Collection and Classification of Judeo-Spanish Folktales from Israel

FAIN: FA-11320-76

Reginetta Haboucha
CUNY Research Foundation, Lehman College (Bronx, NY 10468-1527)

At this time there is a very limited collection of Sephardic stories (222 tales) especially from the Eastern Mediterranean (69 tales).P.I. will contact as many informants of Judeo-Spanish oral narratives as possible. The elderly Sephardic Jews are the bearers of a valuable folk tradition which is reaching the edge of extinction. The material must be gathered now before it is lost forever when these last Judeo-Spanish survivors disappear. It is hoped that this study will provide a useful research instrument, not only for the specialists in the study of Judeo-Spanish Literature, but also for Hispanists, folklorists, students of Comparative Literature, anthropologists, historians, linguists, and psychologists.