen

Early Mesopotamia by Nicholas Postgate

Amulets and Talismans by E. A. Wallis Budge

Mundane Astrology by Michael Baigent, Campion, Nicholas, Harvey, Charles

[sapropel]

MAB give me your nonfiction recs

You're gonna notice a theme probably :^)

The Body Keeps the Score -- Bessel van Der Kok

Jewish Peoplehood: An American Innovation -- Noam Pianko

Bears on Bears: Interviews & Discussions -- Ron Suresha

Nothing Sacred: The Truth About Judaism -- Douglas Rushkoff

Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion -- Joshua Trachtenberg*

The Sabbath -- Abraham Joshua Heschel

Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism -- Judith Butler*

Ehyeh: A Kabbalah For Tomorrow -- Arthur Green*

Salt Fat Acid Heat -- Samin Nosrat

From Lokshen to Lo Mein: The Jewish Love Affair with Chinese Food -- Don Siegel

*haven't finished it yet :)

[leanstooneside]

Janet Reno

- MAKSIM CHMERKOVSKIY'S FLABBY SHOULDER

- CHRIS EVANS'S AUTOLYTIC LIP

- TIFFANI THIESSEN'S JUICY FINGER

- SEAL'S CONCENTRATED HAND

- NICK JONAS'S CLOSED TONGUE

- JAY LENO'S CREAMY THIGH

- QUEEN LATIFAH'S BRIGHT CHEEK

- PAUL SCULFOR'S RETICENT HEAD

- COURTNEY LOVE'S POWERFUL LIP

- WILLOW SMITH'S OAKED THUMB

- MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG'S MUSTY BELLY

- CONNIE BRITTON'S EXTRACTED EYELASH

- ZAYN MALIK'S BAKED ELBOW

- MARK SALLING'S BRILLIANCE BREAST

- KIMORA LEE SIMMONS'S COMPLEX HAIR

- BRUCE WILLIS'S LEES ANKLE

- ROONEY MARA'S OPULENT FINGER

- CHRISTIE BRINKLEY'S ROUGH LIP

- JANE LYNCH'S BUTTERY ELBOW

- HEATHER GRAHAM'S STRUCTURED WRIST

- ANDERSON COOPER'S TRANSPARENT THIGH

- OZZY OSBOURNE'S BARNYARD HIP

- LAMAR ODOM'S BAKED BELLY

- CAMILLE GRAMMER'S DIRTY EAR

- ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC'S PETROLLY EAR

- BOBBI KRISTINA BROWN'S HEAVY HEAD

- CYNTHIA NIXON'S ASTRINGENT TONGUE

- SALMA HAYEK'S MUSTY TONGUE

- CHANDRA WILSON'S DEPTH LOWER LEG

- ANNA FARIS'S HOLLOW LIP

- JOSHUA JACKSON'S LASER-LIKE BACK

[nerdyqueerandjewish]

@graciecatfamilyband it’s from Joshua Trachtenberg’s Jewish Magic and Superstition!

Talking about how demons get jealous of people having property rights and how to avoid upsetting them - you don’t want to build on their favorite meeting place.

[ouroboros8ontology]

So onerous did these recurrent accusations become that the rabbis of the Middle Ages found it necessary—forced to this step, no doubt, by Jewish public opinion—to suspend some of these customs. In the case of the clod-throwing, though “many were obliged to disregard the usage for fear that the Gentiles would accuse them of sorcery,” custom was proof against fear. But in other instances fear triumphed. The mourning rights of “binding the head” and “overturning the bed” lapsed during the Middle Ages for this reason. In Talmudic times fear of the same accusation had led Jewish authorities to excuse the head of the household from the rite of “searching out the leaven” on the eve of the Passover in places owned in common with a non-Jew; during the Middle Ages there was a strong but unsuccessful agitation to suspend this rite altogether, even indoors, “because we have Gentile serving-girls in our homes” who might spread the alarm. In Provence, however, the ritual cleansing of the public oven in preparation for Passover baking was neglected “because of the Gentiles’ suspicion of sorcery.” When a fire broke out in a Jewish house its owner dared expect little mercy from the mob, for he was a sorcerer seeking to destroy Christendom, and his punishment was commonly simultaneous with his crime. The rabbis of the time were unusually tolerant about violations of the prohibition to put out fires on the Sabbath and on the Dayof Atonement. At the slightest danger they set this prohibition aside, “for this is a matter of life and death, since they accuse us and persecute us.” We read of a lamb, slaughtered in fulfillment of a ritual obligation, which was cut up and buried secretly in sections, “so that the matter may not become known and they say, ‘it was done for magical ends.’” To such measures were Jews driven by fear of arousing the suspicions of their neighbors.

