A Frog Under the Tongue: Jewish Folk Medicine in Eastern Europe - Hardcover

by Marek Tuszewicki (Author)

Winner of the 2021 Gierowski-Shmeruk Prize
Shortlisted for the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs Award 2021
Jews have been active participants in shaping the healing practices of the communities of eastern Europe. Their approach largely combined the ideas of traditional Ashkenazi culture with the heritage of medieval and early modern medicine. Holy rabbis and faith healers, as well as Jewish barbers, innkeepers, and pedlars, all dispensed cures, purveyed folk remedies for different ailments, and gave hope to the sick and their families based on kabbalah, numerology, prayer, and magical Hebrew formulas. Nevertheless, as new sources of knowledge penetrated the traditional world, modern medical ideas gained widespread support. Jews became court physicians to the nobility, and when the universities were opened up to them many also qualified as doctors. At every stage, medicine proved an important field for cross-cultural contacts.

Author Biography

Marek Tuszewicki received his MA and Ph.D. degrees from the Jagiellonian University in Krak?w and is now deputy director of its Institute of Jewish Studies. His publications include scholarly articles in Polish and English on Jewish folklore as well as Polish translations of Yiddish literature and his own Yiddish-language poetry. This is his first book-length publication in English; the Polish edition was published in 2015.