How to Tell Your Fortune in Yiddish, with Sam Glauber

װי מען לאָזט זיך פֿאָראויסזאָגן דאָס מזל אויף ייִדיש

The California Institute for Yiddish Culture & Language and the UJA Committee for Yiddish

Invite You to an Online Talk with SAMUEL GLAUBER

Free on Zoom

This program will be in English.

The rapid modernization of Jewish society in late-nineteenth-century Eastern Europe brought with it many uncertainties about the future. Perhaps in response to these changes, fortune-telling enjoyed great popularity among Jews in Eastern Europe . In this talk, Samuel Glauber will introduce the forgotten genre of Yiddish fortune-telling manuals. Published in dozens of editions in the late-nineteenth century yet almost entirely forgotten today, these manuals instruct users on how to read palms, interpret dreams, and cast lots to reveal the future. By closely reading these enigmatic texts, we will learn about the lives of the Jews who used them and the questions and concerns that led them to fortune-telling.