Joshua Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion; The Legend of Jewish Sorcery

[sagescented]

Jews were stoned as Sorcerers. But it needs little knoweldge of Human nature to believe that the very vice became a virtue when Christians themselves had need of a little expert magic on the side. [And] If Jews were Magicians, their every act a Charm, then their magic devices could [surely] aid as well as harm.

From Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study In Folk Religion, published 2004; Joshua Trachtenberg (My Ko-Fi Here)

[nofatclips]

Mumbay by Sarathy Korwar (featuring MC Mawali) from the album More Arriving - Director/DP - Harshbir Singh Phull

[keshetchai]

Suggestions:

Dara Horn's People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted History. This is an exploration of how Jewish history is exploited for the comfort of gentiles, which illuminates a lot about modern day antisemitism.

Joshua Trachtenberg's The Devil And The Jews: The Medieval Conception Of The Jew And Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism is about how heavily influenced modern antisemitism is by the medieval construct of "the Jew." ...and by modern, I mean this book was first published in 1943, and the full text is free online (at the link). It remains relevant and a great exploration of antisemitic canards.

The Jewish Book Council has a tag for books about or including discussions of Antisemitism, and there's reviews or summaries for many of them. That link is filtered for nonfiction books tagged with #antisemitism (because obviously many fictional books cover the topic too). The Dara Horn book is one of the Editor's Picks.

Inevitably there will be quibbles about the specific politics of various NGO's, but the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance has plenty of educational material, as does the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Resource/education collated lists at various websites are also abundant.

[ Caveat emptor: yes, many of this resource link pages will include ADL links and info, because whether or not you agree with the Antisemitism Defense League's politics regarding Israel, or their approaches, they are an org that is explicitly about fighting antisemitism.

Like I fully acknowledge there are very fair criticisms to be made about ADL, but also they are frequently referenced or linked for a reason in these kinds of resources/education lists.

My personal stance is that it's useful to take in information from a variety of resources and then also recognize the inherent politics/missions of various orgs as influencing thoss resources. also recognizing what different groups do or don't include in their discussion is useful! Basically none of these links are a total endorsement of everything you may find or every organization's every action or political alignments. You should be exposed to a broad variety of discussions and viewpoints about a topic, especially one where part of the issue isn't merely historical facts, but also individualized experiences and interactions. You don't have to agree with an org's stance on criticizing Israel and whether or not it's antisemitic. But you may as well learn the point- and counterpoint- of that argument to better dissect what you personally believe, and also to at least understand how various arguments are rationalized. ]

A lot of these are aimed at educators of children or college students but regardless of your age may be useful because the educator is assumed to be an adult.

US department of education's Resources for Preventing and Addressing Antisemitism in Schools also the Safe Supportive Learning resources

UC Berkeley's Antisemitism Education Resources

Interfaith Alliance's Mobilizing against Antisemitism

Jewish education project's: Pride and Prejudice: Educational Resources on Anti-Semitism

PBS resources

Facing History's Resources (filtered by antisemitism. You might jump straight to The Roots and Impact of Antisemitism)

This Jewish federation resources page

Resources for combatting antisemitism

Hey Jewish Tumblr,

Do you have any good books I can read to better understand antisemitism and the Jewish experience in modern day?

Before you say to Google, I'm not knowledgeable on researching nonfiction enough to know what's a good resource and what's not, and I'd rather ask real, living Jews than blindly trust Google. I'm afraid if I just Google it, I'll accidentally get something that's actually antisemitic and I don't want to give am antisemite my money. I'd rather give a Jewish scholar/author my money.

