Re: A QUERY

[Kame'a Media <media...>]

Dear Trudi:

One could not be both a Jew and a Gypsy (Roma or Sinti)  in a social context.
They are two distinct peoples with entirely different origins, belief
systems, languages and cultures.  The Roma have no books;  theirs is entirely
an oral tradition.

True, both shared marginal social status and second-class "citizenship".

Perhaps your informant meant that some Jews lived a "Gypsy-like" existence;
that is,  --attempting to survive by music, horse-trading, prostitution,
smuggling contraband and other various criminal/underground activities.

There was certainly some intermarriage;  Gypsy women with Jewish men being more
likely than the opposite, although both combinations would have been rare,
given the cultural differences,
not to mention the harsh opprobrium a mixed couple would have faced in their
respective
families and communities.

In more recent history, some European Gypsies have adapted Christian beliefs
and practices,
but continue to maintain their traditions, especially those regarding
"uncleaness"
and contempt for =gadjos= (everybody else).

Wolf



Trudi Goodman wrote:

>     6/13/2000
>
>    Hi, Trudi Goodman, here, I am doing research on Jews and Gypsies
> especially in Eastern Europe.  Does anyone know if there were in fact Jewish
> Gypsies in  the Odessa Region...one person I've spoken to "thinks" that he
> "remembers" that there were.
>    If no one knows...all you folklorists out there can you point me in the
> right direction???
>
>     Thanks,
>
>     Trudi the G
> ________________________________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
>

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+