Re: A QUERY

[Owen Davidson <owend...>]

Dear Wolf,

As much as I hate the imperial call which makes us trot out our sources, our
sorcerous horses: where did you read/hear/learn this?  I would go there.

Owen

Kame'a Media wrote:

> 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
> >
>

--
Owen Davidson
Amherst  Mass
The Wholesale Klezmer Band

The Angel that presided oer my birth
Said Little creature formd of Joy & Mirth
Go Love without the help of any King on Earth

Wm. Blake


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