Review of Hasan-Rokem and Gruenwald (eds.) Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews

BOOK REVIEW IN THE FORWARD: Reconsidering Louis Ginzberg's Legendary 'Legends of the Jews' Enduring Lovability of 6-Volume Paean to Heroes (Benjamin Iwry).

Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews: Ancient Jewish Folk Literature Reconsidered
edited by Galit Hasan-Rokem and Ithamar Gruenwald
Wayne State University Press, 224 pages, $44.99

The legacy of the Talmudist Louis Ginzberg exemplifies the benefits of lovability in Jewish studies. Those familiar with the life of Henrietta Szold (1860-1945), founder of Hadassah and Ihud, the political party in Mandate Palestine, are aware of Szold’s unrequited passion for Ginzberg, which ended sadly for her when he married another woman. Szold cotranslated part of Ginzberg’s “Legends of the Jews,” (1909-1938; in six volumes plus an index by Boaz Cohen). The work was eventually published over three decades and widely reprinted in different editions. If any work of stunning erudition can be called loveable, then surely Legends retains this allure.

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So although some contemporary critics, notably Bernhard Heller in “The Jewish Quarterly Review” (July 1933) offered detailed amplifications or suggestions about the “Legends,” the work and its author have attracted ecstatic praise. Which makes “Louis Ginzberg’s Legends of the Jews: Ancient Jewish Folk Literature Reconsidered” unusual for offering conceptual criticism of Ginzberg’s methodology. Coedited by Galit Hasan-Rokem, professor of folklore emerita at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Ithamar Gruenwald, professor emeritus of Jewish philosophy at Tel Aviv University, this new book derives in part from a colloquium at the fifteenth Congress of the World Association of Jewish Studies in August 2009.

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I have cited Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews occasionally in PaleoJudaica posts (here, here, here, here, and here) and even once or twice in my published work. It is old and out of date now, but it is an unparalleled retelling of Jewish traditions about the Bible for nonspecialists and the notes on primary sources remain useful even for specialists. As noted in the past posts, it is available online.