Anything from a scholarly book, to memoirs. Anything that you think is a good resource to explain antisemitism to someone who's never experienced it first hand.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and I hope you have a wonderful day 💜

[vaspider]

Hey, I have a question about judaism. I'm writing a ghost story that centers a house where multiple people are trying to stay for purposes of winning the house (typical 'can you spend the night in a haunted house' concept made a little more intense). I'm starting by working out each character's personal relationship with the concept of a ghost. Would you have any sources I could look at about jewish perspectives on ghosts/hauntings/etc? Thank you!

Sure:

I own both of these books and have used them in reference.

Of interest in this (but hardly the definitive in this case) is the incident from I Samuel -- Chabad translates her as a "necromanceress" and other translations (such as the KJV which we all know how I feel about that) call her "the woman who divineth by a ghost."

It's a complicated thing, for sure!

[sapropel]

What do you mean I'm "not allowed" to bring Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion by Joshua Trachtenberg to the bar

[brehaaorgana]

It's not even a funny hat - it's just antisemitism. Blood libel includes cannibalism, and related fears of host desecration. The book "The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Antisemitism," by Joshua Trachtenberg has a free copy on the internet archive. It's quite old - I think literally published during WWII but covers some of the origins and its impact on today.

I used to listen to a lot of true crime/mystery podcasts and honestly the vast majority never (or only fleetingly) mentioned the ties to this being an antisemitism conspiracy theory. Basically no one talked about the origin, the why, etc. I think sword & shield (gross man, gross podcast, I dont recommend) had an episode about an online cannibal market, but he's being a sensationalist asshat, not actually exploring anything. Reply All with the original co-hosts (before self-implosion) might have some related eps on pizzagate.

But most folks talking about this today — conspiracies about rings of kidnapping/murdering kids, cannibalism, devil worship/satanic panic — never really explain the relationship to antisemitism.

Every once in a while I'll get someone in my notes who's very angry about cannibalism. One expects that sorta thing b/c I wrote some dark fantasy stories where some of the characters are cannibals because that's edgy and cool and like totally metal and kvlt \m/ and that kinda comes with the gig, but they always seem more or less unconcerned with fictionalized and literary atrocities and rather seem to believe there's, like, an actual widespread and endemic problem of some kinda secret society of cannibals living amongst us incognito and eating ppl and We Have To Do Something about it.

Where I'm going w/ this is I wanna get some of those Qanon Anonymous or Last Pod type of guys to look into it b/c I wanna know if there's an actual conspiracy theory going on here

[hypokeimena]

Hi! I saw your post about the antisemitic origins of vampires re: Dracula and I wanted to ask if you have articles on hand that expand on the cultural climate in the uk at the time regarding judaism and how it influenced Dracula?

hi! i hate to be like my source is im jewish but... i have just read a lot a lot a lot of jewish history and immigration history and connected these dots with my big huge brain or whatever; i couldn't point you at this time to any one specific article or book.

if you're interested in search terms to start looking into my friend and colleague @cristabel-oct has a post with a little of the historical context around jewish immigration to england here, which you may have already seen; you could start by looking into east end jewish history, antisemitism in whitechapel during the 'jack the ripper' murders era, and jewish immigration history more generally (most of what i know is about US jewish immigration and may not be relevant to you but understanding the social conditions which led to mass jewish emigration out of the pale is probably helpful). i'm sure there ARE articles about this as well i just don't have any on hand.

if you're interested in understanding pre-1900s european antisemitism i have some more general recommendations: i can't remember if this specifically discusses vampires but joshua trachtenberg's ~1939 jewish magic and superstition is available free here as an epub etc; his book the devil and the jews is also very good re: historical antisemitism but i only own that one as a hard copy.

edit; have been recommended to add Bernard Glassman's Anti-Semitic Stereotypes Without Jews; this is slightly earlier in time period (18th c.) but probably helpful as well!!

also obligatory "many things were going on in dracula" point; i find it frustrating when antisemitism is totally written off so ive focused on that but it's not like there... isn't orientalism or capitalist or ableism or homophobia or whatever stuff going on AS WELL.

some of my mutuals may have better resources & i am happy to reblog with updates or suggestions.

[arcane-offerings]

Joshua Trachtenberg. Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion. Foreword by Moshe Idel. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004. Paperback. 356 pages. 

Shop link in bio.

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